Maravot world news

01.10.06 Thousands of chickens die at Cumuto, Trinidad farms

January 10 – Thousands of chickens have died at farms in Cumuto and farmers have issued a call for the Agriculture and Health Ministries to intervene and conduct an investigation, TV6 reported last night. According to the report, thousands of birds were dying at the farms and no one could give a reason for the mysterious deaths. Over 2,000 birds have died so far and the farmers are seeking help and are insisting that the authorities take action. TV6 reported that the chicken deaths began even before Christmas, with 161 chickens dying in one day. Some businesses are afraid to go public with the issue for fear of putting their business in jeopardy, TV6 said. So far, the sickly chickens or any chicks showing signs of illness have been isolated from the other birds and placed in separate cages. However, the deaths are still occurring and the farmers have called for the entire area be checked out for fear of the bird flu virus.

Agriculture Minister Jarrette Narine could not be reached for comment and Health Minister John Rahael said the death of the chickens may not necessarily be the bird flu virus. Rahael said he was not able to comment further and assured that an investigation will be launched. [trinidadexpress.com via aljazeera.net, "Mass chicken deaths hit Trinidad."]

01.10.06 North Korea's Kim on way to Russia via China – source

SEOUL / BEIJING (Reuters) January 10 – North Korean leader Kim Jong-il passed through China on Tuesday on the way to Russia, a source with knowledge of the stopover said. South Korean and Japanese media said Kim was making a secret visit to China. "He passed through China. He left today for Russia," the source, who requested anonymity, told Reuters. "He did not meet any (Chinese) leaders," the source said, adding that Kim may stop over in China on his way home. The source declined to provide further details. There was unusually heavy security near the train station in the Chinese border city of Dandong and talk of a special train from North Korea passing through before dawn on Tuesday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, quoting a source in the city. Japan's Kyodo news agency had a similar report quoting diplomatic sources in Beijing.

Asked if Kim was in China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said he had not been authorized to release specific information. "But I want to point out that China and North Korea are friendly neighbors and maintain a tradition of exchanges of high-level visits," he told a regular news conference. Asked if there were plans for such a visit, he said: "Yes." South Korea's presidential Blue House also could not confirm the trip, which would come as regional powers, including China and Russia, seek to nudge the North back into talks on its nuclear ambitions. [More>>thestar.com.my]

01.10.06 Diskin: More weapons smuggled into Gaza Strip since pullout

January 10 – The amount of weapons and explosives smuggled into the Gaza Strip has significantly increased since the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin said during a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting Tuesday. Diskin said that every month some 2,000 rifles are smuggled into the Gaza Strip, four times the amount smuggled prior to the Gaza pullout. [More>>haaretzdaily.com]

01.10.06 Twenty suspects held 'for recruiting Iraq bombers'

BARCELONA, January 10 – Police have arrested 20 suspected Islamic extremists accused of recruiting mujahadin fighters for the Iraqi insurgency. The arrests took place in Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque Country. Among those detained was one imam from a mosque in Vilanova i la Geltru in Catalonia. The suspects are accused of indoctrinating people to send them to become suicide bombers in Iraq. Guardia Civil officers detained members of a group in Barcelona, who are believed to have sent a suicide bomber who attacked an Italian army base in southern Iraq on 12 November 2003, killing 19 soldiers. It is the second operation against groups who recruit fighters or muyahadin to fight in Iraq. [More>>expatica.com via khaleejtimes.com ; See also related story (AFP), khaleejtimes.com, "Seven Pakistani soldiers, 14 militants killed in clash" : MIRANSHAH, Pakistan - Militants clashed with Pakistani forces in a troubled tribal zone bordering Afghanistan early on Tuesday, leaving seven paramilitary troops and 14 suspected insurgents dead, officials said. The fire fight was one of the biggest for months in the rugged area, where soldiers are trying to flush out Al Qaeda and Taleban fighters who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion in late 2001...]

