2005 Miscellany News Archive

MISCELLANY NEWS ARCHIVE 2005 ARCHIVES
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20051230
Intel - Computer - Marketing - History - Consumer - Entertainment - CA- NV - "Intel Drops Logo After 37 Years; Seeks to Take Image Beyond PCs." ... "Intel Corp., whose marketing made its computer chips a household name, is changing its logo for the first time in 37 years." ... "The dropped ``e'' in Intel will be shed in favor of a swoop around the company's name with the tag line ``Leap Ahead.'' The ``Intel Inside'' phrase, a fixture since 1991, will be dropped, Santa Clara, California-based Intel said yesterday." ... "Intel's image change, to coincide with next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas [Nevada], is part of an effort by new Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini to push Intel into home entertainment. The company, whose processors run more than 80 percent of personal computers, is trying to gain a foothold in the consumer market to counter slowing growth in PC chips." -By Ian King -Bloomberg
20051229
Russia - Political - Business - "Russia threatens to cut off Ukraine's gas." ... "Ukraine's natural gas company declared Thursday that it has enough gas in storage to see the country through the winter if Russia halts shipments in a standoff over prices." ... "Russia's state-run natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, which provides about a third of the gas used in Ukraine, says it will stop selling gas to the country on Jan. 1 unless it agrees to a fourfold price increase." ... "Ukraine currently pays $50 (U.S.) per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. Gazprom is demanding that the price in 2006 rise to $220 to $230, saying that is more in line with world markets." -By Henry Meyer -AP via -GlobeAndMail
Russia - Business - "Russia to significantly up gas imports." ... "Russia on Thursday agreed to significantly increase its imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan in 2006, buying 30 billion cubic meters at US$65 (euro52) per 1,000 cubic meters, the state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom said in a statement." -AP via -BusinessWeek
Military - Auto - Airplane - "Corps pays $100K for retooled jeep." ... "The Marine Corps is paying $100,000 apiece for a revamped Vietnam-era jeep as part of its program to outfit the hybrid airplane-helicopter V-22 Osprey, Pentagon records show." ... "That's seven times what a deluxe commercial version of the vehicle costs. It's also three times what U.S. Export-Import Bank records show the Dominican Republic paid four years ago for a military version of the vehicle, called the Growler, a recycled version of the M151 jeep." -By Steven Komarow -USATODAY
20051228
Massachusetts - Computer - "Massachusetts CIO quits amid OpenDocument furore." ... "The man responsible for bringing OpenDocument to Massachusetts has resigned following controversy and personal attacks over the initiative." ... "Peter Quinn has resigned from his post as chief information officer for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to avoid further mudslinging over the state's controversial move to OpenDocument." -By Ingrid Marson -ZDNet.co.uk
NY - Internet - Messaging - Telecommunications - Patent - Search Engine - Business - "Google Talk faces patent lawsuit." ... "A New York company [Rates Technology (RTI)] is suing Google for patent infringement over the voice-over-Internet portion of its Google Talk instant messaging and voice chat program." ... "It alleges infringement on two of its patents for minimizing the cost of long-distance calls using the Internet."" ... "RTI President Jerry Weinberger returned a call seeking comment on Thursday and said his firm also has sued Vonage and Cablevision over patent infringement." ... ""When a VOIP call can be transferred to the regular PSTN (telephone network), the switching of that call infringes our patents," Weinberger said." -By Elinor Mills -CNET /News
Language - Computer - Internet - Radio - Media - "`Podcast' is lexicon's Word of the Year." ... "The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have validated the sudden spread of podcasting by naming "podcast" the Word of the Year for 2005." ... ""Podcast," defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player," will be added to the next edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary." ... "The word originated as a play on the word "broadcast" using the name of Apple's popular handheld digital music player, the iPod." -By Nathan Bierma -ChicagoTribune
20051227
Russia - Economics - "Outspoken Putin aide set to quit: An outspoken aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered his resignation in protest against what he called the end of political freedom." ... "Economic adviser Andrei Illarionov said Russia was no longer politically free but run by state corporations acting in their own interests." ... ""It is one thing to work in a country that is partly free. It is another thing when the political system has changed, and the country has stopped being free and democratic," Mr Illarionov told reporters in Moscow."-BBC /News
UK - EMail - Business - EU - Privacy - Telecommunications - "Businessman wins e-mail spam case." ... "A businessman has won what is believed to be the first victory of its kind by claiming damages from a company which sent him e-mail spam." ... "Three years ago the EU passed an anti-spam law, the directive on privacy and telecommunications, which gave individuals the right to fight the growing tide of unwanted e-mail by allowing them to claim damages."-BBC /News
Japan - Business - Employment - Politics - "Japan backs gender equality plan." ... "Japanese Prime Minister Junichuro Koizumi's cabinet has approved a gender equality plan that aims to put more women in leadership positions." ... "It gave the green light to a series of measures to improve employment conditions for women and encourage their return to work after maternity." ... "The changes, known as the female re-challenge plan, have been pushed through by the prime minister himself." ... "They come in response to Japan's plunging birth rate." -By Leo Lewis-BBC /News
20051226
Turkey - Journalist - Censorship - Free Speech - EU - "Turkey opens new case against journalist." ... "A Turkish prosecutor has opened a new case against one of the country's leading Turkish-Armenians for comments he made about an earlier prosecution." ... "Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was convicted in October of "insulting Turkishness" and received a six-month suspended sentence. The case became one of several prominent prosecutions over speech that prompted questions about Turkey's dedication to democracy from officials of the European Union, which Turkey is trying to join." -AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
20051224
Christmas - Consumer - "Last-minute shoppers flock to stores on Christmas Eve." ... "Shoppers — some holding out for the best deals, others just not inspired to shop earlier — headed for the nation's malls and stores for last-minute gifts and gift cards on Saturday, the day before Christmas." ... "With shoppers delaying their holiday shopping even longer than last year, merchants are depending even more on the final hours before Christmas and post-holiday business to salvage the season. The exceptions have been online shopping, sellers of consumer electronics, and luxury stores, which have continued to generate strong gains." ... "The good news this year, analysts said, is that many retailers haven't reacted with a frenzy of bargains beyond what was in their strategy, recognizing that there is a second shopping season after Dec. 25." -By Anne D'Innocenzio with contributions by Brian Witte -AP via -StarTribune
Consumer - Food - Health - "Labels on food to list allergens more plainly: New federal law intended to help consumers find ingredients that could sicken them." ... "A federal law effective Jan. 1 requires food labels to list ingredients made from proteins derived from any of the eight major allergenic foods: milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans, wheat, tree nuts, soybeans and peanuts. The Food and Drug Administration says they account for 90 percent of all food allergies." -AP via -HoustonChronicle.com
Palestine - Israel - Religion - Christmas - "Christmas Spirit Returns to Bethlehem." ... "Holiday spirit returned to Bethlehem [West Bank] on Saturday for the first time in six years as hundreds of pilgrims from around the world packed the town of Jesus' birth for Christmas Eve celebrations." ... "More than 30,000 people were expected to flock to Bethlehem in what would be the largest turnout since fighting erupted in September 2000." ... "Israel's summer withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a sharp drop in violence this year contributed to the joyful atmosphere, which buoyed the spirits of Bethlehem residents and tourists visiting the festively decorated town." (1, 2) -By Sarah El Deeb -AP via -ABCNEWS.com
20051223
Washington - Microsoft - TV - Web - Business - "NBC Universal Buys Control of MSNBC From Microsoft (Update3)." ... "NBC Universal bought a controlling interest in the MSNBC cable news television channel it created with Microsoft Corp. in 1996, with an option of getting full ownership in two years." ... "NBC Universal increased its stake in MSNBC to 82 percent from 50 percent in a cash transaction, Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn said today, declining to comment further. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft and General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal will continue to own equal parts in the MSNBC.com Web site." -By Alex Armitage -Bloomberg
Palestine - Israel - Religion - Christmas - "Isolated Bethlehem struggles for its survival." ... "In a street below the Church of the Nativity this week, three Palestinians were wrestling with a gigantic blow-up Santa Claus as they attempted to add a touch of seasonal cheer to a town that feels itself increasingly cut off from the outside world." ... "Since Christmas 2004, Israel has completed an eight-metre high concrete separation barrier between Bethlehem and neighbouring Jerusalem and recently opened a $7.5m crossing point that resembles an international frontier." ... "Most residents of Bethlehem, which is just inside the West Bank, are no longer allowed to travel to Jerusalem, although the army is making an exception this Christmas for Christian Palestinians wishing to visit relatives in Israel." -By Harvey Morris -FT.com
South Korea - Stem Cell - Cloning - Animals - "S.Korean panel says stem-cell result fabricated." ... "South Korea's most famous scientist quit under a cloud on Friday and could face prosecution after investigators said results in a landmark 2005 paper on producing tailored embryonic stem cells were intentionally fabricated." ... "A panel from Seoul National University has been examining the work of Hwang Woo-suk, hitherto regarded in South Korea as a hero for bringing the country to the forefront of stem-cell and cloning studies -- and the world the first cloned dog." ... "Roe [Jung-hye, Seoul National University's research office chief,] said the panel would now also investigate the dog cloning and a 2004 academic paper on cloning the first human embryos for research that has also fallen under suspicion." (1, 2) -By Jon Herskovitz and Kim Yeon-hee -Reuters
South Korea - Stem Cells - Cloning - Genetics - Health - US - "S. Korean's Stem Cell Data Fake, Panel Says." ... "A panel investigating the work of South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo Suk has concluded that he deliberately fabricated key data in a landmark paper this year, offering the first evidence of what is potentially one of the greatest frauds in modern science." ... "The expert panel at Seoul National University, where Hwang conducted his research, found that nine of 11 stem cell lines he claimed to have created did not exist." ... "Hwang's paper, published in May by the U.S. journal Science, purported to describe the creation of 11 human embryo clones using DNA from patients suffering from spinal cord injuries and genetic diseases. No other research group has succeeded in cloning human embryos, though many have been trying." ... "Hwang's team claimed it used the embryos to create individualized lines of stem cells that were perfect genetic matches to the 11 patients. The achievement, known as therapeutic cloning, was believed to be the first step toward creating personalized stem cell therapies for patients." (1, 2) -By Barbara Demick and Karen Kaplan with contribution by Jinna Park and -AP -LAtimes
South Korea - People - Labor - Business - "Cloning allegations put spotlight on S. Korea's competitive culture." ... "Six-day work weeks from morning until night. Companies trumpeting bigger and bigger flat-screen TVs. A government that proclaims it wants to be a ''hub" for everything from finance to robots. South Korea is fiercely committed to being No. 1, and doing it yesterday." ... "As South Korea's top scientist Hwang Woo-suk falls from his lofty perch amid a wave of allegations questioning his research, the country's competitive culture of always hurrying -- coupled with a healthy sense of national pride and craving for international recognition -- could be partly to blame." ... "The dynamic culture has its upside, helping South Koreans build their country from the ruins of the Korean War into the world's 11th largest economy." -By Burt Herman -AP via -BostonGlobe
20051222
Russia - China - Environment - Health - "Toxic leak reaches Russian city: A slick of chemicals from a toxic river spill in China has reached the Russian city of Khabarovsk after weeks of anxious waiting for residents." ... "Officials say the levels of the deadly benzene toxins were at acceptable levels and water supplies, which are being filtered, will not be cut." ... "The benzene spill into the Amur river was caused by an explosion at a Chinese chemical factory last month." ... "The explosion occurred higher up the Songhua river, in Jilin. The Songhua flows into the Amur river on the Russian border."-BBC /News
Religion - Christmas - History - "Christmas and Hanukkah have fallen on the same day only 4 times in the past 100 years." ... "When traditions overlap Interfaith families face the dilemma of how to celebrate with respect, understanding." ... "For this first time since 1959, Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah fall on the same day." ... "The number of families trying to respect two religions is growing. According to the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01, 47 percent of Jews who wed since 1996 have married people of other faiths." -By Barbara Karkabi -HoustonChronicle.com
Oregon - Kansas - Religious - Science - Education - [satire alert!-] "Passion of the Spaghetti Monster." ... "Bobby Henderson is holed up in the boonies -- Corvallis, Oregon -- hard at work on his next entry into the fray over just what students should learn about the origin of species." ... "When the Kansas Board of Education proposed balancing evolution instruction by teaching intelligent design, said to be a scientific theory that supports an "intelligent creator" of all life, the decision outraged many, including 38 Nobel laureates (.pdf)." ... "Henderson responded with a satirical letter to the Kansas board demanding equal time for a different, "equally scientific" theory of intelligent design, in which a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world." -By Kathleen Craig -Wired
Science - California - Los Angeles - Hawaii - "Man-Made "Star" Illuminates Milky Way's Mysterious Center." ... "[...] even on the clearest night, the earth's atmosphere obscures the true brilliance of our galaxy and astronomers have long struggled with images blurred by its mix of gases and turbulence. Now researchers have used a new laser-generated star to obtain the clearest pictures yet of the Milky Way's center. " ... "Astronomer Andrea Ghez of the University of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues used the 10-meter Keck 2 telescope in Hawaii, which has a laser attached to it, to observe our galaxy. The skywatchers employed the 14-watt laser to generate a fake star. By continuously imaging this false star along with the real ones, they could correct any fuzziness or other distortions introduced by the earth's atmosphere." -By David Biello -ScientificAmerican
People - Psychology - New Jersey - "Dancing advertises sexual quality: Study of Jamaicans shows symmetrical dancers shake it better." ... "Researchers led by William Brown of Rutgers University in New Jersey filmed more than 180 teenagers shaking it down, and converted the films into computer-animated, androgynous dancing figures. When shown the animated dancers, viewers gave higher ratings to dances performed by people who in reality had more symmetrical bodies and were generally more attractive." ... "The effect was stronger for women watching male dances than for men watching women. And the dances performed by men scored more highly overall than those by women, Brown and his colleagues report in Nature." -By Michael Hopkin -Nature
20051221
Florida - Business - Disaster - Water - Divers - "Chalk's grounds fleet for inspection after fatal crash off Miami Beach." ... "An airline voluntarily grounded its fleet Wednesday for inspection after investigators said cracks in the support beam of a wing apparently caused it to fall off a seaplane that then crashed, killing all 20 people aboard." ... "Chalk's Ocean Airways operates four other seaplanes, all the same model that crashed. The grounding came the same day federal investigators said they were trying to determine why the airline had apparently not discovered the cracks." ... "Salvage crews and divers worked for a second day Wednesday to haul up the plane's wreckage from about 35 feet of water in a channel off the southern tip of Miami Beach [Florida], where it went down Monday." -By Curt Anderson -Sun-Sentinel via -Newsday.com
Vietnam - Drugs - "Bird flu victims die after drug resistance." ... "In a development health experts are calling alarming, two bird flu patients in Vietnam died after developing resistance to Tamiflu, the key drug that governments are stockpiling in case of a large-scale outbreak." ... "The experts said the deaths were disturbing because the two girls had received early and aggressive treatment with Tamiflu and had gotten the recommended doses." ... "The new report suggests that the doses doctors now consider ideal may be too little." -By Alicia Chang -AP via-Miami/Herald
20051220
Government - Telecommunications - EMail - Intelligence - Law - West-Virginia - Cheney, Dick - "Democrats: Briefings weren't approvals for wiretapping." ... "Some Democrats say they never approved a domestic wiretapping program, undermining suggestions by President Bush and his senior advisers that the plan was fully vetted in a series of congressional briefings." ... ""I feel unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse, these activities," West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Senate Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, said in a handwritten letter to Vice President Dick Cheney in July 2003. "As you know, I am neither a technician nor an attorney."" ... "Rockefeller is among a small group of congressional leaders who have received briefings on the administration's four-year-old program to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and e-mails of Americans and others inside the United States with suspected ties to al-Qaeda." -AP via -USATODAY
