Brazil

Hu Jintao, the President of the People's Republic of China had lunch today with the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at the Granja do Torto, the President's country residence in the Brazilian Federal District. Lunch was a traditional Brazilian barbecue with different kinds of meat.

Some Brazilian ministers were present at the event: Antonio Palocci (Economy), Eduardo Campos (Science and Technology), Roberto Rodrigues (Agriculture), Luiz Fernando Furlan (Development), Celso Amorim (Exterior Relations), Dilma Rousseff (Mines and Energy). Also present were Roger Agnelli (Vale do Rio Doce company president) and Eduardo Dutra (Petrobras, government oil company, president).

This meeting is part of a new political economy agreement between Brazil and China where Brazil has recognized mainland China's market economy status, and China has promised to buy more Brazilian products. Acting president Rawhi Fattuh has announced today that Palestinian elections will be held on January 9. Futtuh, head of the Palestinian parliament, was sworn in hours after the death of Yasser Arafat on Thursday, and Palestinian Basic Law dictates that he may only serve up to two months before elections are held.

New leadership could prove to be the key to revitalizing the peace process in the Middle East, as both Israel and the United States had refused to work with Arafat.

The Haaretz had initially reported that former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas was selected by the Fatah central committee as their candidate for president, but Abbas has denied this, saying, "the matter is still being discussed." There have also been conflicting reports on whether or not jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti will run.

Barghouti is currently serving five life sentences in Israel for attacks against Israelis. Nonetheless, he remains a popular figure among Palestinians for his role in the Palestinian uprising, and could potentially win the election if he decided to run.

A win by Barghouti could put Israel in an awkward spot; however an Israeli official said this week that he would not be freed, and a landslide win by Barghouti would signify to them that the Palestinians were not yet ready for peace. PalestineThe delegation representing Brazil at the funeral of Yasser Arafat returned today, November 13, 2004. The chief-minister of Civil House José Dirceu was a member of the delegation. Unfortunately they arrived too late for the funeral and the delegation watched only part of the funeral activities.

PCdoB (Brazilian communist political party) Deputy Jamil Murad, member of the delegation, said there was a "deep mourning" feeling. Jamil Murad had visited Yasser Arafat in April 2004, along with nine other Brazilian deputies. According to Jamil Murad: "Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian leader who became a world projection leader". He said Arafat had written him a letter thanking the Brazilian people for their support of the Palestinian cause and saying that he, Arafat, considered President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a great world leader. A hearing started today over the death of Australian cricket coach David Hookes. Hookes died after an incident outside a hotel in Melbourne, Australia on the 19th of January.

Bouncer Zdravko Micevic, 22, is charged with manslaughter. Iran nuclear programIranian representatives say negotiations with Europe on its nuclear program are in the final stages.

Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharazi, told state television Saturday Iranian negotiators have given their final response to a European Union proposal to suspend Iran's uranium enrichment program. He said it is now up to the Europeans to decide whether or not to accept their decision.

Iran and the European Union's big three powers — Britain, Germany, and France — have been negotiating a deal under which Tehran would agree to freeze sensitive nuclear work to avoid possible U.N. Security Council sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, says that Iran's nuclear program is intended to make nuclear weapons. Iran authorities have insisted that their nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity from atomic energy plants, not making bombs.

Critics of the position of the United States point to Israel's nuclear program. Israel maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity, but is widely believed to possess at least 82 nuclear weapons. The program has not been condemned by the United States. Hassan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council for Iran, announced Monday that the country would temporarily suspend conversion of uranium as of November 22. "Iran is planning to suspend uranium conversion activities from November 22," Rowhani said during a news conference.

Uranium is a chemical element which can be used in nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants. The process of conversion modifies the uranium oxydes into uranium hexafluoride. The purpose of such a conversion process is usually an intermediate step in the production of nuclear fuel. Uranium hexafluoride cannot itself be used in a nuclear weapon, but can be enriched into weapons-grade uranium, or it can be converted into plutonium in a nuclear reactor. Iran has claimed to be using its nuclear program for only peaceful nuclear energy, rather than for nuclear weapons, but there are concerns in the European Union and the USA as to whether they are being truthful. Miss Marina Souza, aged 43, was kidnapped last Saturday, November 6, in Praia Grande, São Paulo, during a barbecue with her relatives. She is the mother of Robson de Souza, known as Robinho (Little Robin), a Brazilian soccer player for the Santos Football Club. Since the incident, Robson De Souza ('Robinho') has made few public appearances and stopped playing soccer, troubling his team Santos. "I hope this all finishes well and that I can go back to playing football again," he was quoted by Reuters on November 9.

Robinho is considered one of the best Brazilian forward players at the present time and he is an important player for Santos.