01.10.06 China beats India in oil deal, again

NEW DELHI, January 10 – In a major blow to India's effort to secure its energy needs through transnational pipelines, Myanmar has refused to supply natural gas to New Delhi and instead preferred doing business with China. After beating Indian firms in overseas oil field acquisitions on three occasions in the last five months, Hong Kong-listed PetroChina has inked an agreement to purchase gas from A1 block in Bay of Bengal. "Ajay Tyagi, joint secretary (gas), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had to cut short his trip and return back after Myanmarese authorities said they had tied-up gas sales with China," an industry official said. India has been pursuing gas imports from Iran, Myanmar and Turkmenistan via transnational gas pipelines to meet the growing energy needs as domestic production barely meets half of its requirement. [More>>expressindia.com]

01.10.06 Cost of Iraq War could top $2 trillion

January 10 – The cost of the Iraq war could top $2 trillion, far above the White House's pre-war projections, when long-term costs such as lifetime health care for thousands of wounded U.S. soldiers are included, a study said on Monday. Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes included in their study disability payments for the 16,000 wounded US soldiers, about 20 percent of whom suffer serious brain or spinal injuries. They said US taxpayers will be burdened with costs that linger long after US troops withdraw.

"Even taking a conservative approach, we have been surprised at how large they are," said the study, referring to total war costs. "We can state, with some degree of confidence, that they exceed a trillion dollars."

Before the invasion, then-White House budget director Mitch Daniels predicted Iraq would be "an affordable endeavor" and rejected an estimate by then-White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey of total Iraq war costs at $100 billion to $200 billion as "very, very high."

Unforeseen costs include recruiting to replenish a military drained by multiple tours of duty, slower long-term US economic growth and health-care bills for treating long-term mental illness suffered by war veterans. They said about 30 percent of U.S. troops had developed mental-health problems within three to four months of returning from Iraq as of July 2005, citing Army statistics.

Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 and has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, and Bilmes based their projections partly on past wars and included the economic cost of higher oil prices, a bigger U.S. budget deficit and greater global insecurity caused by the Iraq war. [More>>chinabroadcast.cn ; See related story, khaleejtimes.com (Reuters) "Bush sees more tough fighting in Iraq in 2006." : WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush, facing a mounting US death toll in Iraq, predicted on Tuesday more tough fighting in 2006 but said there would be �more progress toward victory.� Bush, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said progress would come in Iraq�s political process, reconstruction and the battle against insurgents during the year. �We will see more tough fighting and we will see more sacrifice in 2006 because the enemies of freedom continue to sow violence and destruction. We�ll also see more progress toward victory,� Bush said...]

01.09.06 Bush family loyalty to US interests – a historical perspective

January 9 – The Grumpy Old Man has been maintaining a link that I had reviewed earlier but now seems more important. According to the Guardian 2004, G.W. Bush's grandfather's, Senator Prescott Bush's, "company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act and more than 60 years later led to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz." If we conclude "like father like son," and we have many reasons to make the conclusion, it is likely that the Bush family will be the recipients of legal claims for generations to come. That the people of the United States have allowed such a family to gain power with the history of extorting the constitution and people of the United States is interesting. To read "How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power," go to informationclearinghouse.info

Religion and Democracy have similar values that relate here: God – for those who believe in God – is capable of all things except to lie. Likewise, Democracies are dependent upon their leaders telling the people what they have the right to know, to tell them the truth (Cicero, The Offices). The American people need to come to Truth, as it were, with a family that has a record of lying to the American people and compromising them, to get rid of these petty thieves, like slight-of-hand artists on the street lifting cups of betrayal.

Mel Copeland

01.09.06 American sacrifices in Iraq for America – the cities that offered them

January 9 – Although I have maintained a link to this site for some time, I confess I rarely click on it. The reason is that I already get the list of names who have sacrificed their lives to support George W. Bush's War in Iraq. I get the list regularly from the News Hour on PBS. I know the totals from constant reminders from many news media. And I have known the demographics of the situation in the US from the source, but sometimes we need to be reminded as to what the trend really is. The trend really is this: If you or your kids live in the Pacific Northwest, San Francisco Bay area, San Diego area, Northeast, Great Lakes region, parts of Texas, Florida, and Georgia you live in the areas that make "Bush's Supreme Sacrifice" before others in the US.

There seems to be something wrong with the map showing the distribution of American families grieving over the sacrifice of their children on behalf of Iraqi miscalculations and fundamental, impeachable lies – lies that make all previous American scandals look like a children's tea-party. I suppose the people from all the other states are luckier, or less patriotic, depending upon your view of the situation. We know that there is something wrong about the war and this map indicates that there is something fundamentally wrong in the way it has been resourced. Click on the image for the link to a larger view and explanation of the data at http://icasualties.org.