Pennsylvania - Religious - Science - Education - "'Breathtaking Inanity': How Intelligent Design Flunked Its Test Case: A federal judge minces no words as he comes down against evolution's rival." ... "Intelligent design is a religious idea and a Pennsylvania school board may not introduce it into the classroom, a federal judge ruled today. Judge John E. Jones III ruled that the Dover Area School Board improperly introduced religion into the classroom when it required science teachers to read a brief statement during the 9th grade biology class telling students that evolution was “Just a theory” and inviting them to consider alternatives. The only alternative specifically mentioned was “intelligent design,” the notion that life is so complex that it could not possibly have been the work of natural selection alone and must have been the work of an unspecified creative intelligence. “We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom,” Jones wrote." (1, 2) -By Sean Scully -TIME.com
Environment - Animals - Terrorism - Civil Righs - Law - Politics - Indiana - "F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show." ... "Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show." ... "But the documents, coming after the Bush administration's confirmation that President Bush had authorized some spying without warrants in fighting terrorism, prompted charges from civil rights advocates that the government had improperly blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest." ... "One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis [Indiana] planned to conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community Project." Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's "semi-communistic ideology." A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals." (1, 2) -By Eric Lichtblau -NYTimes
20051219
Government - Military - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - Politics - "Bush's Snoopgate: The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times' eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn't just out of concern about national security." ... "The problem was not that the disclosures would compromise national security, as Bush claimed at his press conference. His comparison to the damaging pre-9/11 revelation of Osama bin Laden's use of a satellite phone, which caused bin Laden to change tactics, is fallacious; any Americans with ties to Muslim extremists-in fact, all American Muslims, period-have long since suspected that the U.S. government might be listening in to their conversations. Bush claimed that "the fact that we are discussing this program is helping the enemy." But there is simply no evidence, or even reasonable presumption, that this is so. And rather than the leaking being a "shameful act," it was the work of a patriot inside the government who was trying to stop a presidential power grab." ... "No, Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story-which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year-because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker." -By Jonathan Alter -MSNBC/Newsweek
Iran - Entertainment - TV - Radio - Music - Religious - Law - History - "Iran's president bans all Western music." ... "Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned all Western music from Iran's state radio and TV stations — an eerie reminder of the 1979 Islamic revolution when popular music was outlawed as "un-Islamic" under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini." ... "But as revolutionary fervor started to fade, some light classical music was allowed on Iranian radio and television; some public concerts reappeared in the late 1980s." ... "In the 1990s, particularly during the presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami starting in 1997, authorities began relaxing restrictions further." ... "Ahmadinejad's order means the state broadcasting authority must execute the decree and prepare a report on its implementation within six months, according to the IRAN Persian daily." -AP via -USATODAY
20051218
Entertainment - People - Secrets - "At Inland Base, Scientologists Trained Top Gun: Tom Cruise studied intensively at the remote compound near Hemet while becoming a passionate messenger for the church." ... "In his own spiritual life, Cruise has continued to climb the "Bridge to Total Freedom," Scientology's path to enlightenment. International Scientology News, a church magazine, reported last year that the actor had embarked on one of the highest levels of training, "OT VII" — for Operating Thetan VII." ... "At these higher levels — and at a potential cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars — Scientologists learn Hubbard's secret theory of human suffering, which he traces to a galactic battle waged 75 million years ago by an evil tyrant named Xenu." ... "According to court documents made public by The Times in the 1980s, Hubbard espoused the belief that Xenu captured the souls, or thetans, of enemies and electronically implanted false concepts in them to keep them confused about his dirty work. The goal of these advanced courses is to become aware of the trauma and free of its effects." (1, 2, 3) -By Claire Hoffman and Kim Christensen -LAtimes
20051216
UK - Gay - Law - Religion - "UK Weddings: Straights Can Wait." ... "At last. Only 40 odd years since homosexuality was decriminalized here in England, same sex couples will shortly be able to join together in civil (if not holy) matrimony." ... "From Wednesday, gay couples can legally combine their financial affairs, have next-of-kin rights at hospital and share in that once exclusively heterosexual activity – divorce. It doesn’t sound like the law is giving them much, but more than 12 hundred same sex couples have already registered their intent to ‘marry’." ... "Now, I am told that these will not be marriages in the eyes of God – because apparently he would be absolutely furious with the idea of two people who love each other making a life-long commitment to each other and forsaking all others ‘til death do they part."-CBSNews
Turkey - Law - Author -EU - "EU watches as trial of Turkish author adjourned." ... "The trial of best-selling Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was adjourned on Friday in a case that has raised concern in the European Union over freedom of expression in Turkey and its bid for EU membership." ... "Istanbul Judge Metin Aydin said the trial would restart on February 7, 2006, to give the Justice Ministry time to decide whether the case was in line with judicial procedures at the request of the state prosecutor." -By Ercan Ersoy with contributions by Daren Butler -Reuters
US -Mexico - US Immigration - Drugs - Law - California - New Mexico - Texas - Arizona - "House Votes for 698 Miles of Fences on Mexico Border." ... "House Republicans voted on Thursday night to toughen a border security bill by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to build five fences along 698 miles of the United States border with Mexico to block the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into this country." ... "The amendment to the bill would require the construction of the fences along stretches of land in California, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona that have been deemed among the most porous corridors of the border." ... "The vote on the amendment was a victory for conservatives who had long sought to build such a fences along the Mexican border. But the vote was sharply assailed by Democrats, who compared the fences to the Berlin Wall in Germany. Twelve Republicans also voted against the amendment." -By Rachel L. Swarns -NYTimes
US - World - Government -Secret - Telecommunications - Intelligence - Privacy - Terrorism - Law - "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts." ... "Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials." ... "Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications." ... "The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval was a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches." (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) -By James Risen and Eric Lichtblau with contributions by Barclay Walsh -NYTimes
20051215
IP - Microsoft - Wireless - EMail - Computer - Net - Business - Texas - "Microsoft Sued Over Mobile E-Mail Patents: Mobile E-mail vendor Visto has sued Microsoft, claiming Windows Mobile violates its patents. Visto also teamed with NTL, which sued RIM." ... "Mobile e-mail technology vendor Visto Thursday claimed that Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 platform violates its patents and has signed a licensing agreement with NTP, which has sued Research In Motion for alleged patent violations." ... "In addition, NTP has acquired an equity stake in Visto, the company said in a statement." ... "Visto said in a statement that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft in U.S. District Court in Texas that covers three specific patents owned by Visto. The complaint asks the court to prohibit Microsoft from improperly using Visto's intellectual property and asks for compensation." -MobilePipeline.com via -InformationWeek
Books - Library - Languages - "Study: 1 In 20 Can't Read English." ... "An estimated in one in 20 U.S. adults is not literate in English, which means 11 million people lack the skills to perform everyday tasks, a federal study shows." ... "The 11 million adults who are not literate in English include people who may be fluent in another language, such as Spanish, but are unable to comprehend text in English." -AP via -CBSNews
National Assessment of Adult Literacy - http://nces.ed.gov/naal
20051214
Iraq - TV - "Iraqis Grasp the Art of TV Debate, With Gloves On: The airwaves are rife with candidate forums featuring polite speech in a nation torn by war." ... "For the first time, the televised campaign debate has come to Iraq, and it has brought with it a level of civility and political discourse far different from that found on the nation's often bloody streets." ... "Across Iraq, politicians of all stripes moved with fear as they campaigned for Thursday's parliamentary election. On Tuesday, a Sunni Arab candidate was slain in Ramadi, the fourth office-seeker to be assassinated in recent weeks." ... "But in Iraqi TV studios, it's a different story." ... "Politicians are now free to use the medium of televised debates to expose voters to their styles, images and rhetorical flourishes. And here, the tone has been polite." (1, 2) -By Louise Roug with contributions by Shamil Aziz, Saif Rasheed and Asmaa Waguih -LAtimes
20051213
Washington - Animals - Water - Science - "Efforts to protect orcas may have wide impact: Public urged to comment on the conservation plan." ... "Early next year comes the first step in determining how much punch the "endangered" label will carry for the oft-ogled orcas [in Washington state's Puget Sound]. Federal officials are asking the public to speak up in the next few weeks." ... "But the agency isn't likely to do anything soon about an expanding whale-watching fleet, and what orca advocates call a growing underwater cacophony of boat noise hobbling the whales' ability to find prey and communicate." ... "Orca advocates want all that dealt with under the new endangered designation, but that's unlikely, according to Fisheries Service spokesman Brian Gorman." ... "Environmentalists, who had to sue the Fisheries Services to force the endangered species listing, say that's exactly what they're afraid of." -By Robert McClure -SeattlePI.NWsource
"Proposed Conservation Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca)." -nwr.noaa.gov/Marine-Mammals/Whales-Dolphins-Porpoise/ Killer-Whales/Conservation-Planning/upload/SRKW-propConsPlan.pdf
Water -US - Turkey - Police - Connecticut - "Congress turns attention to cruise safety." ... "George Allen Smith IV vanished from a Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ship in the Mediterranean 10 days after his wedding last summer. His family says he was a victim of foul play covered up by the cruise ship line to avoid bad publicity." ... "Smith's wife, Jennifer Hagel Smith, says ship officials forced her from the vessel after her husband's disappearance and abandoned her in Turkey, where she ended up at a police station and later a hospital with no food, money, clothing or ticket home." -AP via -USATODAY
California - Los Angeles - History - Politics - "Stanley Tookie Williams executed: Crips gang co-founder put to death for 4 murders." ... "Stanley Tookie Williams -- the cofounder of the violent Crips street gang who became an anti-gang crusader while on death-row -- died by lethal injection early Tuesday for the 1979 killings of four people in two Los Angles [California] robberies." ... "Williams' case set off intense debates over the death penalty and redemption, with celebrities, activists and anti-death penalty advocates saying his initiatives and anti-gang message from behind bars had proven his life was worth saving. He had even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature by an array of college professors, a Swiss lawmaker and others." ... "Before Williams went to the execution chamber, the stepmother of one of the men Williams was convicted of killing said she felt "justice is going to be done tonight."" ... "[...] Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and a prominent death penalty opponent, compared the death penalty to "gang justice."" ... ""Gang justice is, if you kill a member of our gang, we kill you -- and don't tell me anything about how you changed your life or what you're going to do," she said. "You kill, and we kill you. And that's what the United States of America is doing with this."" -With contributions by Ted Rowlands, Kareen Wynter, and Bill Mears -CNN
Microsoft - IM-Messaging - Telecom - Computer - Business - "Microsoft, MCI team on Net phone service: Initial offering to allow only outbound calls from PC." ... "The agreement, announced late Monday, gives the Redmond [Washington] company a bigger stake in the consumer segment of the burgeoning online phone business. But for now, at least, Microsoft says it will offer only outbound calls from PCs to regular phones -- unlike some rivals that will offer the ability to receive calls on a PC from a phone, as well." ... "The decision to partner with a telecom company could give Microsoft an important ally as it moves further into the online voice market. The company sees the service as a "natural extension" of the free PC-to-PC voice and video features already offered as part of its instant-messaging program, said Brian Arbogast, an MSN corporate vice president." -By Todd Bishop -SeattlePI.NWsource
Web - Business - Microsoft - "Adobe merger may help it fend off Microsoft." ... "Adobe Systems and Macromedia spent more than a decade as fierce rivals in the software market. Now they are hoping that by banding together they can be better positioned to face increasingly aggressive competition from Microsoft." ... "Early this month, Adobe completed its $3.4 billion acquisition of Macromedia, giving it control of Flash, Macromedia's crown jewel, a software tool for developing multimedia applications for the Web. The move cements Adobe's dominant position in the market for electronic document management and helps round out its collection of software for art directors, Web designers and video producers." -By Laurie J. Flynn -NYTimes via -SeattlePI.NWsource
20051212
Telecommunications - Computer - Business - "Companies Embracing Skype—With Reservations." ... "With more than 13 million users worldwide [other sources cite 54 million users], Skype has quickly become the Internet's favorite free peer-to-peer voice-over-IP application." ... "Like most grass-roots Internet technologies, Skype (developed by Skype Technologies S.A., in Luxembourg), started as a hobbyist tool that soon began to take root in the business market. The company says that almost half of its customers are now using Skype for business communications." ... "Currently, PC-to-PC calls, aka Skype-to-Skype calls, are free. Skype calls that cross the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) to reach a land-line or mobile phone must use the SkypeOut service. The company charges for SkypeOut: a few cents per minute in addition to the cost of terminating the call—a cost that can increase dramatically if the receiving party is international, on a mobile phone or both." (1, 2) -By David Spark -eWEEK
US -Iraq - World - Intelligence - Politics - "Peace-making a core mission in new Pentagon policy." ... "After years of internal debate, the Pentagon has embraced a fundamental change in policy which calls for the U.S. armed forces to be equally adept at waging war and making peace." ... "The new course, announced in a Pentagon directive, follows widespread criticism of the conduct of the war in Iraq, where U.S. forces scored a swift, decisive victory over conventional opponents but found themselves ill-equipped to deal with post-combat chaos and an increasingly effective insurgency." ... "The directive says that establishing order and security, restoring essential services and meeting the humanitarian needs of the population of a vanquished country were a "core U.S. military mission.""" ... "The directive specifies the need for better language skills, more regional expertise, better intelligence and counterintelligence, more emphasis on studying foreign cultures and more coordination with foreign governments, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations." (1, 2) -By Bernd Debusmannn -Reuters
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/html/300005.htm
Animals - Plants - Science - "Extinction alert for 800 species." ... "Researchers have compiled a global map of sites where animals and plants face imminent extinction." ... "The list, drawn up by a coalition of conservation groups, covers almost 800 species which they say will disappear soon unless urgent measures are taken." ... "Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers say protecting some of these sites would cost under $1,000 per year." ... "They come together under the umbrella of a relatively new organisation, the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE), whose aim is exactly what the name implies." -By Richard Black -BBC /News

ZeroExtinction.org
Animals - Water - Science - "Study: Arctic Killer Whales High in Toxins." ... "Killer whales have the highest concentration of man-made toxins of all Arctic mammals tested in Europe because of the oceangoing predators' taste for fatty fish, according to a study released Monday." ... "Man-made toxins, such as PCBs, build up in animal fat and become more concentrated in moving up the food chain. Most toxins, often from household products, are carried to Arctic waters by ocean currents, winds, or in migratory fish and animals." -AP via -Forbes
Norway - Animals - Science - "Arctic orcas highly contaminated: Killer whales have become the most contaminated mammals in the Arctic, new research indicates." ... "Norwegian scientists have found that killer whales - or orcas, as they are sometimes known - have overtaken polar bears at the head of the toxic table." ... "The Norwegian Polar Institute tested blubber samples taken from creatures in Tysfjord in the Norwegian Arctic." ... "The chemicals they found included pesticides, flame retardants and PCBs - which used to be used in many industrial processes." -By Paddy Clark -BBC /News
Alaska - Oil - Business - Environment - Law - "White House pushes Congress on Alaska drilling." ... "Bush administration officials on Monday urged Congress to include opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling in a broad budget-cutting bill that could see a vote this week." ... "The Senate included ANWR in its package of spending cuts. But the House-passed budget bill dropped the ANWR drilling provision after a group of moderate Republicans threatened to vote against the measure if the drilling language was included." ... "The Bush administration stepped up its lobbying efforts to give oil companies access to the refuge." (1, 2) -By Chris Baltimore with contributions by Richard Cowan -Reuters