Mel Copeland

01.09.06 Bulgaria braces for bird flu outbreak

Sofia (Reuters) January 9 – Bulgaria is bracing for a spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu following a rash of cases in neighbouring countries, its agriculture minister said on Monday. "The possibility of this is high," Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil told private television BTV. "We are ready to identify, isolate and destroy bird flu centres if it emerges." The virus has killed birds in dozens of villages in Bulgaria's northern neighbour Romania, while to the south Turkey has reported its first human cases.

Kabil said that of 31 cases in Romania, the latest two were from an area close to the northeast Bulgarian town of Silistra. Scientists believe wild birds carried the virus south from Siberia to Romania's Danube delta and Turkey. Kabil said veterinary services were on high alert following the flight of 5,000-6,000 white-headed geese from the Danube delta to two large Bulgarian lakes near the Romanian border. "Their number will eventually grow to 250,000. An eventual bird flu outbreak may happen around these areas," he told journalists following a meeting of a bird flu crisis panel. [More>>thestar.com.my] ; See also standartnews.com, "Bird flu threat is nearing Bulgaria." : ..."Bulgaria is seized by panic. The situation becomes really complicated," said Jeko Baychev, head of the National Vet Service. There are 36 centers of infection in Romania. Twenty-one cases were discovered there only during the weekend. "We are prepared to coordinate efforts to prevent the bird flu outbreak in Bulgaria," Baychev added. Rousse, Silistra, Dobrich and Bourgas are the most threatened places in the country. Serious measures are taken in Shoumen and Razgrad.

"The state is ready to compensate the owners if their birds have to be destroyed," Minister Nihat Kabil said. The deadly disease could spoil the Bayram of more than 720,000 Muslims in our country. "The fear of infection will influence the travels of our fellow-countrymen to Turkey, as well as the trips of their relatives who would like to spend the holidays in Bulgaria," Kabil explained.
The Bayram starts today. By tradition a sacrificial ram will be slaughtered in every Muslim house. "The tradition doesn't envisage poultry meat consumption. Despite this fact the vet authorities will strictly observe the markets to prevent the selling of poultry meat produced in home conditions," Kabil specified. The border control will be tightened and this will cause serious inconvenience to the travelers," the minister warned...]

01.09.06 Doctors: Slight movement in Sharon's right hand, leg in response to stimuli

January 9 – Senior physicians treating Ariel Sharon at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, said Monday evening that the prime minister had responded to pain stimulus, and had shown slight movement in his right arm and right leg. The hospital had begun to reduce Sharon's sedation on Monday morning, after which the prime minister had begun to breath on his own. Hadassah Hospital director Shlomo Mor-Yosef said that Sharon's blood pressure rose during stimulation – a positive sign – and he moved his hand, "a small movement, but significant," he said. He also moved his leg. He warned, however, that Sharon was still in "critical" condition.

"This was a clear reaction to pain, not a reflex," said Dr. Felix Umansky, the head of the team that has operated on Sharon three times since his massive stroke Wednesday in a bid to stem the bleeding in his brain.

"This sign [the limb movement] together with slight elevation of his blood pressure as a reaction to the pain are signs of some activity of his brain." Umansky said that the prime minister had not yet opened his eyes. [More>>haaretz.com ; See more details Jerusalem Post ]

01.09.06 Suicide bombers kill 14 at Iraqi ministry

BAGHDAD (Reuters) January 9 – Two suicide bombers dressed as senior police officers blew themselves up inside the Interior Ministry compound in Baghdad on Monday, killing 14 people and wounding 22 as Iraq marked National Police Day. Police said one bomber had been wearing the uniform of a major while the second was dressed as a lieutenant-colonel. Both had difficult-to-obtain security passes which enabled them to enter separately through the main checkpoint.

As one of the bombers walked away from the checkpoint, Interior Ministry guards became suspicious because he appeared to be "too fat," police told Reuters. They opened fire, shooting him in the back and hitting the bulky explosives belt he was wearing beneath his uniform, causing him to explode. As the guards gathered around the blast site, the second bomber, who had not yet apparently aroused suspicion, detonated his explosives, blowing up policemen and ministry civilian staff. [More>>thestar.com.my]

01.09.06 Senior Iraqi official says Cabinet talking directly with militant groups

January 9 – The Iraqi government is talking directly to all militant groups who are willing to communicate but no commitments have been made to any of them, a senior Iraqi official said Sunday. President Jalal Talabani has instructed aides to "listen and talk to anyone who wants to approach us," said Wafiq al-Samarei, Talabani's adviser for security affairs. "Yes, many groups are communicating with us. We are listening to them and providing them with advice with open arms and transparency," he said.

Samarei spoke to reporters after a meeting between Talabani and Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front. In a bid to dampen the persistence violence and help to draw Sunni Arabs, who make up the core of the insurgency, into the political process, U.S. and Iraqi officials for months have been communicating directly or through channels with members of the disaffected minority connected to the insurgency. [More>>dailystar.com.lb]

01.09.06 EU to probe new allegations on CIA "prisons"

BRUSSELS (DPA) January 9 – The row over allegations of CIA-run prisons in Europe continued on Monday, with the European Commission saying new information on such suspected camps in Romania would be part of a Council of Europe fact-finding mission. The Commission�s comments came as the Swiss government announced an internal investigation into the publication of secret service documents relating to alleged covert CIA prisons in Europe. The announcement by the Swiss Defence Ministry followed the publication by-weekly Swiss magazine SonntagsBlick of a fax supposedly from Egypt�s foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit to his country�s embassy in London. The fax appeared to confirm the existence of CIA jails on EU territory. [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

01.09.06 China confirms eighth bird flu case

(Xinhua) January 10 – China has confirmed its eighth human case of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the official Xinhua news agency said overnight. The six-year-old boy from central Hunan province was being treated in hospital, Xinhua cited the health ministry as saying. The boy surnamed Ouyang, in Guiyang County of central China's Hunan Province, showed symptoms on Dec. 24. [theaustralian.news.com.au and chinabroadcast.cn ; See related story, thejakartapost.com, "Indonesian man dies of bird flu, local test results show."]

01.09.06 Update, Bird flu crisis grows as Turkey reports five new human cases

ANKARA (AFP) January 9 – Turkey announced five more human cases of bird flu countrywide, bringing to 14 the number of people stricken by the lethal H5N1 virus and raising fresh alarms over its menacing westward advance. Some 100 people were awaiting test results, including 10 from Istanbul, the country's business and tourism hub on the doorstep of Europe, where the presence of the disease among birds has already been confirmed, officials said.

Turkish laboratories identified four of the new cases as children from three northern provinces, confirming that the virus is steadily advancing from remote, rural eastern areas to the more urbanized west, with three H5N1 carriers already hospitalized in the capital Ankara. The European Union sought to bolster its defences, announcing new import bans on six countries surrounding Turkey and confirming that EU experts were accompanying a World Health Organization (WHO) team currently assessing the situation in the worst-hit areas in the east. [More>>turkishpress.com]

01.07.06 Fourth human case of bird flu, fresh outbreaks in Turkey

DOGUBEYAZIT, Turkey, January 7 – Turkey reported Saturday a fourth human case of bird flu and new outbreaks among birds in the east, but ruled out the possibility of much-feared human-to-human transmission.

With the disease now at Europe's doorstep, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in Turkey but bad weather forced them to delay a trip to the infected areas...Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker, meanwhile, announced that bird flu had been detected in two more regions in the east, where 14,000 birds had already been slaughtered.

Samples from wild pigeons in the provinces of Erzincan and Bitlis tested positive for the disease, Eker said, without specifying whether it was the H5N1 strain. Flu cases among birds have been detected in three other areas in eastern Turkey, as well as a town in the southeast and in a region close to the capital Ankara, in the west. [Full story>>turkishpress.com ; See Update, turkishpress.com, "More human cases of bird flu in Turkey as virus moves closer to Europe." and timesonline.co.uk, "Turkish deaths put Europe on bird flu alert." : ...The more the virus comes into contact with humans, the more likely it is to mutate into a form that can be transmitted between people. This has not yet happened; if it does it could start a global pandemic. The H5N1 strain has killed half of all the people who have contracted it. The Spanish flu of 1918, which killed 40m people, was fatal in fewer than one in 10 cases...]