Texas - Tom DeLay - Political - Maps - 2004 Election - "Supreme Court to rule on Texas poll maps case." ... "The US Supreme Court said on Monday it would rule on controversial maps for electoral districts in Texas that were engineered by Tom DeLay, the former majority leader in the House of Representatives, to increase Republican strength in Congress." ... "The new maps, drawn in 2003, played a key role in the 2004 congressional elections, when five incumbent Democrats in Texas lost their seats in the House, boosting Republicans' majority on Capitol Hill and enhancing Mr DeLay's image as a powerful political force." ... "The high court review is also likely to draw fresh attention to recent disclosures that staff attorneys at the US Department of Justice objected to the Texas maps, arguing that they would disadvantage minority voters. Those criticisms were over-ruled by senior political appointees at the department." -By Holly Yeager -FT.com
Psychology - Labor - "Living Well: Years of boosting kids' self-esteem may have backfired." ... "Many child development researchers will argue that the "spoiled kids syndrome" stems directly from two decades of studying ways to elevate self-esteem of children." ... "The argument is simple. We have gone overboard on getting kids to feel good about themselves. The standards for competence have been lowered and false praise is passed out like cups of water at a marathon." ... "Fallout abounds. One result is kids seem less prepared for hardship. "There's a clear sense that things have come easier for this generation of kids," said Kevin Haggerty, director of the Raising Healthy Children Project at the University of Washington. "They feel down and depressed when they get older and confront failure."" ... "Corporate human relations executives report an intriguing offshoot. Younger workers with the heightened sense of entitlement and easier path are much less patient waiting for job promotions." -By Bob Condor -SeattlePI.NWsource
Animals - Plants- Science - "Extinction "Hotspots" Revealed in New Study." ... "Extinct." ... "This moniker of doom is destined for 794 species of animals and trees currently eking out an existence in 595 sites around the world, conservationists warned today." ... ""All these are spots where extinction is likely to strike next if we don't do anything," said Taylor Ricketts, director of science for the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C." ... ""That 'if we dont do anything' is the big part of this idea," he added. "These places present the most clear opportunity to slow down and stem the extinction episode we are in now."" ... "Ricketts and colleagues with the recently formed conservation group Alliance for Zero Extinction will publish their findings in the December 20 issue of the research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." (1, 2) -By John Roach -NationalGeographic>News
UK - Oil - Disaster - Water - Environment - "UK oil depot fire 'largest of kind'." ... "Firefighters are battling blazes at three tanks still burning after Sunday's massive explosions at a fuel depot north of London while investigators search for clues as to what caused powerful explosions that started the blaze." ... "Using fire suppressant foam and water, the firefighters successfully put down fires in 10 other tanks at Buncefield Oil Depot near Hemel Hempstead and kept the flames away from seven more after the blasts, which injured 43 people and were felt 40 kilometers (25 miles) away in London." ... "The fire department said they were "making good progress" against the fire." ... "Fire and environmental officials spent much of the night discussing how to tackle the blaze without polluting local water supplies."-AP -CNN
Children - Science - UK - "Colds 'may trigger child cancers': Scientists have found further compelling evidence infections such as colds may trigger childhood cancers." ... "The University of Newcastle-led team looked at 3,000 childhood cancers in 0 to 14-year-olds from 1954 to 1998, the European Journal of Cancer reported." ... "Researchers found unusual clusters of brain tumours and leukaemia which were typical of infection-related disease." ... "But children would need genetic factors to make them susceptible, they added. Experts said more evidence was needed." ... "It was even possible infections caught by mothers while pregnant could trigger the cancers, the report said." ... "But the researchers stressed the findings did not mean people could "catch cancer"."-BBC /News
Woman - Food -Nutrition - Sweden - "Study: Tea may help fight ovarian cancer." ... "Swedish researchers have found tantalizing but far-from-conclusive evidence that drinking a couple of cups of tea every day might help reduce the risk of developing ovarian cancer." ... "Those [women in the study] who reported drinking two or more cups of tea a day were 46 percent less likely to develop the disease than women who drank no tea. Drinking less than two cups also appeared to help, but not as much." -By Lindsey Tanner -AP via -MercuryNews
20051210
Secret - Government - Wireless - Telecommunications - Technology - Law Enforcement - Law - New York - Texas - Maryland - Noteworthy - "Live Tracking of Mobile Phones Prompts Court Fights on Privacy." ... "Most Americans carry cellphones, but many may not know that government agencies can track their movements through the signals emanating from the handset." ... "In recent years, law enforcement officials have turned to cellular technology as a tool for easily and secretly monitoring the movements of suspects as they occur. But this kind of surveillance - which investigators have been able to conduct with easily obtained court orders - has now come under tougher legal scrutiny." ... "In the last four months, three federal judges have denied prosecutors the right to get cellphone tracking information from wireless companies without first showing "probable cause" to believe that a crime has been or is being committed. That is the same standard applied to requests for search warrants." ... "The rulings, issued by magistrate judges in New York, Texas and Maryland, underscore the growing debate over privacy rights and government surveillance in the digital age." (1, 2) -By Matt Richtel -NYTimes
20051209
UK - Auto - Transportation - "End of the road for the traditional London bus." ... "The "London bus" - the iconic, ever-popular double-decker with its half-cab, old-fashioned bell, conductor and open rear platform, the star of postcards, guide book covers and film - will run for the last time today on a mainstream route." ... "When the number 159 rolls into Brixton garage in south London, an era will have ended for the Routemaster, as it is known. It also marks the end of the road for the bus conductor in London." -By Simon Briscoe -FT.com
Japan - "Mizuho Says Trader Error to Cost It at Least $224 Mln (Update1)." ... "Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan's second-biggest bank, said a typing error at its brokerage arm, which triggered $3.5 billion of trades, has cost the bank at least 27 billion yen ($225 million)." ... "The error at Mizuho Securities Co. sparked trades in shares of J-Com Co., a company valued at $93 million. More than 700,000 J-Com shares changed hands in its stock market debut yesterday, following an erroneous sell order from Mizuho." ... "At 9:27 a.m. yesterday, Mizuho's brokerage wrongly put an order to sell 610,000 shares for 1 yen each, [Mizuho Securities' president, Makoto] Fukuda said. It had intended to sell 1 share for 610,000 yen for a client." -By Takahiko Hyuga -Bloomberg
20051208
Israel- World - Law - History - "Crystal joins Cross and Crescent: A diamond-shaped red crystal on a white background is to join the Red Cross and the Red Crescent as an emblem for ambulances and relief workers." ... "Geneva Convention member states voted by a two-thirds majority for the symbol which ends a decades-old row and opens the way for Israel to join." ... "Israel had been denied entry because its Red Shield was not approved." ... "Relief workers and ambulances bearing the Red Cross or Red Crescent symbols are protected under international law." ... "The Red Shield of David - or Magen David Adom - was not recognised by the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and Arab states had blocked attempts to find an alternative symbol."-BBC /News
Music - Entertainment - Business - Secret - Privacy - Computer - Web - Hacking - "New security flaw vexes Sony BMG piracy battle: Expert says patch makes problem worse." ... "Sony BMG Music Entertainment has acknowledged a new security problem affecting nearly 6 million of its CDs, and a Princeton University computer expert said yesterday that a patch the company designed to fix the problem may only make things worse." ... "The problems for the company began last month, when computer programmer Matt Russinovich found that Sony BMG was shipping many of its music discs with a program called XCP." ... "XCP was designed to limit the number of times a user could copy the tunes on the disc, and to ensure that these copies could not be played on other computers. But the software also concealed itself on users' computers and was extremely difficult to remove. In addition, XCP secretly sent information about users' listening habits over the Internet to Sony BMG." -By Hiawatha Bray -Boston/Globe
Animals - Pets - Genetics - "Genetic Secrets of Man's Best Friend Revealed." ... "Scientists have decoded the dog genome. A boxer named Tasha, selected for her high degree of inbreeding, has had her genetic secrets puzzled out and then compared to partial genetic pictures of other breeds of dog and other mammals. It has been a long wait for humanity's first companion, domesticated from grey wolves at least 15,000 years ago." ... "Researchers first broke up Tasha's genome into small sections of genetic material, deciphered the makeup of each of those bits, and then pieced them together into a complete genetic map--the so-called whole genome shotgun strategy. Tasha's high degree of inbreeding simplified the task of decoding her 2.4 billion-letter genetic code by reducing the differences between her 39 chromosome pairs. The fact that she is a female, however, left the team without a picture of the canine Y chromosome." -By David Biello -ScientificAmerican
20051207
Japan - Iraq - "Japan extends Iraq troops mission: Japan has extended its military deployment in Iraq for another year." ... "The decision, announced after a meeting of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet, means the troops can stay until 14 December 2006." ... "Japan has about 500 troops in Samawa in southern Iraq, training Iraqi security forces and helping with reconstruction, but not engaging in combat roles." ... "However, there was media speculation that the troops could be pulled out before their new mandate is fully up." ... "The Japanese troops could be pulled out before the new expiration date if conditions change, either on the ground, or in the make-up of the coalition forces, Kyodo news agency said on Wednesday."-BBC /News
20051206
GOV - Air - Water - Health -Politics - Business - Kentucky - "A fight over easing rules for reporting toxic emissions: The EPA plan would help small businesses reduce paperwork." ... "Gracie Lewis is on a crusade to save the Toxics Release Inventory, a trove of federal pollution data vital to helping her - and activists nationwide - win community battles for cleaner air and water." ... "Until a couple of years ago, Mrs. Lewis was at her wits' end over the stew of chemical odors wafting into her home from nearby factories in the industrial heart of Louisville, Ky. [Kentucky], a neighborhood known as "Rubbertown."" ... "Though she still smells them today, the city now has a plan for beating back toxic emissions, in part because of TRI data gathered annually by the Environmental Protection Agency, she says. With those crucial numbers in hand, she and other activists can ferret out companies releasing harmful chemicals. "Once we smell it, we call the odor hot line," she says." ... "But that ability to check the numbers may be changing as the EPA mulls over whether to lower the TRI reporting requirements. Small businesses have welcomed the proposal because it eliminates extra paperwork. But Lewis, environmentalists, and first responders have become part of a vocal national backlash since the changes were first proposed in September. These groups argue they would lose vital data and would not be able to hold polluters accountable." -By Mark Clayton -CSMonitor
Entertainment - Cartoon - Marketing - Children - Health - "Cartoon characters caught in adults' food fight." ... "A report Tuesday from the Institute of Medicine calls for dramatic changes in the marketing of foods and beverages to children. For example, it asks that licensed characters — such as cartoon stars like SpongeBob and the princesses in Disney features — be used to promote only nutritious foods." ... "But in calling for marketing standards that support healthful diets, the report does not define exactly what foods it's talking about. And not everyone has the same definition of a healthful food." -By Nanci Hellmich -USATODAY
Psychology - People - Science - "Study bolsters link between health, stress." ... "A steady stream of irritations and upsets from people and things around us can literally make us sick or slow to heal." ... "Psychological stress and physical ills have become so well linked over the past few decades that researchers into the brain-immune system connection have a name for the specialty -- psychoneuroimmunology." ... "A report in the Archives of General Psychiatry finds that routine marital discord can slow the body's ability to heal from trauma or surgical wounds by as long as two days." -By Lee Bowman -Scripps via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Christmas -Stem Cells - Parents - "With love at Christmas - a set of stem cells." ... "Christmas shopping for the unborn baby has never been easy. However, stem cell technology may have brought what is possibly this year's most original gift. For a mere £1,250, it is possible to harvest stem cells from the umbilical cord at birth and store them frozen for up to 25 years." ... ""Stem cells are not just for life - they're for Christmas," said Shamshad Ahmed, managing director of Smart Cells International, a company offering stem cell gift certificates as a new line this year." -By John Carvel -Guardian.co.uk
TV - Computer - Business - "Apple video inks deal with NBC." ... "Apple Computer [...] said Tuesday it formed a partnership with NBC Universal to offer new primetime, cable, late-night and classic TV shows, such as "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on the iTunes Music Store." ... "When Apple originally launched the downloading of TV shows in October, its first partner was Walt Disney's ABC, and it had 2,000 videos. With the NBC deal, Apple iTunes Music store now has 3,000 music videos, Pixar short films and a variety of TV shows that consumers can buy for $1.99 each." -By Bambi Francisco -MarketWatch
20051205
Christmas - Family - Religious - TV - Entertainment - Business - History - "The Christmas classic that almost wasn't." ... "When CBS bigwigs saw a rough cut of A Charlie Brown Christmas in November 1965, they hated it." ... ""They said it was slow," executive producer Lee Mendelson remembers with a laugh. There were concerns that the show was almost defiantly different: There was no laugh track, real children provided the voices, and there was a swinging score by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi." ... "Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez fretted about the insistence by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz that his first-ever TV spinoff end with a reading of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke by a lisping little boy named Linus." ... "The first broadcast was watched by almost 50% of the nation's viewers." ... "And when the program airs today at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, it will mark its 40th anniversary — a run that has made it a staple of family holiday traditions and an icon of American pop culture. The show won an Emmy and a Peabody award and began a string of more than two dozen Peanuts specials." -By Bill Nichols -USATODAY
US - World - Prison - Terrorism -Intelligence - Law - Arizona- "McCain won't concede on torture ban: Insists on language prohibiting cruel, inhumane treatment." ... "[Arizona Republican] Senator John McCain, a prisoner of war who was tortured in Vietnam, yesterday said he will refuse to yield on his demands that the White House agree with his proposed ban on the use of torture to extract information from suspected terrorists." ... "''I won't," he said on NBC's ''Meet the Press" when asked whether he would compromise with the Bush administration." ... "He is insisting on his language that no person in US custody should be subject to ''cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment."" -By Jim Abrams -AP via -BostonGlobe
20051204
Christmas - Plants - Business - "We’re buying trees via Internet, catalog." ... "A growing number of American families are buying real Christmas trees via the Internet or by mail order — this year, an estimated 330,000 people will make their tree selections after gazing at computer screens or paging through catalogs, the National Christmas Tree Association says." ... "That’s barely a blip on the holiday radar when compared with the 27.1 million real Christmas trees sold last year at chain stores, through nonprofit groups, from retail lots, harvested for a price from choose-and-cut farms or by permit from public lands." -By Dean Fosdick -AP via -QCTimes
20051203
UK - Christmas - Business - "One of first Christmas cards is sold at auction." ... "A 162-year-old Christmas card — one of the first ever printed — sold at auction Saturday for $16,000." ... "The hand-colored card, which shows a family celebrating around a table, is one of about 10 surviving from an original batch of 1,000 printed in 1843, auctioneer Henry Aldridge said." ... "The cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole, a Londoner who is generally recognized as the inventor of the commercial Christmas card. " -AP via -USATODAY
20051202
US - North Carolina - Legal - History - World - "N. Carolina carries out 1,000th execution." ... "Double murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the United States since the reinstatement of capital punishment when he was put to death by lethal injection on Friday." ... "Boyd, who was 57, died at 2:15 a.m. (0715 GMT) at Central Prison in North Carolina's state capital, Raleigh, spokeswoman Pamela Walker of the Department of Corrections said." ... "Boyd, a Vietnam war veteran with a history of alcohol abuse, was sentenced to death for the murder in 1988 of his wife and father-in-law committed in front of two of his children." ... "His execution drew world attention because of its symbolism since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to be brought back in 1976 after a nine-year unofficial moratorium." (1, 2, 3) -By Andy Sullivan -Reuters
US - Iraq - Politics - "10 Marines killed near Falluja: Marines conducting 'counter-insurgency' operations in Falluja, Ramadi." ... "A roadside bomb Thursday killed 10 Marines while they were on "foot patrol near Falluja," the Marine Corps said Friday." ... "Eleven Marines were also wounded in the incident, and four of them have not yet returned to duty." ... "Marines have been conducting "counterinsurgency operations" in the Falluja and Ramadi areas ahead of the December 15 elections." ... "This brings the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq to 2,123." -Contributed to by Arwa Damon and Mohammed Tawfeeq -CNN
Illinois - Web - Business - Consumer - "Lawsuit: AOL cheats customers with illegal billing." ... "A lawsuit seeking to potentially cover hundreds of thousands of America Online subscribers accuses the Time Warner (TWX) unit of illegally billing customers by creating secondary accounts for them without their consent." ... "The lawsuit, filed last month in [Illinois'] St. Clair County Circuit Court on behalf of 10 AOL customers in six states says the company confused and deceived customers about the charges, stalled them from canceling unauthorized accounts and refused to return questioned fees." -AP via -USATODAY
20051201