01.09.06 Hubble reveals North Star companion

WASHINGTON, January 10 – Astronomers using the Hubble space telescope have revealed something just as constant as the North Star: a hidden companion. Polaris, as the bright star and navigational aid is formally called, now has two known stellar companions. The first, Polaris B, has been known since 1780 and can easily be seen with even a smaller telescope; the second, Polaris Ab, had long eluded direct detection given its proximity to Polaris and its relative faintness.

The North Star is a super-giant more than 2000 times brighter than our sun, while its newly photographed second companion is a dwarf star just 3.2 billion kilometres from it, astronomers said. They presented the results at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

"With Hubble, we've pulled the North Star's companion out of the shadows and into the spotlight," said Howard Bond, of the Space Telescope Science Institute. The Baltimore institute conducts science operations for the orbiting Hubble. [theaustralian.news.com.au]

01.09.06 Won rises to 8-year high against dollar

January 9 – The Korean won yesterday extended its rally by hitting an eight-year high against the greenback on anticipation that a bearish U.S. dollar would will be around for the forseeable future. Although the pace of the won's gains may slow down, the Korean currency's bullish trend does not seem to have passed its peak, analysts say.

"There seems to be almost nothing you can do to buck the trend ... The key is to slow down the pace of the appreciation which would give local exporters some time to adapt to the change," said Chung Young-sik, a chief researcher at Samsung Economic Research Institute. [More>>koreaherald.co.kr]

01.09.06 Chinese oil company gets large stake in oil mining in Nigeria

January 9 – China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the country's largest offshore oil company, announced Monday it had signed a big deal to explore petroleum in Nigeria. The agreement was signed between China National Offshore Oil Company Limited, a subsidiary of the CNOOC, and South Atlantic Petroleum Limited. Offering 2.268 billion U.S. dollars, the Chinese company acquired 45 percent of the stake for oil mining license "OML 130" in Nigeria. [chinabroadcast.cn ; See also crisscross.com.jp, "Japan, China make no progress on talks over strained ties, gas dispute."]

01.08.06 New Delhi records lowest temperature in 70 years, 9 more killed in northern Indian cold spell

NEW DELHI (AP) January 8 – Millions of people in the Indian capital woke up Sunday to the coldest weather in 70 years, as the death toll from northern India�s cold spell rose to 116, a police spokesman and the Meteorology Department said. The toll included nine people who froze to death overnight in Uttar Pradesh state, Mahendra Verma, a spokesman for the state police, said in Lucknow, the state capital. Most of the state�s 101 victims have been poor people forced to sleep outside in parks or in places such as railway stations, protecting themselves with plastic sheets and jute bags, Verma said.

Another 15 people have died of cold in northern Punjab and Haryana states since November, Press Trust of India said, bringing India�s death toll from this year�s cold snap to 116. The temperature dipped to 0.2 degrees Celsius (32.4 Fahrenheit) early Sunday in New Delhi, the lowest recorded in the past 70 years and seven degrees Celsius (12.6 degrees Fahrenheit) below normal, the Meteorology Department said in a statement. [More>>khaleejtimes.com ; See related "record cold" story, jang.com.pk, "Death toll from record Japan snowfall rises to 63," and crisscross.com/jp, "Death toll from heavy snow since early December now 67."]

01.08.06 Get out of MySpace, bloggers rage at Murdoch

NEW YORK, January 8 – Angry members of MySpace, the personal file-sharing website for young adults, are accusing Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation of censoring their postings and blocking their access to rival sites. The 38 million subscribers to MySpace, which News Corp. bought for $629m (£355m) last July, discovered that when they wrote to each other about rival video-swapping site YouTube, the words were automatically deleted, and attempts to download video images from YouTube led to blank screens. The intervention by News Corp. in the traditionally open-access world of the web – in particular the alteration of personal user profiles – provoked a storm of angry posts in online "blogs."

"This is soooo like Fox and News Corp to try and secretly seal our mouths with duct tape," wrote "Alex" to Blog Herald. [More>>independent.co.uk]

01.08.06 Two more embassies close in Jordan

January 8 – Two more Western embassies in Jordan have closed for security reasons, a day after Britain took a similar move. The Canadian and Australian embassies announced their premises in the Jordanian capital, Amman, would remain closed from Sunday until further notice. The move comes two months after bomb attacks claimed by al-Qaida against three luxury hotels in Amman that killed 60 people plus three bombers and wounded about 100 more. Australia warned travellers in a statement of the threat of new attacks on Western targets in the kingdom, a key US ally regarded as one of the most stable countries in the volatile Middle East region. "Reports suggest terrorists may be in the final stages of planning attacks against Westerners and places frequented by Westerners in Jordan," the embassy said. [More>>aljazeera.net]

01.08.06 Iraq replaces Afghanistan as center of global terrorism: analyst

(AFP) January 8 – Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the nerve centre of global terrorism by militant groups whose ability to regenerate, despite setbacks, means that suicide bombings and other mass-casualty attacks remain a serious danger in 2006, analysts say. Three major developments are likely to define the security landscape this year, Singapore-based terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna told a forum organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) last week.

"The first is that Al-Qaeda has morphed or transformed from a small group into a terrorist movement," he told diplomats, academics, officials and business executives. "So today the threat is not so much from one single organisation called Al-Qaeda but from the global jihad movement."

..."The second most significant development we have seen is that the centre of gravity of international terrorism has shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq," he said. "Iraq is the new land of jihad. "Like we saw the last generation of jihadists coming from Afghanistan, we will see the next generation of jihadists will come from Iraq." Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was moving to establish a global terrorist network from Iraq similar to the way Osama bin Laden had done from Afghanistan, Gunaratna said.

The third significant development was the deepening cooperation among various militant groups worldwide, Gunaratna said. In South-East Asia, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) remained a long-term threat, said Jakarta-based terrorism analyst Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia project director of the think-tank the International Crisis Group. JI had split into two – the mainstream JI with an estimated membership of about 1,000, and a radical faction called the JI Thoifah Muqotilah with 30 to 50 members bent on carrying out suicide attacks – Jones told the ISEAS forum... [Full story>>asianewsnet.net]

01.08.06 Blackhawk crash in Iraq kills all 12 aboard

BAGHDAD, January 8 – An American UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter went down in northern Iraq late Saturday, killing all 12 aboard, and 5 marines were killed in fighting with insurgents throughout central Iraq over the weekend, the military reported today. The helicopter, carrying eight passengers and four crew members, went down in a sparsely populated region about seven miles east of Tal Afar just before midnight, the military said.

Officials said the dead were probably all Americans, but they did not say whether any were civilians. "All I can say at this time is that they are all believed to be U.S. citizens," a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said. Colonel Johnson said he could not yet say what brought the aircraft down. [More>>nytimes.com]

01.08.06 Iran to remove UN seals at atomic research sites

TEHRAN (Reuters) January 8 – Iran said on Sunday it was preparing to remove U.N. seals at some nuclear research and development sites, despite strong Western opposition to its decision to resume atomic research halted over two years ago. It would be the second time in five months that Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, removed some seals put in place by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). European Union and US officials have said the move, which follows Iran's resumption of uranium processing at its Isfahan plant in August, will jeopardize efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Iran's atomic ambitions and could accelerate calls for its case to be sent to the UN Security Council. "We will remove the seals and we have announced that we are ready to start research from tomorrow," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference. [More>>iranfocus.com ; See also haaretzdaily.com story.]

01.07.06 Report rebuts Bush on Spying

January 7 – A report by Congress's research arm concluded yesterday that the administration's justification for the warrantless eavesdropping authorized by President Bush conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal arguments.

The Congressional Research Service's report rebuts the central assertions made recently by Bush and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales about the president's authority to order secret intercepts of telephone and e-mail exchanges between people inside the United States and their contacts abroad. The findings, the first nonpartisan assessment of the program's legality to date, prompted Democratic lawmakers and civil liberties advocates to repeat calls yesterday for Congress to conduct hearings on the monitoring program and attempt to halt it.

The 44-page report said that Bush probably cannot claim the broad presidential powers he has relied upon as authority to order the secret monitoring of calls made by U.S. citizens since the fall of 2001. [More>>washingtonpost.com ; See also nytimes.com, "Basis for spying in US is doubted."]

01.07.06 UN suspends Pakistan aid flights

January 7 – The UN has stopped aid flights to some earthquake survivors in Pakistan administered Kashmir after dozens of people stormed two of its helicopters. The people had been demanding evacuation to nearby cities. Deputy humanitarian coordinator Larry Hollingworth told the BBC that flights into the Lipa Valley area would be suspended to ensure the crews' safety. He said it was unfortunate that the actions of a minority would deprive the majority of food.