Louisiana - New Orleans - Hurricane Katrina - Environment - Science - Parents - "New Orleans unhealthy, groups say." ... "Federal and state environmental agencies are downplaying long-term health dangers posed by chemicals in sediment that covers much of the New Orleans area, several environmental groups charged Thursday." ... "The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the nation's largest environmental groups, and several local Louisiana environmental groups said that heavy metals, petroleum components and pesticides in the dusty residue left behind by Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters pose such a risk that families with children shouldn't return until it is cleaned up." -By Tom Kenworthy -USATODAY
World - People - Parents -History - "World AIDS Day Observances." ... "World AIDS Day is being marked by events around the globe taking note of the millions who've died from the disease and highlighting campaigns to control it." ... "As of this 18th World AIDS Day the global AIDS epidemic has killed 25 million people. Last year saw 3.1 million AIDS deaths." ... "New HIV infections have surged to a record high: an estimated 40,300,000 people." ... "An estimated 2.2 million of those infected are children, according to the United Nations, which is marking World AIDS Day with a new campaign to fight the disease in children." (1, 2) -AP -CBSNews
20051130
Pakistan - Earthquake - Disaster - Flying - "Pakistan Earthquake Aid Flights Interrupted by Winter Storms." ... "Winter storms in Pakistan's mountainous Kashmir region forced relief organizations to interrupt helicopter flights bringing aid to more than 3 million people left homeless by last month's earthquake." ... "Flights carrying supplies to villages above 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) were suspended over two days beginning on Nov. 26, the International Organization for Migration said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. More bad weather is forecast for the rest of this week, it said." -By Khalid Qayum and Paul Tighe -Bloomberg
Science - History - "Busiest Hurricane Season on Record Ends." ... "The busiest hurricane season on record ends today with 26 named storms, including a tropical system that formed on Tuesday over the central Atlantic." ... "At 4 p.m. Eastern time, the center of Tropical Storm Epsilon was about 650 miles southeast of Bermuda and turning slightly south at a rate of 7 miles per hour." ... ""This hurricane season shattered records that have stood for decades-most named storms, most hurricanes and most Category 5 storms," the undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, retired Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., said in a statement issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Arguably, it was the most devastating hurricane season the country has experienced in modern times."" -By Jennifer Bayot -NYTimes
20051129
US -Mexico - US Immigration - 2006 Election - Politics - Police - Worker - Tucson - Arizona - "Bush revives immigration reform push: Switching priorities, he only touches on guest-worker plan." ... "President Bush promised a renewed push for changes in immigration law Monday, reversing the priorities he had set out nearly two years ago by emphasizing tougher border enforcement and mentioning his controversial guest-worker program almost as an afterthought." ... "Bush joins several congressional Republicans in Congress, including several likely presidential candidates, who intend to make an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws a priority heading into the 2006 midterm elections." ... ""Illegal immigration is a serious challenge," Bush told a gathering of border enforcement officials in Tucson [Arizona]. "And our responsibility is clear. We are going to protect the border."" -By Carolyn Lochhead -SFGate.com
20051128
Architecture - Law - "Piece of Supreme Court building falls: Chunk of marble falls onto where tourists normally enter; no one hurt." ... "A basketball-sized piece of marble molding fell from the facade over the entrance to the Supreme Court Monday, landing on the steps near visitors waiting to enter the building. No one was hurt." ... "The chunk of Vermont marble was part of the dentil molding that serves as a frame for nine sculptural figures completed in 1935. The piece that fell was over the figure of Authority, near the peak of the building's pediment, and to the right of the figure of Liberty, who has the scales of justice on her lap." -AP via -MSNBC
20051124
World - Climate - Air - Ice - Science - History - "Greenhouse-gas levels highest for 650,000 years: Climate record highlights extent of man-made change." ... "Current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are higher than at any time in the past 650,000 years, say researchers who have finished cataloguing air bubbles trapped for millennia inside Antarctic ice. The record, which extends back over the past eight ice ages, shows that today's concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane far outstrip those in the past." ... "The researchers studied air bubbles preserved in ice drilled from the Antarctic ice sheet as part of the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA). The ice core represents a logbook of the state of the world's climate [...] and goes back 210,000 years further than previous records." -By Michael Hopkin -Nature
20051123
China - Health- Environment - "Chemical blast in northeast China contaminates major river." ... "An explosion at a chemical plant in northeastern China 10 days ago caused contamination in a major river more than 100 times above national safety levels, environmental authorities said." ... "'After the blast at the chemical plant the monitoring station in Jilin found that benzene went into the river and polluted the water,' the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said in a statement on its website." -AFXNews via -Forbes
20051122
US - Canada - Animals - Health - "U.S. Bans Imports of Some Canadian Poultry." ... "Federal agriculture officials banned poultry imports from mainland British Columbia on Monday after Canadian officials reported finding a duck at a poultry farm that was infected with the flu." ... "Canadian authorities have said that the virus that afflicted the duck was a mild North American strain and not the virulent strain that has killed wild and commercial bird flocks all over Asia, as well as more than 60 people." -By Gardiner Harris -NYTimes
20051121
Texas - Computer - Music - Entertainment - Company- Privacy - Hacking - "Texas sues Sony under anti-spyware law." ... "The state [of Texas] sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment on Monday under its new anti-spyware law, saying anti-piracy technology the company slipped into music CDs leaves computers vulnerable to hackers." ... "Attorney General Greg Abbott accused Sony BMG of surreptitiously installing "spyware" in the form of files that mask other files Sony installed as part of XCP." -AP via -USATODAY
US - Canada - Tennessee - Georgia - Michigan - Oklahoma - Ohio - Auto -Business - "GM to Close 12 North American Sites, Cut 30,000 Jobs (Update8)." ... "General Motors Corp., weighed down by its biggest losses in more than a decade, will close 12 North American operations and purge 30,000 jobs in its deepest round of cuts since 1991." ... "Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said today he will idle five auto plants, four parts factories and three non-manufacturing complexes. Among them is a Saturn plant opened 15 years ago as an answer to the small-car threat from Asia." ... "In addition to one of the Saturn plants in Spring Hill, Tennessee, GM will close assembly plants in Doraville, Georgia; Lansing, Michigan; Oklahoma City [Oklahoma]; and Oshawa, Ontario [Canada]. The automaker will shut down engine plants in St. Catharines, Ontario [Canada], and Flint, Michigan. GM will also reduce shifts at assembly plants in Moraine, Ohio, and a second car plant in Oshawa." -Jeff Green and John Lippert -Bloomberg
20051120
Dick Cheney - GOV - Military - Politics - "Powell aide: Torture 'guidance' from VP: Former staff chief says Cheney's 'flexibility' helped lead to abuse." ... "Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities." ... ""There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it," Wilkerson said on CNN's "Late Edition."" ... "There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office," he said. "His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department."" -CNN
20051119
Massachusetts - Thanksgiving - Food - Business - "Mass. warns Whole Foods on Thanksgiving." ... "There'll be no last-minute shopping for turkeys or trimmings on Thanksgiving Day in Massachusetts." ... "The state has warned the upscale Whole Foods supermarket chain that it will risk criminal charges under the state's centuries-old "blue laws" if it goes ahead with plans to open on the holiday." ... "The office of Attorney General Thomas Reilly issued a legal opinion after officials at a Whole Foods competitor, Shaw's Supermarkets, wrote him a letter asking him to block the opening, The Boston Globe reported." -AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
20051117
Iraq - Oil - Business - UN - Legal - History - "Scope of oil-for-food fraud 'overwhelming'." ... "It began with the best of intentions and achieved its major goals: feeding the Iraqi people while keeping dangerous weapons out of Saddam Hussein's hands." ... "Along the way, the United Nations' oil-for-food program metastasized into the worst corruption scandal in U.N. history." ... "Three weeks after a scathing report detailed the scope of the fraud — implicating governments, former diplomats, businessmen and corporations — a relatively small number of criminal investigations and other probes have begun." -By Barbara Slavin -USATODAY
China - Taiwan - Tech - "Chinese build a high-tech army within an army." ... "In a surprisingly short time, China has accomplished two feats. One, it has focused its energy and wealth on creating an army within an army. It has devoted huge amounts of capital to create a small high-tech army within its old 2.2 million-member rifle and shoe-leather force." ... "The specialty of this modern force, about 15 percent of the PLA [People's Liberation Army], is to conduct lightning attacks on smaller foes, using an all-out missile attack designed to paralyze, and a modern sea and air attack coordinated by high-tech communications. In other words, this new modern force is designed to attack Taiwan." ... "Second, China has taken painful but successful steps to create a "defense industrial base," or weapons-building capability. The PLA has improved its factory quality control and its ability to adapt foreign technology. It is bringing an indigenous small-wing F-10 fighter off the production line, and it is moving rapidly toward a "blue water" Navy with ships built in China." -By Robert Marquand -CSMonitor
Dick Cheney - Secret - Business - Law - Politics - Nevada - Alaska - "Did oil execs lie to Congress? Report contradicts big oil execs testimony denying a White House meeting. Democrats seek probe." ... "Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the executives should return to Washington and set the record straight." ... "They should "be brought back to the Congress, sworn in, and forced to testify again about their involvement with Vice President Cheney's secretive energy task force and all of the issues covered in the hearing," Reid said." ... "Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, who chaired last week's hearing, refused Democrats' demands that the executives be sworn in under oath before they testified." -Reuters via -CNN /Money
Business -Politics - Iowa - "'Backdoor windfall tax' stirs the pot: Provision in Senate tax bill riles the oil industry and its supporters on the Hill." ... "There's been a heated debate going on around the Beltway about whether to impose a "windfall profit tax" on the oil industry, which has profited handsomely from soaring oil prices earlier this year." ... "But in a surprising and contested move, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) included in a Senate Finance Committee tax bill a provision that some have characterized as a 'backdoor windfall tax' on large oil companies. The committee, which Grassley chairs, passed the bill Tuesday evening. And it is being debated on the Senate floor Thursday." ... "The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the provision would raise an additional $5 billion in tax revenue in 2006 and 2007. That would help compensate for the revenue lost by the nearly $60 billion in tax breaks also included in the bill." -CNN /Money
Business - Labor - Seniors - "Senate Passes Bill to Require Full Funding of Private Pensions." ... "The Senate yesterday overwhelmingly approved a bill to strengthen the nation's private pension system by requiring employers to pay higher premiums to the government's pension insurance agency and toughening rules for keeping plans adequately funded." ... "The Senate action came the day after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp [PBGC]. reported that the liabilities it has assumed to pay the pensions promised by failed companies remain more than $22 billion greater than its assets. The agency's executive director said the agency will run out of money if nothing is done." ... "An analysis last month by the PBGC concluded that neither the House nor the Senate bill strengthens the agency as much as would the administration's original proposals early this year." (1, 2) -By Albert B. Crenshaw-WashingtonPost
India - US - "Outsourcing outrage: Indian call-center workers suffer abuse." ... "While irate calls are a mainstay of customer service work in any country, many Indian call-center workers say they regularly face particular abuse from Americans, whose tantrums are sometimes racist and often inspired by anger over outsourcing." ... "Such telephone tirades are fueled by outrage over outsourcing, which is expected to move 3.4 million U.S. service-sector jobs overseas by 2015, according to the consultancy Forrester. Most of the work comes to India, where young, low-cost employees now handle a range of American tasks --they draw cartoons, interpret heart scans, adjudicate insurance claims, reserve flights and chase debtors." -By Mike McPhate -SFGate.com
Global - Earth - Weather - Environment - Science - People - "A cautionary picture of water supplies as Earth warms: New studies forecast declines for rivers in the US and elsewhere." ... "Mountain snows and alpine glaciers represent key reservoirs of fresh water for some 1.6 billion people worldwide. In 50 years, however, a warming planet is likely to disrupt many of these sources, leaving millions of people scrambling for additional supplies." ... "While conservation, additional reservoirs, and repairs to leaky water mains can help blunt the effects of these changes, efforts to adapt to shrinking snowpacks and vanishing glaciers are expected to require other changes in farming techniques, industrial practices, and lifestyles." ... "That's the warning a team of US scientists is issuing after reviewing field measurements and modeling studies that deal with the impact of global warming on alpine environments. Combined with a second, independent look at stream flows in key parts of the world, the studies are helping scientists fill in a picture of future freshwater supplies as the planet warms. (Both studies appear Thursday in the journal Nature.)" -By Peter N. Spotts -CSMonitor
20051116
Labor - Drug - Politics - "Baseball Backs Stiffer Penalties for Steroid Use." ... "Reacting to Congressional pressure, Major League Baseball announced yesterday that it would again toughen the penalties for steroid use and for the first time establish testing and penalties for the use of amphetamines." ... "Under the new agreement, players who fail a test for steroids next season will be suspended 50 games, with the penalties increasing to 100 games for a second offense and a lifetime suspension for a third. A three-time offender could seek reinstatement after two years." ... "Baseball currently mandates a 10-day suspension for the first positive test, a 30-day suspension for the second, a 60-day suspension for the third and a one-year suspension for the fourth. A fifth failed test would result in a penalty at the commissioner's discretion." (1, 2) -By Jack Curry -NYTimes
World - Education - Parents- People - UN - "World's first working $100 laptop: Tech evangelist Nicholas Negroponte wants to outfit the world's children to improve education." ... "Nick Negroponte would like to sell you a $100 laptop, especially if you're head of state in a large developing country." ... "That's why he is at the World Summit on the Information Society, the giant UN-sponsored gathering that starts Wednesday in Tunis. Negroponte plans to show for the first time a working prototype of his new device, intended for hundreds of millions of mostly-poor students worldwide." ... "At the Media Lab at MIT, which Negroponte founded 20 years ago, researchers are working not only on the engineering to make such an inexpensive product possible, but on computer interfaces to enable kids to learn without teachers, and on a curriculum to teach them every sort of subject." -By David Kirkpatrick -Fortune via -CNN /Money
Dick Cheney - Secret - Energy - Law - Politics - Business- Environment - Alaska - "Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force." ... "A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress." ... "The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated." ... "The executives were not under oath when they testified, so they are not vulnerable to charges of perjury; committee Democrats had protested the decision by Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) not to swear in the executives. But a person can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for making "any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation" to Congress." -By Dana Milbank and Justin Blum with contributions by Lucy Shackelford-WashingtonPost
20051115
Alaska - Missouri - Legal - Environmental -Politics - "Alaska oil-drilling measure may return." ... "Legislation to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, apparently scuttled in the House last week, may resurface quickly, Republican leaders signaled Tuesday." ... "Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt, the acting majority leader, told reporters there would be no attempt to reinsert the controversial provision in deficit-cutting legislation pending in the House." ... "But when asked about plans for a final House-Senate compromise measure, he sidestepped. "It's too early to worry about" the final bill, he said of a measure that is expected to be drafted in December." -AP via -CNN
Government - Science - Medical - Woman - Drugs - "FDA's Actions on Pill Faulted: A GAO report bolsters charges that the agency bowed to politics over a 'morning-after' drug." ... "Federal drug regulators compromised their usual science-based decision-making process when they ruled in 2004 against letting the "morning-after" birth control pill be sold without a prescription, congressional investigators said Monday." ... "A detailed report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office bolstered critics' charges that the Food and Drug Administration had yielded to political pressure from social conservatives, who feared that easier access to the drug would encourage promiscuity." ... "GAO investigators also found that three separate FDA offices had recommended that Plan B be approved for sale without a prescription after reviewing data on safety and effectiveness. Two panels of outside advisors had reached the same conclusion at a joint meeting." (1, 2) -By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar -LAtimes
GOV - Television - Media - "The CPB's Report on Tomlinson." ... "Former Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson violated the law and his office's code of ethics, according to the agency's internal investigation." ... "Inspector General Kenneth Konz's report confirms that Tomlinson used "political tests" when he hired a new president and CEO to head the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Tomlinson chose Patricia Harrison, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, for the dual posts earlier this year." ... "Tomlinson, a Republican, ended his controversial tenure when he resigned from the CPB board on Nov. 3." -NPR /News
Animals - Law - "Grizzlies Around Yellowstone to Lose Federal Protections." ... "Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park should be removed from the endangered species list after 30 years of federal protection, the Department of Interior said Tuesday." ... "Environmental groups are split over the issue. The National Wildlife Federation supports ending the protections, saying it would highlight the success of the endangered species law. The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and other groups say that too many threats still exist for the bears." -AP via -LAtimes
20051114
People- Seniors - Science - "Study: Working out can add 4 years to your life." ... "People who engaged in moderate activity — the equivalent of walking for 30 minutes a day for five days a week — lived about 1.3 to 1.5 years longer than those who were less active. Those who took on more intense exercise — the equivalent of running half an hour a day for five days every week —extended their lives by about 3.5 to 3.7 years." -By Rob Stein -WashingtonPost via -HoustonChronicle.com
TV - Entertainment - Advertising - Market - "AOL Launching Online Video Of TV's Favorite Oldies." ... "America Online Inc. and Warner Bros. said Monday they plan to launch early next year an online TV network that will bring back favorites from TV's past, including "Welcome Back Kotter," "Growing Pains," "Chico And The Man," and "Kung Fu."" ... "The partnership between the two divisions of Time Warner Inc. is another example of how the Internet is changing television by offering an additional distribution channel that's also tied to the growing online advertising market, which JupierResearch says is expected to double by 2010 to $18.9 billion from $9.3 billion last year." -By Antone Gonsalves -TechWeb via -InformationWeek
South Korea - US - Pennsylvania - Stem Cells - "Embryo scientist quits team over ethics fear." ... "A leading American researcher in embryology has ended a 20-month partnership with his South Korean counterparts, claiming they flouted ethical rules and then lied about their practices." ... "Gerald Schatten, of the University of Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania], said he would no longer work with the cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk, following allegations that eggs were taken from a junior scientist in violation of rules meant to prevent coercion." ... "Professor Hwang gained worldwide attention after announcing last year that his team at Seoul National University had cloned the world's first human embryos and extracted stem cells from them. In May, he announced he had created the world's first embryonic stem cells that genetically matched injured or sick patients - a huge step in the quest to grow patients' own replacement tissue for treating diseases." -By Gary Younge -Guardian.co.uk
20051111
Liberia - Uganda - Political - History - "Blazing a trail for Africa's women: African women are celebrating, as Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf looks set to become the continent's first elected woman president." ... "The 67-year-old grandmother said she hoped her win would "raise the participation of women not just in Liberia but also in Africa"." ... "So is Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf's apparent victory the start of a trend?" ... "Ugandan academic Sylvia Tamale says African patriarchal societies like to see women firmly in their place. She quotes a Ugandan man at a woman candidate's parliamentary campaign rally in 1996 asking: "Have you ever heard a hen crow?"" ... "Yet, despite these traditional values, African women can crow success on a number of fronts." -By Lucy Fleming-BBC /News
Pat Robertson - Pennsylvania - School - Science - Disaster - TV - Politics - "Evangelist says voters reject God: A US Christian evangelist has told a Pennsylvania town not to ask for God's help if disaster strikes after it voted against teaching intelligent design." ... "On Tuesday, Dover [Pennsylvania] voters ousted the local school board, which had tried to introduce the concept as an alternative to the theory evolution." ... "Pat Robertson told his TV show that the town had turned its back on God." ... ""I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Mr Robertson said on The 700 Club." ... "The founder of the conservative Christian Broadcasting Network and Christian Coalition has faced criticism for past provocative statements." ... "Following his comments on Thursday, Mr Robertson issued a statement saying that he was simply trying to point out that "our spiritual actions have consequences"" ... ""If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them.""-BBC /News
US -Japan - Music - Entertainment - Hacking - Business - "Viruses use Sony anti-piracy CDs: Virus writers are exploiting Sony's controversial anti-piracy software to hide their malicious creations." ... "In late October Sony was found to be using stealth techniques to hide software that stopped some of its CDs being illegally copied." ... "Now three virus variants have been found that use the Sony software to evade detection by anti-virus programs." ... "The stealthy methods that Sony BMG used to protect its anti-piracy system were uncovered by Windows programming expert Mark Russinovich on 31 October." ... "The CDs affected are only being sold in the US."-BBC /News
20051107
Hawaii - Scuba - Water - Animals - Business - "The Dangers of Hawaii's Fish Industry." ... "Every year. more than half a million of the state's most beautiful fish are taken our reefs and sent to aquarium tanks around the world. It's a multi-million dollar industry that's been mostly unregulated. Now, some say it's time for a radical change." ... "For decades now, the aquarium fishing industry in Hawai'i has been basically a free-for-all. Get a boat, some dive gear and a $50 permit and you're in business." ... "In the past 20 years, the state's total catch of aquarium fish has quintupled. Last year, the industry reported catching nearly 750,000 fish, grossing more than $3 million in sales." ... "Aquatic biologist Bill Walsh of the Department of Land and Natural Resources says that's not counting renegade fish collectors who don't report their catches." ... "Walsh is recommending banning aquarium fish collecting on at least 20 percent of all island coastlines. He's also recommending statewide bans on a few specific fish and a possible limit to the number of fish collectors." -By Keahi Tucker -KGMB9
Azerbaijan - United States - "U.S. Raises Concerns About Azerbaijan Vote: U.S. Raises Concerns About Azerbaijan Elections, Backing Group's Findings of Irregularities." ... "The United States called on the Azerbaijani government "to take immediate investigations into these irregularities and fraud consistent with Azerbaijan's laws," [State Department spokesman Adam] Ereli said." ... "Ereli also said the United States was urging that "all protests and demonstrations need to be peaceful."" -AP via -ABCNEWS.com
Australia - Police - Intelligence - "Australia foils terrorist attack." ... "Australian authorities arrested 17 people on Tuesday on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, raiding homes in Melbourne and Sydney less than a week after parliament passed tougher anti-terror laws." ... "One man was shot in the Sydney raids and the police bomb squad was examining a backpack at the scene. Outspoken Muslim cleric Abu Bakr, who has voiced support for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was among those arrested in Melbourne." ... "The Australia Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), last week acknowledged for the first time that Australia had home-grown extremists, some of whom trained overseas." (1, 2) -By Joanne Collins with contributions by Michelle Nichols -Reuters
France - Belgium -Germany - "Rioting in France Spreads to 300 Towns." ... "Rioting by French youths spread to 300 towns overnight and a 61-year-old man hurt in the violence died of his wounds, the first fatality in 11 days of unrest that has shocked the country, police said Monday." ... "As urban unrest was reported in neighboring Belgium and Germany, the French government faced growing criticism for its inability to stop the violence, despite massive police deployment and continued calls for calm. One riot-hit town in suburban Paris said it was preparing to enforce a curfew." ... "Meanwhile, governments worldwide urged their citizens to be careful in France." -By Angela Doland with contributions by Emmanuel Georges-Picot, Thierry Boinet and Jan Sliva -AP via -Guardian.co.uk
Indiana - Kentucky - Disaster - History - "Indiana Assesses Damages After Deadliest Tornado in 55 Years." ... "Rescue workers in southern Indiana and western Kentucky began to clear debris and assess the damage left by the region's deadliest tornado in more than half a century, which killed 22 people as it ripped apart mobile homes." ... "The twister touched down in Evansville, Indiana, around 2 a.m. local time yesterday, after crossing the Ohio River from Henderson, Kentucky. This tornado caused the most deaths in a single twister in the 58 counties covered by the National Weather Service's Paducah, Kentucky, office since before 1950, said meteorologist Beverly Poole." -By Heather Burke -Bloomberg
20051106
US -World - Karl Rove - Political - Government - Radio -Television- Language - Media- "Rove friend is at center of inquiry." ... "Kenneth Tomlinson, who is also a close friend of Karl Rove, the White House political guru, was removed last week from the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting after its inspector general concluded an investigation that was critical of him. That examination looked at his efforts as chairman to seek more politically conservative programs on public radio and television in the United States." ... "But Tomlinson remains an important official as the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, whose members include the secretary of state. It supervises the U.S. government's foreign broadcasting operations, including the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Sawa and Alhurra, transmits programs in 61 languages and says it has more than 100 million listeners each week." ... ""People involved in the inquiry said that investigators had already interviewed a significant number of officials at the agency and that if the accusations were substantiated, they could involve criminal violations." -By Stephen Labaton with contributions by Steven R. Weisman -NYTimes via -IHT.com
20051104
US - Iraq - Military -Politics - Listen - "Former Aide's Criticisms Ignite Iraq War Debate." ... "The former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell has accused the administration of allowing a small group of senior officials to control the pre- Iraq war intelligence and post-war planning." -PBS /NewsHour
Samuel Alito - Drug - Parents - Privacy - Law - "Alito shows a different side in his dissents." ... "The facts of the case were stunning: A 10-year-old was strip-searched in her home by police officers whose warrant authorized only the search of her father, a suspected drug dealer." ... "To the other judges who heard the case, the law seemed clearly on the girl's side: The very purpose of a warrant is to limit the scope of permissible searches." ... "But Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito saw it differently. And his ruling opens a window onto one facet of his judicial philosophy." ... "Alito said the girl's search, while unfortunate, was justified because supporting documents broadened the warrant's sweep. It was a technicality, he said, that the particulars were left out of the warrant itself, and that was no reason to punish good cops who were just doing their jobs." ... "He was the only judge hearing the case who thought the police acted properly." -By Stephen Henderson -Knight Ridder via -MercuryNews
CA - Autos - Transportation - People - "Man fined for using a dummy to poach on commuter lane." ... "A 28-year-old Petaluma man was pulled over Wednesday and slapped with a $351 fine for using a kickboxing dummy dressed in a Miami Dolphins windbreaker and baseball cap to poach on the commuter lane." -By Suzanne Herel -SFGate.com
20051103
US - Australia - Canada - New Zealand - Britain - Germany - Consumer - Money - "U.S. Health Care Costs Big Money: Survey Says Americans Pay More, Get Disorganized Care." ... "Americans pay more when they get sick than people in other Western nations and receive more confused, error-prone treatment, according to the largest survey to compare U.S. health care with other nations." ... "The survey of nearly 7,000 sick adults in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and Germany found Americans were the most likely to pay at least $1,000 in out-of-pocket expenses. More than half went without needed care because of cost, the survey found, and more than a third endured mistakes and disorganized care when they did get treated." ... "While patients in every nation sometimes run into obstacles to getting care and face deficiencies in treatment, the United States stood out for having the highest error rates, most disorganized care and highest costs, the survey found." -By Rob Stein-WashingtonPost
Alaska - Washington - Oil - Business - Politics - "Access to Alaska oil, revenue closer: Senate votes to keep drilling language in budget bill." ... "With rising oil prices and record oil company profits serving as a backdrop, the Senate moved one step closer on Thursday to allow companies to drill for oil and gas in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." ... "The Senate beat back an amendment offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. [Washington], to strike language from a pending budget reconciliation bill that would open the region to producers." ... "The amendment failed in a vote of 48-51." ... "Cantwell said the budget bill provided a "sweetheart deal" for the oil industry, which has long sought access to the oil and natural gas supplies thought to lie beneath the refuge." -By Stephanie I. Cohen -MarketWatch
20051102
Australia -Police - Terrorism - Civil Liberties - Law - "Australia says has intelligence on terror threat." ... "Australia has received specific information about a possible "terrorist threat" to the country, Prime Minister John Howard said on Wednesday, but Australia's medium security alert remained unchanged." ... "Howard refused to give any details about the nature or location of the threat, but said the government would rush through changes to anti-terror laws to enable police to respond." ... "The new laws, which have been criticised by human rights and civil liberties groups, will allow police to detain suspects for seven days without charge, and use electronic tracking devices to keep tabs on suspects." -By James Grubel -Reuters via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
20051101
California -Market - "California officials say tax plan would hurt state homeowners." ... "A proposal by a presidential tax panel Tuesday would make higher home mortgages ineligible for tax breaks. It ran into strong criticism from California officials who said it would hurt people who live in the state's hot housing markets." ... "The recommendation by the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform would convert the home mortgage interest deduction into a credit equal to 15 percent of mortgage interest paid. The $1 million limit on mortgages eligible for the tax break would shrink to the average regional price of housing, with an upper limit of $412,000." -By Erica Werner -AP via -MercuryNews
Pakistan - People - Earthquake - History - Homes - "Pakistan seeks more medical aid as quake toll rises." ... "Pakistan appealed for antibiotics and painkillers on Tuesday as it raised the toll from last month's devasting earthquake to 57,597 killed and nearly 79,000 injured." ... "The updated figures from Pakistan Federal Relief Commission brought the total official toll from the disaster to nearly 59,000 -- including 1,309 confirmed deaths and 6,622 injuries on on the Indian side of the devasted Kashmir region." ... "At 7.6 magnitude, the quake was the strongest to hit the South Asian region in 100 years. It destroyed huge numbers of houses and left more than three million people homeless or in need of emergency shelter with a brutal winter just weeks away." -By Robert Birsel with contributions by David Brunnstrom -Reuters via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
- - Politics - "Two Koreas want to field one Olympic team." ... "Officials from North and South Korea agreed Tuesday to meet next month to work out details on competing as a unified team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a South Korean Olympic official said." -By William Foreman -AP via -MercuryNews
20051031
Florida - Hurricane Wilma - Halloween - "Halloween Is Hurricane Wilma's New Victim: Hurricane Wilma Claims Another Victim - Halloween Trick-Or-Treating." ... "Little ghosts and goblins in cities across South Florida were stuck inside Monday night as officials urged parents to call off trick-or-treating because of the damage from Hurricane Wilma." ... "Florida Power & Light, the state's largest electric utility, said Monday afternoon that it had restored power to about 75 percent of the customers blacked out by the Oct. 24 storm, but that left 800,000 homes and businesses still without electricity." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com
20051028
Halloween - Marketing - Business - Parents - "Marketers offer Halloween treats that aren't as sweet." ... "Quaker is pushing mini-granola bars. Utz is selling bat-shaped pretzels. The U.S. Apple Association has linked up with Radio Disney to convince kids that apples are hip. And in an assault on candy kingpins, Hasbro is marketing Halloween "fun size" cans of Play-Doh." ... "Some are polishing their image. Some are trying to appeal to kids via nutrition-minded parents. Some are trying to make a buck. Nutritionists love it." ... ""Halloween is a nutritional nightmare," says Cynthia Lair, a nutritionist. "All the candy isn't just non-nutritional, it can also create nutritional debts."" -By Bruce Horovitz -USATODAY
20051027
Weather - Hurricane Katrina - Hurricane Rita - Business - "Exxon, Shell Profits Soar as Oil and Gas Prices Rally (Update6)." ... "Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc posted record net income of almost $19 billion combined after energy prices surged to unprecedented highs amid disruptions caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita." ... "Third-quarter profit at Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest publicly traded oil producer, jumped 75 percent to an industry record of $9.92 billion, the company said today in a statement. The Hague-based Shell set the previous record about six hours earlier, when it said net income rose 68 percent to $9 billion." ... "The world's five biggest investor- owned oil companies are heading for combined 2005 profit of almost $107 billion, according to analyst estimates, partly on the widening gap between crude [oil] costs and refined fuel prices." -By Joe Carroll and Jim Kennett -Bloomberg
20051026
Halloween - "Halloween dishes to dress up your table." ... "Set your sights on giving Halloween food its own dress-up display as you set your table with treats that won't trick the hungry." ... "Sweets and candy-colors tend to grab most attention, but don't forget there's a lot of energy going on, and sooner or later, everyone needs a bite of something hearty and solid." -By Joan Brunskill -AP via -Newsday.com
20051027