The UN said the survivors had been stranded in mountains and called the incidents extremely disturbing. There were two incidents, involving more than 50 people. The survivors fled on arriving at Muzaffarabad and Abbottabad. No-one was arrested. The 8 October quake killed more than 73,000 people and displaced millions. [More>>bbc.co.uk]

01.07.06 Iraqi Shiites rally in anger at recent killing spree

January 7 – Thousands of angry Shiites rallied Friday in Baghdad's Sadr City slum against a spree of attacks that killed almost 200 people and to protest what they claim was American backing for Sunni Arabs politicians who have supported insurgent groups. But senior Shiite religious and political leaders urged restraint, telling followers to place their faith in the next government, slowly emerging from the December 15 election and set to be dominated by Shiite Islamists.

The demonstrators chanted slogans against U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and moderate Sunni Arab leaders such as Adnan al-Dulaimi, but reserved most of their ire for hard-liners such as Saleh al-Mutlaq, head of the Sunni Arab National Dialogue Front - who have complained of widespread fraud during the December 15 elections. [More>>dailystar.com.lb]

01.07.06 US woman journalist kidnapped

BAGHDAD, January 7 – A US woman journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad today and her translator killed, Iraqi security sources said, in the latest hostage crisis involving Westerners in the war-torn country. "A Western journalist was abducted by armed men in the Adl district of western Baghdad and her translator found dead," one source said. An Iraqi defence ministry official said the interpreter was able to tell soldiers before he died that a US journalist had been kidnapped. [More>>theaustralian.news.com.au]

01.07.06 Egypt's Brotherhood says Zawahiri video charges play into US hands

CAIRO (AFP) January 7 – Egypt�s Muslim Brotherhood responded on Saturday to Al Qaeda�s accusations of complicity with Washington by charging that the violence advocated by Osama bin Laden�s network was counterproductive. In a video broadcast by the Al Jazeera network on Friday, Al Qaeda number two Ayman Al Zawahiri lambasted the Muslim Brothers for taking part in Egypt�s parliamentary elections last year. Zawahiri said Egypt�s largest opposition movement – which controls a fifth of parliament since its resounding electoral success last month – had betrayed Islam to make a political deal with the US administration. [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

01.07.06 Germany's Merkel says Guantanamo should be shut

BERLIN (Reuters) January 7 – German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in an interview published days before her first visit to the United States, said Washington should close its Guantanamo Bay prison camp and find other ways of dealing with terror suspects.

"An institution like Guantanamo can and should not exist in the longer term," Merkel said in an interview with the weekly magazine Der Spiegel published on Saturday. "Different ways and means must be found for dealing with these prisoners." Merkel has vowed to repair ties with the United States, severely strained over the U.S.-led Iraq invasion, which her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder strongly opposed. But her comments to Der Spiegel – also covering ties with Moscow and the European Union – suggested she would not shy away from speaking out on issues where disagreement exists. [More>>thestar.com.my]

01.06.06 Prosecutor broadens DeLay inquiry

January 6 – The Texas prosecutor who secured an indictment of Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) on money-laundering charges broadened the scope of his inquiry into election spending yesterday, demanding documents related to funds that passed through a nonprofit organization, the U.S. Family Network. The group, which was founded in 1996 by DeLay's then-chief of staff, Edwin A. Buckham, received $500,000 in 1999 from the National Republican Congressional Committee and used some of the money to finance radio ads attacking Democrats. The Federal Election Commission fined the party in 2004 for its role in the funding. [More>>washingtonpost.com]

01.06.06 Tube suicide bomber left mystery £121,000

January 6 – A suicide bomber who killed eight people at Aldgate Tube station on July 7 left £121,000. The origins of Shehzad Tanweer�s riches are unknown as the 22-year-old terrorist worked part time at his family�s chip shop in Beeston, Leeds. The figure of £121,000 is the net value of his estate after loans, debts and funeral costs were paid. [More>>timesonline.co.uk]