Illinois -Texas - History - "Chicago White Sox relish first World Series title in 88 long years." ... "Chicago [Illinois White Sox] completed a World Series sweep with a 1-0 victory over the Houston [Texas] Astros on Wednesday night, becoming the second consecutive set of Sox to end a title drought that dated all the way back to World War I." ... "Their first title in 88 years certainly didn't come easily, even in a four-game sweep. The gritty White Sox had to scratch and claw for every win all year, and October was no different." ... "That's what makes their dominant run through the post-season so remarkable." (1, 2) -Canada.com
US - Switzerland - Global - Drug - Consumer - "Flu drug shipments to U.S. suspended." ... "Amid worries about bird flu, demand for a flu medicine is so extreme that the drug's maker has stopped shipping it to private U.S. suppliers just as consumers fret over whether they should try to stock up on the drug." ... "Tamiflu, a prescription drug designed to treat regular flu, is running scarce because of worries the bird flu in Asia might morph into a contagious human flu that circles the globe." ... "Tamiflu's maker, Roche Holding AG in Switzerland, said Thursday it was temporarily suspending U.S. shipment because of increased global demand. Company officials have previously said they are limiting supplies to pharmacies to thwart hoarding." ... "But there are signs that is happening." -By Lindsey Tanner-AP via-Miami/Herald
20051026
Florida - Airline - Hurricane Wilma - "Most of South Florida without power." ... "Power failures caused by Hurricane Wilma left 6 million people across Florida without electricity Tuesday and disrupted airline traffic at the third-busiest U.S. airport for international traffic. Officials said some areas could be in the dark for several weeks." ... "Florida Power & Light, which provides electricity for almost all of South Florida, said Wilma had affected more of its customers than any other natural disaster in FPL's history. It said one in three Florida residents were without power." -By Tony Bertuca and Wendy Koch with contributions by Donna Leinwand -USATODAY
20051025
Iraq - "Iraqi constitution passes, officials say: Vote was close in key Sunni Arab province of Nineveh." ... "The Iraqi draft constitution has passed, according to final results released Tuesday by Iraqi election officials." ... "More than 78 percent of 9.8 million voters in the October 15 referendum approved the document, officials said. Turnout was 63 percent of eligible voters." -Contributed to by Nic Robertson and Ingrid Formanek -CNN

Mexico - Weather - Hurricane Wilma - Business - "Cancun Tourism Industry Dealt a Devastating Blow: Damage in the hotel sector of Mexico's premier resort area could reach $1.5 billion. At least seven people are reported killed." ... "Utility workers restrung fallen power lines Monday, bulldozers cleared debris and traffic cops tried to keep order on jammed streets that had just reopened after Hurricane Wilma pounded Mexico's premier resort zone." ... "The region's economic lifeblood, the tourism industry, was devastated: One estimate placed the damage in the hotel sector at $1.5 billion." ... "After oil revenue and remittances from migrants, tourism is the third most important source of foreign currency for Mexico." -By Sam Enriquez and Carlos Martínez -LAtimes
20051024
Mexico - Weather - Hurricane Wilma - History - "Storm's end brings search for food in Cancun: Resort tourists and residents receive handouts." ... "As Hurricane Wilma ended its two-day rampage across the Yucatan Peninsula early yesterday, residents of this famous resort city [Cancun, Mexico] picked through the wreckage of their shattered homes and lined up by the hundreds at the town hall for handouts of food. Others looted damaged shops for food and supplies, some later clashing occasionally with police who struggled to maintain order." ... "Thousands of tourists emerged from partially flooded shelters to search for food as well, surveying the damage from what officials said was the most destructive storm to hit the peninsula in recorded history." -By Marion Lloyd -Boston/Globe
Iraq - Journalist - Military - "Three Blasts Shake Hotels Used by Foreigners in Baghdad." ... "Three suicide vehicles, one of which appeared to be a cement mixer packed with explosives, exploded this evening near a government ministry and two prominent hotels popular with foreign journalists and contractors, killing at least six people and wounding scores, the authorities said." ... "According to an Iraqi Army officer, the triple attack began when a suicide car bomb exploded next to an outer security wall surrounding the Palestine Hotel, which sits next to the Sheraton Hotel. Both buildings are prominent features on the east side of the Tigris River and, since the invasion in 2003, have housed many foreign journalists and contractors." -By Kirk Semple -NYTimes
Florida -Hurricane Wilma - "Wilma Kills 6 in Fla.; 6M Without Power: Wilma Kills 6 in Fla., Leaves 6M Without Power; Fort Lauderdale Damage Called Worst in 55 Years." ... "Hurricane Wilma knifed through Florida with winds up to 125 mph Monday, shattering windows in skyscrapers, peeling away roofs and knocking out power to 6 million people, with still a month left to go in the busiest Atlantic storm season on record." ... "At least six deaths were blamed on the hurricane in Florida, bringing the toll from the storm's march through the tropics to 25." ... "After a slow, weeklong journey that saw it pound Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for two days, Wilma made a mercifully swift seven-hour dash across lower Florida, from its southwestern corner to heavily populated Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach on the Atlantic coast." (1, 2, 3, 4) -With contributions by Allen Breed, Erik Schelzig, Melissa Trujillo, David Royse, and Ron Word, Adrian Sainz and Brent Kallestad -AP via -ABCNEWS.com
Brain - Genetics - Drug - Science - "Schizophrenia Linked to Genetic Mutation." ... "Heredity seems to play a major role in schizophrenia, since the disease runs in families, and now new research sheds light on exactly how a genetic mutation disrupts the brain and makes people develop the condition." ... "The findings could eventually result in better drugs for schizophrenia, which is difficult to treat. For now, however, they're helping scientists understand the development of the disease, said Dr. Doron Gothelf, a child psychiatrist at Stanford University and co-author of a study in the Oct. 23 online issue of Nature Neuroscience." -Forbes
Florida - Hurricane Wilma - Wind - "Wilma delivers blow to Florida: Speedy storm pummels state, moves into Atlantic." ... "Hurricane Wilma battered Florida for about six hours Monday with heavy rain, widespread flooding and damaging winds, before heading out to the Atlantic and regaining strength." ... "The storm made landfall as a powerful Category 3 hurricane at 6:30 a.m. ET about 22 miles south of Naples [Florida], the National Hurricane Center said. Its top winds were 125 mph." ... "Wilma raced across Florida as a downgraded Category 2 storm with top winds around 100 mph. By 12:30 p.m. ET, its center was over the Atlantic. The storm regained strength to Category 3 status, with 115-mph winds, the NHC said." -Contributed to by Chad Myers, Miles O'Brien, Gary Tuchman, Anderson Cooper, John Zarrella, Allan Chernoff, Lucia Newman and Jason Carroll -CNN
20051023
Consumer - Science - "Findings burst antibacterial soap bubble: FDA advisers say use of regular cleaning products is just as effective." ... "Those popular antibacterial washes are no more effective in preventing disease than a good scrubbing with ordinary soap and water." ... "That's the conclusion of federal health advisers, who warned manufacturers they would have to prove their products are better if they expect to continue making such claims to the public." ... "Panelists also said soaps that use synthetic chemicals — as do many products which claim to eliminate 99 percent of germs they encounter — could contribute to the growth of bacteria resistant to antibiotics." -By John J. Lumpkin -AP via -HoustonChronicle.com
20051022
Mexico - Hurricane Wilma - "Wilma's 120 Mph Winds Rip Mexico's Yucatan." ... "Ocean waves surged over the narrow strip of land holding Cancun's resort hotels Saturday as Hurricane Wilma crawled over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, keeping some 30,000 tourists huddled in hotels and shelters amid shrieking winds and shattering glass." ... "After battering Cozumel Island with 140 mph winds Friday, Wilma came ashore overnight near Playa de Carmen in a sparsely populated area of luxury resorts about 30 miles south of Cancun and creeped toward this city, weakening to a Category 3 storm." -By Will Weissert -AP via -SFGate.com
20051021
Alaska - Oklahoma - Louisiana - Transportation - Hurricane Katrina - "Senators clash over "Bridge to Nowhere"." ... "Republicans in Congress say they are serious about cutting spending, but they learned yesterday to keep their hands off the [Alaska] "Bridge to Nowhere."" ... "Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. [Oklahoma], a staunch opponent of pork-barrel spending, tried to block $453 million for two Alaska bridges that had been tucked into the recent highway spending bill. Coburn wanted to redirect the money to the Interstate 10 bridge across Lake Pontchartrain [in Louisiana], a major thoroughfare that was severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina." ... "Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was dramatic in his response: "I don't kid people," he roared. "If the Senate decides to discriminate against our state ... I will resign from this body."" ... "Coburn's measure, offered as an amendment to the 2006 transportation appropriations bill, failed 82 to 15." -WashingtonPost and -AP via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
New York - Religion - Science - "Cornell president condemns intelligent design." ... "[New York] Cornell University Interim President Hunter Rawlings III on Friday condemned the teaching of intelligent design as science, calling it "a religious belief masquerading as a secular idea."" ... ""Intelligent design is not valid science," Rawlings told nearly 700 trustees, faculty and other school officials attending Cornell's annual board meeting." ... ""It has no ability to develop new knowledge through hypothesis testing, modification of the original theory based on experimental results and renewed testing through more refined experiments that yield still more refinements and insights," Rawlings said." -By William Kates -AP via -Newsday.com
Mexico - US - Florida - "Wilma Wreaks Her Havoc on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula." ... "Hurricane Wilma struck the Yucatan peninsula Friday, pounding beach resorts and dozens of fishing hamlets with 140 mph winds and a 10-foot storm surge that sent water crashing over Cancun's white-sand beaches and into its exclusive hotel district." ... "The slow-moving hurricane reached Cozumel Island south of here as a Category 4 storm just after dawn, weakening slightly as it cut a swath across the peninsula. The eye of the storm was expected to pass over Cancun during the early morning hours of Saturday and then turn toward Florida, where authorities ordered a mandatory evacuation of low-lying areas on the southwest coast." -By Sam Enriquez and Hector Tobar with contributions by Carlos Martinez -LAtimes
20051020
Weather - Business - "Oil, Gasoline Fall to Lowest Since July as Wilma Threat Ebbs." ... "Crude oil dipped below $60 a barrel and gasoline plunged to the lowest since July 1 as Hurricane Wilma became less of a threat to oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico." ... "Prices surged to records after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita shut U.S. offshore platforms in the region that's responsible for 30 percent of the nation's oil production. U.S. oil and gasoline stockpiles rose last week, according to an Energy Department report yesterday." ... "Crude oil for November delivery fell $1.66, or 2.7 percent, to $60.75 a barrel at 1:05 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $59.85, the lowest since July 29. Oil has declined 14 percent since reaching a record $70.85 a barrel on Aug. 30, the day after Katrina made landfall. Prices are up 11 percent from a year ago." -By Mark Shenk -Bloomberg
20051019
Harriet Miers - Texas -Abortion -Law - Politics - "Nominee opposed right to abortion." ... "Harriet Miers, the Supreme Court nominee, has disclosed a 1989 survey in which she supported banning abortion except to protect the life of the mother." ... "The survey did not ask whether Miers believed the Constitution protected a right to abortion." ... ""If Congress passes a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution that would prohibit abortion except when it was necessary to prohibit the death of the mother, would you actively support its ratification by the Texas Legislature?" the survey asked." ... "Yes, Miers answered. She told the group that she would support a state ban on abortion, oppose public funding for abortions, participate in "pro-life" events, and use her "influence as an elected official" to "promote the pro-life cause."" -By David D. Kirkpatrick -NYTimes via -IHT.com
History - "Wilma grows to most intense Atlantic storm ever." ... "Hurricane Wilma strengthened dramatically into a Category 5 storm early Wednesday, with forecasters saying the "potentially catastrophic" weather system was the most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic basin." ... "The storm had a minimum air pressure reading of 882 millibars early Wednesday, according to instruments a U.S. Air Force plane carried into its eye." ... "That reading makes it "the lowest minimum pressure ever measured in a hurricane in the Atlantic basin," according to the hurricane centre's website. Low pressure corresponds with high wind speed, a measure of a hurricane's intensity." -CBC.ca
Fashion - "N.B.A. Dress Code Decrees: Clothes Make the Image." ... "On Monday, the National Basketball Association completed details of its new "business casual" dress code, which goes into effect Nov. 1, or opening night." ... "Though still vague in some areas, the final version of the dress code was toned down from an initial proposal that called for players to wear suits at all team functions, including games and flights." ... "The dress code, coupled with N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern's announcement yesterday that the league would start N.B.A. Cares, a vast public-service initiative, highlight the N.B.A.'s latest push to look a little less gangsta and a little more genteel." -By John Eligon with contributions by Liz Robbins and Howard Beck -NYTimes
20051018
Iceland - Animals - Marketing - "Iceland woos America with lamb and skyr." ... "Fermented shark should probably go. Same with beefy hunks of whale meat and lamb smoked over dried sheep dung." ... "And you don't have to be a marketing wizard to guess that dense strips of smoked puffin won't sell well in a nation where stuffed versions of the seabird nest in children's bedrooms." ... "Still, that leaves plenty of food that might be attractive. Fishermen pull tons of pristine cod from North Atlantic waters every year, selling it fresh or preserved with salt. Icelandic lamb has never eaten a mouthful of grain or seen a syringe of antibiotics. The country's butter is deeply yellow with a high fat content, produced from cows with a pure lineage that can be traced back to Norwegian Viking herds." ... "The trick is finding a way to sell it to America's food elite. A group of Icelandic agricultural and tourism officials think they've found the angle in a clunky but straightforward slogan: "Sustainable Iceland since 874."" -By Kim Severson -NYTimes via -azcentral.com
Chad - Bangladesh - Iceland - "Group: Chad, Bangladesh are most corrupt." ... "Bangladesh and Chad were ranked most corrupt on a global watchdog group's annual list of corruption levels in 159 nations, released Tuesday. At the other end of the scale, Iceland was ranked least corrupt." ... "To form its annual corruption index, Transparency International asked businessmen, academics and public officials about how countries they live in or do business with are perceived." ... "On a scale of one to 10, Bangladesh and Chad both scored 1.7, meaning that graft is perceived as being rampant. The least corrupt country, Iceland, scored 9.7." -By Emily Behlmann -AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Transparency.org
20051017
Oregon - Parents - Drugs - "Student suspended for bringing vitamins to school in backpack." ... "Jessica Booth, a senior at Oregon City High School, is on suspension after school officials say she brought vitamins to school without prior notification." ... "Her mother says she thinks the school overreacted to Jessica's over-the-counter supplements, which she says her daughter needs for lactose intolerance." ... "Booth also claims school officials told her that the pills could have led to arrest and jail." ... "Jessica's mother, Michelle Booth, says she thinks the school overreacted to the vitamins, and that threats of arrest, jail time and the five-day suspension are unwarranted." -KATU.com
Stem Cells -Massachusetts -Wisconsin - Political - Religious -Health - "Stem cell discovery avoids loss of embryo: Laboratory breakthrough may ease moral, religious concerns over beginning of life." ... "Two teams of U.S. scientists have found ways to harvest stem cells from embryos without sacrificing a viable life in the process." ... "If these proof-of-principle experiments, which were conducted in mice, can translate to humans, they might ease the fierce ethical and political storm that surrounds embryonic stem-cell research." ... "Stem cells from human embryos are considered the key to regenerative medicine. They have the power to multiply indefinitely and grow into all the various tissues that make up a human body. As it stands now, the only way to access these cells is to snatch them from the inner mass of a budding embryo that is destroyed in the process. For those who believe life begins at conception, the method is tantamount to murder." ... "But scientists at the Massachusetts-based biotech firm Advanced Cell Technology and the University of Wisconsin have now demonstrated that if they pluck a cell from an embryo that is a speck of just eight cells, the embryo can survive to be implanted in a uterus and result in a normal pregnancy." -By Carolyn Abraham -GlobeAndMail
20051015
US - Iran - UN - MIL - Terrorism - "Iran accused over nuclear plans: The US ambassador to the United Nations has accused Iran of spending 18 years trying to develop nuclear weapons while lying about its intentions." ... "John Bolton told the BBC that Iran wanted nuclear arms to intimidate the rest of the Middle East and possibly supply them to terrorists." ... "He said Iran had violated its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." ... "Iran has denied US allegations about its nuclear programme." -BBC /News
20051013
Home-Energy - "As winter approaches, home heating prices start to rise." ... "Those who have natural gas heating their homes could see a roughly 15 percent rise in costs, while those with electric heat might see a three percent increase. But oil customers are facing the worst potential hit, with costs expected to rise up to 40 percent." ... "Nationwide, about 30 million households qualify for the federal heat assistance program, but there's only enough money for about 5 million households." -AP via -OregonLive.com
20051012
US - Iraq - Military - Politics - "CIA review faults prewar plans." ... "A newly released report published by the CIA rebukes the Bush administration for not paying enough attention to prewar intelligence that predicted the factional rivalries now threatening to split Iraq." ... "Policymakers worried more about making the case for the war, particularly the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, than planning for the aftermath, the report says. The report was written by a team of four former CIA analysts led by former deputy CIA director Richard Kerr." ... ""In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program), where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right," they write." -By John Diamond -USATODAY
Halloween - Parents - Consumer - Entertainment - Fashion - "Kids treat themselves to multiple costumes." ... "Halloween used to carry with it predictable statistics: One costume plus one plastic jack-o'-lantern equaled 100 pieces of candy." ... "But Halloween is a multiple-event holiday now, requiring multiple costumes: Bare-armed garb for a sunny day of marching, cozy outfits to ward off autumn's evening chill. Heroes and princesses for daytime events, hooligans and witches for spooky nighttime activities. Elaborate ensembles for school functions, less-fussy ones for trick-or-treating, when sidewalk stumbles are a risk." -By Olivia Barker and Jenny Clevstrom -USATODAY
20051011
Nevada - MIL - Autos - Transportation - Robots- "Driverless Volkswagen wins $2 million US in Pentagon's robot race." ... "A driverless Volkswagen won a $2-million race across the rugged Nevada desert Sunday, beating four other robot-guided vehicles that completed a Pentagon-sponsored contest aimed at making warfare safer for humans." ... "The race displayed major technological leaps since last year's inaugural race, when none of the self-driving vehicles crossed the finish line." ... "Stanley the VW Touareg, designed by Stanford University, zipped through the 212-kilometre Mojave Desert course in six hours and 53 minutes Saturday, using only its computer brain and sensors to navigate rough and twisting desert and mountain trails." -AP via -CBC.ca
Halloween - Consumer - Parents - "Halloween scares up adults' dough." ... "Here's something scary: Halloween is continuing to grow as a treat more for adults than for kids." ... "This year, Americans will shell out $3.3 billion on Halloween-related merchandise, according to a study from the National Retail Federation and BIGresearch. At a time when some areas of retail spending are tepid, that's a healthy 5.4% rise over 2004. Continuing to drive the growth: adults treating themselves to outrageous get-ups, elaborate home décor, expensive Halloween night festivities — even creative pet costumes." ... "Parents continue to shell out for kids' costumes and trick-or-treat candy, but as that market (and growth in the number of kids) levels off, more companies are working to scare up adult sales[.]" -By Laura Petrecca -USATODAY
Washington - Microsoft - Computer - Music - Business - "Microsoft to Pay RealNetworks $761 Mln in Settlement (Update4)." ... "Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, agreed to pay RealNetworks Inc. $761 million in a settlement that removes the last major antitrust lawsuit brought by a Microsoft competitor." ... "RealNetworks shares surged as much as 48 percent after Microsoft said it will pay $460 million in cash and provide services worth $301 million to promote RealNetworks' Rhapsody online music service and digital games, the companies said today." ... "The agreement silences one of the most vocal critics of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, which has agreed to pay more than $4 billion to settle antitrust cases." -By Rebecca Barr and Matthew Newman -Bloomberg
20051009
Halloween - Consumer - Entertainment - Fashion - "Halloween's a treat for everyone this year." ... "It's a scary proposition, but adults are having as much fun at Halloween as kids. Skulls and bats and jack-o'-lanterns sprout at office cubicles, and inflatable ghosts and pumpkins decorate lawns and porches. Halloween has grown into the second most decorated holiday, right behind Christmas." ... "Despite the holiday's pagan roots, the trappings of Halloween "have spread grass-roots fashion" throughout the national culture, says Pamela Danziger, a marketing consultant and author of "Why People Buy Things They Don't Need."" ... "A survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation found that 53 percent of all consumers plan to buy a Halloween costume this year, spending an average of $31.88 each." -By Nanine Alexander -OregonLive.com
Iraq - Australia - US - Business - "Iraq snubs Australia, buys U.S. wheat." ... "Iraq will buy one million tons of U.S. wheat in the next few days under a policy that puts the government rather than the suppliers in charge of shipping the cargo, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi said on Sunday." ... "The Iraqi government, among the world's major buyers of commodities, chose U.S. wheat after Australia failed to make offers under the new Free on Board (FOB) system, Chalabi, a key official behind procurement decisions, told Reuters" (1, 2) -By Khaled Yacoub Oweis -Reuters
20051006
US - Vietnam - Arizona - South Carolina -Military - Intelligence - "Senate adds ban on torture to bill." ... "The Senate delivered a rebuke to the Bush administration last night, adding language banning U.S. torture of military prisoners to a $440 billion military-spending bill in defiance of a White House threat to veto the whole bill if the anti-torture language were attached." ... "[Arizona Senator John] McCain, who was tortured by his North Vietnamese captors during the Vietnam War, cited a letter written to him recently by Army Capt. Ian Fishback asking Congress to do justice to military personnel." ... ""Give them clear standards of conduct that reflect the ideals they risk their lives for," Fishback wrote the senator." ... "[South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey] Graham, a former judge advocate in the Air National Guard, said: "We take this moral high ground to make sure that if our people fall into enemy hands, we'll have the moral force to say, 'You have got to treat them right.' If you don't practice what you preach, nobody listens."" -By Joseph L. Galloway and James Kuhnhenn -Knight Ridder via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
20051005
Oregon - Medical - Drugs - "Justices Hear Arguments on Oregon's Assisted-Suicide Law." ... "The question of assisted suicide reached the Supreme Court today for the second time in eight years, although the profound issues of professional ethics and personal autonomy that have animated the national debate largely remained outside the courtroom." ... "Instead, lawyers for the federal government and for Oregon, the only state to have authorized physician-assisted suicide, argued over a single question: whether John Ashcroft acted within his authority as attorney general when he decided in 2001 that doctors would lose their federal prescription privileges if they followed the Oregon law's procedures and prescribed lethal doses of lawful medications for their terminally ill patients who wanted to end their own lives." -NYTimes
20051004
Harriet Miers -Texas - Abortion - Politics - "Miers Was Leader in Effort Within Bar to Rescind Support for Abortion." ... "Abortion rights activists were prepared for a climactic struggle over the successor to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a critical swing vote on the constitutional right to abortion. But the choice of Harriet E. Miers presented them with a very different challenge - not a clear-cut opponent of abortion, but someone with very little record on the issue at all." ... "Most of their attention was focused Monday on what public record existed on the issue: Ms. Miers's leadership, as president of the State Bar of Texas from 1992 to 1993, in an effort to roll back the American Bar Association's support for abortion rights." -By Robin Toner -NYTimes
Tom DeLay - Texas - Politics - Business - "A second grand jury indicts DeLay: Embattled leader faces new money laundering counts." ... "Representative Tom DeLay was indicted again yesterday -- this time on money laundering charges -- in an escalating criminal case that has far-ranging political implications in Texas and Washington." ... "The new indictment accuses DeLay, a Texas Republican, of illegally circumventing the state's law against corporate campaign contributions, and was issued by a newly empanelled Travis County grand jury on the first day of its term." ... "The new indictment follows on the heels of indictments against DeLay and his associates by a separate Travis County grand jury on Sept. 28, the last day of that grand jury's term." -By R.A. Dyer -Knight Ridder via -Boston/Globe
20051003
Nigeria - United States - Environmental - MIL - "Burdens of oil weigh on Nigerians: Ecological harm, corruption hit hard." ... "Under the vast swamps of Nigeria's coastal delta sit some of the world's most productive oil reserves, a treasure coveted by the energy-hungry United States and other nations." ... "Nigeria produces 10 percent of the oil consumed in the United States, and the Bush administration hopes for a greater bounty soon: US energy officials forecast that oil from Nigeria and the rest of the Gulf of Guinea region will provide one-quarter of America's oil in the next decade, equal to that of the Gulf of Mexico today. Already, 30 percent of the world's newly discovered oil reserves in the past five years have come from this stretch of Africa's west coast." ... "But here in the serpentine creeks and boggy coastal land lie daunting obstacles to those hopes --pirates, corruption, violent youth militias, and environmental catastrophes." -By John Donnelly with contributions by Nicolas V. Gortzounian -Boston/Globe
20051002
California - Los Angeles - "Wildfire near L.A. 65 percent contained: Blaze expected to be fully under control Monday." ... "Firefighters battling a wildfire that has charred more than 24,000 acres northwest of Los Angeles [California] have contained about two-thirds of the blaze and expect to have it fully under control Monday, according to fire officials." ... "The "Topanga" blaze, which once included Chatsworth in its name, has destroyed 13 buildings, three of them residences, and damaged 10 others, including one home. Forty vehicles were consumed by the fire." -With contributions by Irving Last -CNN
20051001
Hurricane Katrina - Web - "Fake Katrina Charities Prompt Crackdowns: Federal, State Officials File Charges." ... "Concerned that the Gulf Coast hurricanes are spawning an unprecedented number of bogus appeals to help victims, law enforcement officials and charities have launched aggressive efforts to prosecute fraud." ... "State and federal officials have filed charges in at lease four cases involving fraudulent appeals. They expect that number to rise sharply in the coming weeks as investigators examine thousands of suspicious fundraising Web sites, "phishing" schemes that steal financial information from donors and people falsely claiming to be raising money for hurricane funds." -By Jacqueline L. Salmon-WashingtonPost
20050930
GOV - Business - Space - Privacy - "Review Leads to Upheaval in Spy Satellite Programs." ... "A high-level review led by John D. Negroponte, the new intelligence director, is stirring a major upheaval within the country's spy satellite programs, beginning with an overhaul of a $15 billion program plagued by delays and cost overruns." ... "In a terse announcement last week, the National Reconnaissance Office, responsible for developing and launching the devices, said only that a Boeing Company contract to provide the next generation of reconnaissance satellites, known as the Future Imagery Architecture, was being "restructured."" ... "But government officials and outside experts said Mr. Negroponte had ordered that Boeing stop work on a significant part of the project, involving satellites with powerful cameras, under a plan to shift the mission to Lockheed Martin, Boeing's chief competitor." -By Douglas Jehl -NYTimes
Global - Animals - UN - "Millions could die from bird flu pandemic, UN says." ... "Southeast Asian nations approved the creation of a regional fund to fight bird flu and other animal diseases, officials said on Friday, as the United Nations warned the virus could mutate and kill up to 150 million people." ... "They said the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will also endorse a global plan to contain avian influenza, which has killed 66 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and led to an estimated $15 billion in losses for the poultry trade." -Reuters via -IHT.com
20050929
Global - Weather - Water - Science - "Melting Arctic ice cap sounds alarm bells." ... "An alarming study released yesterday shows that the rapid decline of the floating ice cap covering the Arctic Ocean is showing no signs of reversing." ... "The U.S.-based National Snow and Ice Data Center presented data showing that the dramatic decay has continued for the fourth consecutive year, with 2005 being a record year for sea-ice shrinkage." ... "The researchers, who used satellite images and were assisted by NASA and the University of Washington, also predicted that if the current rates of decline in sea ice continue, the summertime Arctic could be ice-free before the end of this century." ... "The centre's study concluded that human-induced global warming is at least partly to blame." -By Katherine Harding with contributions by Jeff Sallot -GlobeAndMail
20050928
Pennsylvania - Religion - Science - Education - "Teacher Says Board Effort on Evolution Was Resisted." ... "Science teachers at the high school in Dover [Pennsylvania] repeatedly resisted the school board's efforts to force them to teach creationism on equal footing with evolution in biology class, according to a former teacher who is among those challenging the board in a landmark trial." ... "The conflict in Dover grew so heated that in public meetings board members called opponents "atheists," threatened to fire the science teachers and invoked Jesus' crucifixion as a reason to change the curriculum, two witnesses testified on Tuesday." -By Laurie Goodstein -NYTimes
20050927
Louisiana - New Orleans - Hurricane Katrina - Television - "Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy: Rumors supplanted accurate information and media magnified the problem. Rapes, violence and estimates of the dead were wrong." ... ""It [the Louisiana Superdome] just morphed into this mythical place where the most unthinkable deeds were being done," [National Guard spokesman Major Ed] Bush said Monday of the Superdome." ... "His assessment is one of several in recent days to conclude that newspapers and television exaggerated criminal behavior in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, particularly at the overcrowded Superdome and Convention Center." ... "The New Orleans Times-Picayune on Monday described inflated body counts, unverified "rapes," and unconfirmed sniper attacks as among examples of "scores of myths about the dome and Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans' top officials."" (1, 2) -By Susannah Rosenblatt and James Rainey with contributions by Scott Gold -LAtimes
20050926
Business - "Home sales surge as prices continue to rise." ... "Existing home sales soared to the second highest pace on record in August, while prices took the biggest annual jump in 26 years, the National Association of Realtors said Monday." ... "The median price for an existing home was $220,000, up 15.8% from the $190,000 of a year ago and the fastest annual appreciation since July 1979." -By Sue Kirchhoff -USATODAY
Business - "Greenspan: Homeowners could weather price drop." ... "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, softening his concern about a possibly overheated housing market, said Monday that many homeowners have enough equity to cushion the shock if prices drop." ... "On housing, Greenspan continued to register concerns about soaring house prices and some people taking out risky mortgages to buy expensive homes that they otherwise couldn't afford." -By Jeannine Aversa -AP via -USATODAY
20050923
Computer - "Paper Trail Urged as E-Voting Fix." ... "After five months of hearings and deliberations, a high-level election-reform commission led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker recommended that Congress require electronic-voting machines to produce a voter-verifiable paper audit trail by 2008." ... "But even while the Commission on Federal Election Reform expressed support for paper trails, it acknowledged that they might not be the best solution to address security concerns with e-voting machines. The commission urged researchers to develop new technologies that could resolve the issues more effectively." (1, 2) -By Kim Zetter -Wired
20050917
Netherlands - US - New Orleans - LA - - - "Dutch Can Relate to New Orleans Disaster: Netherlands Toughened Dams, Levees After Deadly 1953 Storm." ... "Half of the Netherlands sits below sea level, so the tragedy in New Orleans hits home with the Dutch." ... "They have been through it themselves: In 1953, a huge flood in the Netherlands killed nearly 2,000 people and left 70,000 homeless." ... "The flood led to dramatic changes. The Netherlands spent $8 billion over 30 years fortifying the coastline with a sophisticated system of dikes, dams and levees." ... "Ted Sluiter, a spokesman for Waterland Neeltje Jans, a recreational park and information center set up at the base of a major dam, said the hydraulic sea wall that is considered the crown jewel of the system would protect the country against all but a biblical flood. The dam is constructed in a way that protects the region's wetlands, environmentally-sensitive areas that serve as natural storm buffers." (1, 2) -Originally reported by David Wright for "World News Tonight" on Sept. 11, 2005 -ABCNEWS.com
20050916
Nepal - MIL - Police - - "Torture is systematic in Nepal -- UN rights envoy." ... "Government forces and Maoist rebels routinely torture detainees in Nepal where a raging leftist insurgency has killed thousands of people, a United Nations envoy said on Friday." ... ""Torture and ill-treatment is systematically practised in Nepal by the police ... and the RNA (Royal Nepal Army) in order to extract confessions and to obtain intelligence," Manfred Nowak, U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture, told reporters." ... "He said the agency had received a large number of allegations of torture and ill-treatment committed during the conflict." -Reuters via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
20050915
- "Nic Cage Hopes To Push Buttons With Trigger-Pulling 'War': Actor says he wants people to think about who profits from violence." ... "It begins with a startling title sequence: a bullet travels from destination to destination, from box to hand to gun, finally coming to rest within the soft, fleshy forehead of a young boy. After that, "Lord of War" only gets more audacious." ... ""Lord of War" attempts to tell the story behind the newscasts, employing the Oscar winner as Yuri Orlov [Nicolas Cage], a morally ambiguous weapons dealer who not only sells weapons to anyone, but often goes out of his way to supply both sides of a conflict. Critics are already raving over Cage's transformative performance that begins with a young Yuri realizing that people will always need guns and bullets, and concludes several decades later with Cage's character transformed into an unfathomably wealthy, and impossibly lonely, king of his own crime empire." -MTV.com /News
PA - Architecture - Religion - - - "Architect Offers Changes to 9/11 Memorial." ... "The architect of the memorial to a plane downed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, said Wednesday he would work to satisfy critics who complained that it honors terrorists with its crescent-shaped design." ... "Designer Paul Murdoch said he is ``somewhat optimistic'' that the spirit of the design could be maintained." ... "Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., sent a letter Tuesday to National Park Service Director Fran Mainella saying many have questioned the shape ``because of the crescent's prominent use as a symbol in Islam - and the fact that the hijackers were radical Islamists.'" -By Kimberly Hefling -AP via -Guardian.co.uk
20050914
Nepal - Police - "Nepal detains 200 after violent anti-king protests." ... "Pro-democracy activists in Nepal fought pitched battles with police in Kathmandu on Wednesday, battling teargas volleys with bricks, stones and slogans as protests mounted against King Gyanendra." ... "At least 200 protesters opposed to the king -- who sacked the government in February and seized absolute power -- were arrested while trying to enter the city centre where rallies are banned." ... ""Down with autocracy. We want democracy," the crowd shouted as baton-wielding policemen chased them into narrow lanes." -Reuters via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