01.06.06 Al-Zawahiri claims Muslim victory in Irag

January 6 – Al-Qaida's deputy leader says recent hints by American officials of a troop reduction in Iraq are a victory for Islam. In a videotape, excerpts of which were aired by Aljazeera on Friday, Ayman al-Zawahiri was apparently referring to recent comments by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, who on 22 December hinted that the US military will soon begin reducing its troop strength in Iraq below 138,000. Al-Zawahiri asked: "If your forces with all its aircraft, missiles, tanks and fleets are moaning, bleeding and looking for an escape from Iraq, then will the hypocrites, conspirators, infidels (the Iraqi government) resist what the 'greatest power in the world' has failed to resist?..." [More>>aljazeera.net]

01.06.06 Indonesia wants stronger ties with the United States

JAKARTA (AP) January 7 – Indonesia hopes ties with the United States will strengthen further in 2006 on the back of Washington's decision to resume military ties with the world's most populous Muslim nation, the foreign minister said Friday. Hassan Wirayuda was speaking ahead of a visit to Jakarta next week by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "There's were great developments during 2005.... leading to the removal of restrictions on military to military cooperation between Indonesia and the United States and it is in this perspective that we will meet," he said. [More>>thejakartapost.com ; See related report, thestar.com.my, "Rice cancels Asia trip due to Sharon concerns."]

01.06.06 India, Pakistan reopen railway link after 40 years

NEW DELHI (DPA) January 6 – India and Pakistan on Friday agreed to reopen a railway link which was severed after a war between the South Asian neighbors nearly four decades ago. The railway service linking Munabao in the northwestern Indian desert state of Rajasthan and Khokrapur, a border town in Pakistan�s Sindh province, will commence on February 1, Indian and Pakistani officials decided after two days of talks in New Delhi. The train has been named the Thar Express (after the Thar desert, located in western India and south-eastern Pakistan). [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

01.06.06 Dog saves Taiwanese newborn

TAIPEI, January 6 – A Female husky dog has saved the life of a Taiwanese newborn by snatching him from the toilet after his mother gave birth alone at home and collapsed, a social worker said today. The 24-year-old single mother, identified only as Huang, did not feel well on Sunday and went to the bathroom, as her dog named Baby followed, without realizing she was in labor as the baby was not due for another five days, the social worker told TVBS.

The woman gave birth to a baby boy into the toilet and managed to cut the umbilical cord with a small pair of scissors before collapsing on the floor, too weak to call for help from her roommate, she said. But her faithful dog snatched up the infant's leg with her mouth and rescued him from drowning, the social worker said, holding the baby in her arms as the dog paced around at their temporary shelter in a charity home in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan.

...Doctors said both the mother and infant were healthy in stable condition. However, due to financial difficulties, the mother was giving both her baby boy and the life-saving 10-month-old dog away for adoption, the social worker told TVBS. [Full story>>theaustralian.news.com.au]

01.06.06 Sweet hopes for diabetics

MUAR, Malaysia, January 6 – Good news for diabetics. A three-year study carried out by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Skudai has confirmed previous findings that cinnamon has the potential to lower sugar levels.

UTM research and development manager Prof Dr Mohammad Roji Sarmidi said yesterday their research showed that the spice, known as kayu manis locally, has positive effects on the disease, especially Type II diabetes. Type II diabetes causes cells to lose their ability to respond to insulin, the hormone that tells the body to remove excess glucose from the bloodstream. This condition usually develops in people in their middle age and prematurely kills an estimated 100 million of the world�s population every year. [More>>thestar.com.my]

01.05.06 Still shining after all this time

January 4 – The most recent self-portrait of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the solar panels still gleaming in the Martian sunlight and carrying only a thin veneer of dust two years after the rover landed and began exploring the red planet. Spirit's panoramic camera took this mosaic of images on the 586th sol, or Martian day, of exploration (Aug. 27, 2005), as part of a mammoth undertaking that resulted in the largest panorama ever acquired by Spirit [More>>marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov]

(2) The name, Allah, in Arabic is an expression of surprise. It is not unusual for the God of the Bible to be known by many names. Jewish Midrash quotes passages in the Old Testament (Torah) that cite as many as seventy names of God (and more). But they can all be reduced down to one name.
(5) The Law of the Locrians: "In the legislation of the Locrians, the proposer of a new law, with a halter round his neck, to be instantly tightened if the public assembly did not, on hearing his reasons, then and there adopt his proposition." [Mill, On Liberty, 2.475].

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Painting of Apple by Mel Copeland, early 70's
Background: tile from Cicero's villa (Marcus Tullius Cicero 106 B.C. - 43 B.C.)

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