Hurricane Katrina - Louisiana - New Orleans - Food - "Only until further notice: In New Orleans, a city defined by its culinary culture, restaurateurs vow to rebuild." ... "New Orleans has a cuisine, a rich, vibrant, fully evolved style of cooking from centuries in a pivotal location. There the melting pot actually lived up to the great American concept, blending African, West Indian, French, Spanish, Italian, Cajun and recently Vietnamese into one exuberant good-times roll." ... "Most of the chefs and restaurateurs reached by phone or e-mail say they have no real sense of what property damage awaits them. In the meantime, they're wrangling with insurance companies and hoping for the least devastating scenario." ... "The French Quarter, home to many landmark restaurants, was largely spared flooding and suffered only sporadic looting."" -By Regina Schrambling -LAtimes
CA - Gay - "Gay Issue Divides American Baptist Leaders." ... "American Baptist leaders of 300 local churches in Southern California and other Western states said today they intend break with their national denomination because of its failure to declare that homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian Scripture." ... "American Baptists are a smaller denomination than the better known Southern Baptists." -By Larry B. Stammer -LAtimes
20050912
CA - Los Angeles - "Los Angeles Power Restored After Line Overload Causes Blackout." ... "A power failure in Los Angeles, the second-largest U.S. city, darkened downtown and several nearby cities, trapping people in elevators, disrupting refineries and snarling traffic." ... "The blackout started around 12:35 p.m. local time, and almost all who lost power had it restored by 2 p.m., said Kim Hughes, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation's largest municipal utility." ... "Power was lost in an area with about 2 million people after a worker with the utility accidentally overloaded a transmission line, tripping circuit protectors, Hughes said. Overloading the line caused an automatic shutdown of other lines to prevent damage to equipment." -By Greg Chang with contributions by Sonja Franklin, Ian McKinnon, Bruce Blythe, Christopher Martin, Alex Armitage, Greg Baumann, Daniel Taub, Richard Schwartz and Jim Polson -Bloomberg
CA - Los Angeles - - "UPDATE 2-Major power outage hits Los Angeles." ... "A major power outage hit Los Angeles area on Monday, knocking out electricity to thousands of customers as officials scrambled to determine the cause and police declared a state of emergency." ... ""The city is on a tactical alert and obviously traffic is going to be impacted," Los Angeles Police spokesman Kevin Maiberger said." ... "Maiberger described a tactical alert as "what happens when the city goes into a state of emergency. Police officers will only be responding to calls where there is a threat to life."" -Reuters
Louisiana - New Orleans - Hurricane Katrina - "The Category 5 General: There's a Big Job to Be Done in New Orleans. Russel Honore Measures Up." ... "There's the swagger, and that ever-present stogie. There's the height and heft of his physique. And that barking voice with its font of perhaps impolitic obscenities ("That's b.s," he famously asserted on national TV), not to mention his penchant for not suffering fools, as is the prerogative of a three-star general." ... "As leader of the Joint Task Force Katrina, he now commands all active-duty troops from all military branches devoted to the storm recovery operation. As of Saturday, those troops numbered 20,800, and more are coming. (National Guard troops number 50,000, but they are not under Honore's command.)" ... "Among other positions, Honore served as commander of the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea, as vice director for operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as commander of the Standing Joint Force Headquarters for Homeland Security, part of the U.S. Northern Command. He saw action in Iraq and Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. He holds a master's degree in human resources management." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Lynne Duke-WashingtonPost
Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - - "FEMA's Brown Resigns in Wake of Hurricane Response (Update1)." ... "Michael Brown resigned as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency three days after being ousted from the Hurricane Katrina relief effort because of protests over his handling of the U.S.'s worst natural disaster." ... "Brown, 50, had come under fire from congressional lawmakers because of his lack of credentials and for what many described as a sluggish federal response to the hurricane." ... "Brown became a lightning rod for criticism partly because he had few qualifications for emergency management when he came to FEMA as deputy director in 2001. He became director in 2003. From 1991 to 2001 he was a commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association, according to a 2001 White House announcement." -By Michael Forsythe -Bloomberg
Telecommunications - - "EBay to pay up to $4 billion for Skype: Deal for Net-based phone firm to trim earnings into 2006." ... "EBay Inc., the top online auctioneer, said Monday that it agreed to pay up to $4.1 billion for Internet-phone upstart Skype Technologies SA, an expensive bet to enter a crowded market and improve communication for eBay users." ... "Under the terms of the deal, reports of which first surfaced last week, eBay initially will pay $2.6 billion -- half in cash and the rest in stock. The company could pay up to an additional $1.5 billion if Skype's business meets certain performance incentives." -By Jeffry Bartash & John Shinal -MarketWatch
20050911
New York - - "New York holds 9/11 observance." ... "America grieved the victims of September 11, 2001, as brothers and sisters of the dead gathered at Ground Zero on Sunday to recite the names of those killed in the fiery attack." ... "The roll of the lost began with Gordon M. Aamoth Jr., an investment bank employee. Then, one after another, the names began to echo across the site where the World Trade Center towers collapsed four years ago in a nightmarish cloud of dust and debris." ... "Three hundred twenty pairs of siblings were to read the names of the dead as hundreds of relatives, friends and colleagues watched in pained silence, some holding aloft portraits of their loved ones. Several in the audience broke down in tears." -AP via -CNN
20050910
New Orleans - Hurricane Katrina - Politics - - "Remembering September 11 attacks, Bush cites Katrina." ... "U.S. President George W. Bush vowed on Saturday Americans will overcome the ordeal presented by Hurricane Katrina as a weekend of September 11, 2001, remembrances was overshadowed by scenes of destruction in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast." ... "Bush has failed to recapture the spirit of national unity he championed in the weeks and months after the September 11 attacks, and widespread dissatisfaction with the federal government's slow response to the storm has helped send his poll numbers to all-time lows." (1, 2) -Reuters
Florida - Texas - Louisiana - Mississippi - Alabama - - - "Red Cross Paying Hotel Bills for Thousands." ... "In a massive, costly and little-noticed effort to calm a housing catastrophe that reaches from Florida to Texas, the American Red Cross has quietly created a program that it says is now picking up hotel bills for at least 57,000 people who fled Hurricane Katrina. Room charges are being paid out of the $503 million that the Red Cross has collected so far for hurricane relief." ... "The program began early this week, when several thousand hotels and motels in and around the Gulf Coast area were notified by the Red Cross that registered guests who can show that they lived in 256 storm-affected Zip codes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be eligible to have their unpaid room charges covered by the Red Cross." (1, 2) -By Blaine Harden-WashingtonPost
RedCross.org
- - - Hurricane Katrina - Alabama - Mississippi - Louisiana - "National Guard Stretched Thin." ... "About 41,000 Guard members are scattered across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, along with 17,000 active-duty troops. About 30,000 Guard members are serving in Iraq, with smaller numbers in Afghanistan, Kosovo and elsewhere overseas." ... "The head of the National Guard Bureau said Friday the assignment of thousands of Guard troops from Mississippi and Louisiana to Iraq delayed those states' initial hurricane response by about a day." ... ""Had that brigade been at home and not in Iraq, their expertise and capabilities could have been brought to bear," said Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, the bureau's chief." ... "The Pentagon has said the response was swift and another 319,000 Army National Guard and Air National Guard personnel are available if needed." -AP via -CBSNews
20050908
Hurricane Katrina - Louisiana - New Orleans - - - - "Some follow, others hide from evacuation order: New Orleans still dealing with holdouts; state has 25,000 body bags ready." ... "[New Orleans, Louisiana] Police Chief Eddie Compass told NBC's "Today" show that police would forcibly remove holdouts once the "thousands" still seeking to evacuate voluntarily have done so." ... "A New Orleans water sample taken by "Today" show producers and tested by Rice University found E. coli levels a million times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency allows for recreational waters. That's as much E. coli as one would find in raw sewage." (1, 2) -MSNBC
Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - - - "Poll: Katrina sparks shift in American priorities: Majority says Bush's focus should be on domestic issues." ... "Hurricane Katrina has made Americans heartsick. They're depressed about the images of destruction and despair they see from the storm zone and they increasingly want President Bush to shift his attention toward home, a poll released Thursday found." ... "More than half of Americans now say it is more important for the president to focus on domestic policy - the first time since Sept. 11, 2001 that domestic matters have been viewed as a higher priority than the war on terrorism in polling by the Pew Research Center." ... "Two-thirds said the president could have done more to get relief efforts going quickly, according to the survey." -AP via -MSNBC
20050907
GOV - Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - Photos - Free Speech - Media - - "Media groups say FEMA censors search for bodies." ... "When U.S. [FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency] officials asked the media not to take pictures of those killed by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, they were censoring a key part of the disaster story, free speech watchdogs said on Wednesday." ... ""It's impossible for me to imagine how you report a story whose subject is death without allowing the public to see images of the subject of the story," said Larry Siems of the PEN American Center, an authors' group that defends free expression." ... ""This is about managing images and not public taste or human dignity," [Columbia University's journalism school's Project for Excellence in Journalism director Tom] Rosenstiel said." (1, 2) -By Deborah Zabarenko -Reuters
TX - New Orleans - - - "Water pollution a concern in New Orleans." ... "The reports underscore advice issued by federal health officials Tuesday: Rescue workers and anyone left in hurricane-ravaged areas should try to limit direct skin contact with flood waters; seek immediate medical attention if they have cuts or other wounds exposed to the dirty water; and wash their hands frequently." ... "Officials in Houston's Astrodome handed out alcohol-based hand sanitizers Tuesday to help prevent spread of norovirus, an easily spread cause of diarrhea and vomiting. Officials isolated some refugees with the illness, made infamous by recent cruise-ship outbreaks, although they couldn't provide an exact count. There is no treatment except to keep sufferers hydrated; it normally lasts a few days." -By Lauran Neergaard -MercuryNews
Hurricane Katrina - TX - - "Victims facing risks to health." ... "Public health officials are struggling to ensure care for the thousands of evacuees who are chronically ill. [Secretary of the Health and Human Services department Mike] Leavitt has declared a public health emergency in Texas, which is housing 250,000 evacuees. ''The biggest challenge of all this is going to be maintaining the chronic-care services to the people who had them before the hurricane hit,'' he said." -By Jacob Goldstein-Miami/Herald
Hurricane Katrina - Louisiana - New Orleans - - - "Flood waters found contaminated: CDC: Evacuees, rescue workers should take precautions." ... "Federal health and environment officials renewed the call to avoid ingesting or being in New Orleans [Louisiana] flood waters Wednesday after preliminary tests confirmed they contain hazardous levels of bacteria and lead." ... "The amounts exceed 10 times the safe levels, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said during a conference call with reporters." ... ""Human contact with the flood water should be avoided as much as possible," he said. "Our initial samplings indicate counts for E. coli and coliform in these areas greatly exceed EPA's recommended level for contact."" ... "It may sound obvious, he said, but "no one should drink the flood water, especially children."" -By Kristen Gerencher -MarketWatch
- - - - - Hurricane Katrina -Disaster - "Offers of Aid Immediate, but U.S. Acceptance Delayed for Days." ... "Offers of foreign aid worth tens of millions of dollars -- including a Swedish water purification system, a German cellular telephone network and two Canadian rescue ships -- have been delayed for days awaiting review by backlogged federal agencies, according to European diplomats and information collected by the State Department." ... "Since Hurricane Katrina, more than 90 countries and international organizations offered to assist in recovery efforts for the flood-stricken region, but nearly all endeavors remained mired yesterday in bureaucratic entanglements, in most cases, at the Federal Emergency Management Agency." -By Elizabeth Williamson-WashingtonPost
20050906
Hurricane Katrina -Louisiana - - - - "Thousands assess damage; 10,000 urged to leave city: Search for survivors, bodies continues; toll still unknown." ... "As thousands streamed back into the city's suburbs to assess the damage to their homes, authorities pleaded with the estimated 10,000 remaining in flooded areas of New Orleans [Louisiana] to get out of a city that was, in the words of the deputy police chief, destroyed by ''the greatest catastrophe on American soil."" ... "As police in boats conducted a building-to-building search for survivors and bodies, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said he thought the death toll could rise as high as 10,000. [Louisiana] Governor Kathleen Blanco said ''several thousand" could be dead. But with the official body count at 71, authorities said it would be weeks before an accurate death toll could be established." -By Kevin Cullen and Keith O'Brien -Boston/Globe
Hurricane Katrina - New Orleans - Louisiana - Animals - Pets - TX - - "Pets Homeless, Too, After Katrina." ... "Tales of survival coming out of New Orleans include the rescue of dogs, cats and other family pets that had to be abandoned by families fleeing the rising water." ... "Evacuees transported from Louisiana to Texas were not allowed to take their pets with them. Some were forced to leave their pets on the side of the road while they boarded buses. Others were lucky enough to hide small pets in their shirts, pants and bags." ... "Nearly 400 animals arrived this way. Once passengers arrived at the Astrodome, however, they were not allowed inside with pets. The Houston SPCA sent volunteers to meet the buses and take the pets back to its shelter until the owners could care for them again." -CBSNews
Hurricane Katrina - New Orleans - Louisiana - Animals - Pets - -TX - - "Sad story of boy and his dog grips nation." ... "Among the thousands of crushing moments from last week's deadly hurricane, one image brought the anguish home to many: a tearful little boy torn from his dog while being shuttled to safety." ... "It tugged at the heartstrings, prompting an outpouring from around the country of people on the hunt for both the boy and his dog Snowball in hopes of a reunion." ... "The boy was among the thousands sheltered at the [New Orleans, Louisiana] Superdome after the hurricane. But when he went to board a bus to be evacuated to Houston [Texas], a police officer took the dog away. The boy cried out -- "Snowball! Snowball!" -- then vomited in distress. The confrontation was first reported by The Associated Press. Authorities say they don't know where the boy or his family ended up." ... "Many of the animals -- dogs, cats, ferrets and birds -- that police collected at the Superdome were herded into a stairwell until the human evacuation was complete. Of the 50 animals rescued from the Superdome on Sunday, not all of them survived." -By Matt Sedensky with contributions by Paul J. Weber and Brian Skoloff -AP via -Boston/Globe
Hurricane Katrina - Disaster- - Louisiana - TX - - - "4,000 evacuees in Houston to be relocated to cruise ships." ... "The transfer of about 4,000 Katrina evacuees from Houston [Texas] to cruise ships in Galveston is expected to begin later today, officials announced late Monday." ... "Under criteria set by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, evacuees age 60 and over will have the top priority for the transfer to the ships, said Tom Costello of the Federal Emergency Management Agency." ... "Next in line are single guardians with children ages 4 and younger, followed by single guardians of children ages 8 and younger, and ages 12 and younger." ... "The ships will not sail but will remain docked in Galveston, officials said." -By Carol Christian -HoustonChronicle.com
20050905
Hurricane Katrina - Louisiana - Disasters - - "Gulf Coast Grimly Counts Its Losses: Officials fear thousands killed by Katrina. Surviviors: Rescuers in boats search reeking city [New Orleans, Louisiana]." ... "James Christesson, the boat captain, has been steering it through waters laced with raw sewage and spilled fuel. Bottles, garbage cans, sunken cars and wooden chairs have scraped against the boat's flat bottom. The city smells foul. The reek of low tide clashes with the stench of decomposing flesh." ... "The thousands of refugees who filled the Convention Center and the Superdome are gone. The only people left in the city are those who chose to stay, those who have been unable to get out of their homes and those who died trying. Thousands may be dead." -By Anna Badkhen with contributions by Michael Macor -SFGate.com
Hurricane Katrina - Louisiana - New Orleans - - Animals - Pets - - "Pet rescue in New Orleans is gathering steam." ... "With progress made in evacuating people from New Orleans [Louisiana], some are turning their attention to other living creatures affected by the flooding -- pets." ... "People left thousands of dogs, cats and other family pets behind in the rush to escape either Hurricane Katrina or the flooding that followed." ... "Many of those animals sit forlornly on the rooftops of flooded homes, slowly starving to death as rescue boats ignore them, looking for people instead. Some have even tried swimming to boats, only to be rebuffed by the rescuers." ... "One fear is that after seven days in the hot sun, with no food and drinking nothing but polluted water, the dogs might be dangerous." ... "On dry land, stray dogs have formed packs to scavenge the city for food." -With contributions by Jed Kahane and Paul Bliss -CTV.ca
Hurricane Katrina