The authorities are cautious to release any information concerning the case, as this could jeopardize both the investigations and Ms. Souza's life. Secretary of State Colin Powell submitted his long-expected resignation as of Monday, November 15, and his resignation was accepted by President George W. Bush. His resignation letter was sent to the President on Friday. Powell has said that it was always his intention to serve only one term.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune said that Powell often had disputes with Bush Administration officials holding what the newspaper termed "more hawkish" views.

On Tuesday, President Bush announced his nomination of National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice as Powell's successor. Reuters cited senior Bush administration officials as saying that her deputy, Stephen Hadley, will succeed her in her role as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs if she is confirmed as Secretary of State. 128 people have been injured, 5 seriously so, in a high-speed train derailment in central Queensland. Police said the tilt train came off the tracks near Bundaberg (about 400 kilometers north of Brisbane) at 12.06am AEST.

Queensland Transport Minister Paul Lucas visited the site, and reported that the black box recording device on board the train would be sent back to Brisbane for analysis, in order to determine the cause of the accident.

Premier Peter Beattie and Queensland Rail CEO Bob Scheuber said that there were no current plans to halt other tilt train services. "That will depend entirely on the investigators, they've not made any recommendations yet — some of them are still arriving. If they recommend that that is the course of action, then of course it would be suspended," Mr Beattie was quoted as saying. Investigators said that Saddam Hussein diverted money from the Oil-for-Food Program to pay millions of dollars to families of suicide bombers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who carried out attacks on Israeli civilians.

Paul Volcker, a former American official investigating the diverted funds scandal, has taken some heat from advocates demanding that he haul United Nations personnel before the US Congress. His reason for not subjecting them to this degree of open scrutiny is that it would have the perverse effect of pushing them into refusing to cooperate with the investigation at all. He plans to release documentary evidence early next year, when his investigation is complete. Two lawyers of accused drug dealer Luiz Fernando da Costa (also known as Fernando Beira-Mar) were arrested Sunday November 14 in a restaurant located at Rio de Janeiro city in Brazil. They have been accused of bribing Brazilian federal police officers.

Luiz Fernando da Costa, known as Fernando Beira-Mar or Fernandinho Beira-Mar, is one of the biggest drug dealers of Latin America according to police. Beira-Mar was arrested by the Colombian army at April 20-21, 2001, in a FARC camp located at a forest near Colombia and Venezuela and then transferred to Brazil where he is been in prison until now.

According to officers the lawyers had offered R$200,000 (US$71,658.9) to police officers asking them to release Marcos José Monteiro Carneiro, another man accused of being a drug dealer. Pope John Paul II has received Mr. Albert Edward Ismail Yelda, Iraq's ambassador today. During the meeting the Pope has expressed wishes for the reconstruction of Iraq, as a democratic state, with tolerance to minorities:

"Iraq is currently in the throes of the difficult process of transition from a totalitarian regime to the formation of a democratic State in which the dignity of each person is respected and all citizens enjoy equal rights. Authentic democracy is possible "only in a State ruled by law", and requires that "the necessary conditions be present for the advancement both of the individual through education and formation in true ideals, and ... through the creation of structures of participation and shared responsibility"
(...)
"The struggle to overcome the challenges brought about by poverty, unemployment and violence is also currently faced by Iraq. May your government work untiringly to settle disputes and conflicts through dialogue and negotiation, having recourse to military force only as a last resort. Accordingly, it is essential that the State, with the assistance of the International Community, promote mutual understanding and tolerance among its various ethnic and religious groups. This will enable the people of the region to create an environment that is not only committed to justice and peace but is also capable of sustaining the necessary economic growth and development integral for the well-being of your citizens and the country itself." Big Linux 2.0 Beta 3 has been released. Big Linux is a Live Compact Disc Brazilian Linux distribution, based on Knoppix.

A Linux distribution is a software set with the Linux operating system and GNU software. The source code of Linux and GNU software is freely available and can be legally distributed among users. Big Linux is a Live Compact Disc version of Linux, which means it may run directly from the CD or optionally be installed on the hard disk.

According to its developers, Big Linux aims to be easy to use and comes with many programs that are used by home users and offices. Some included programs are: KDE, Java, XMMS, Kaffeine, xine, Kopete, YES, XChat, Fullt, aMSN, the Windows runtime environments Wine and Cedega, the peer-to-peer applications xMule, BitTorrent and Apollon, OpenOffice.org, GIMP and AbiWord, the email clients Kmail and Thunderbird, and the internet browsers Mozilla and the proprietary Opera browser.

Some features of version 2.0 beta 3 are: 3 versions of the Linux kernel -- 2.4.25 (for those who use Winmodems), 2.4.27 (stable) and 2.6.8 (performance) --, automatic detection of printers, higher boot speed, complete system of network and servers and an automatic hardware detection mechanism. The graphical environment (known as X11) can have several configurations separated by kernel. In this way, the user can have an accelerated graphical environment configuration and an unaccelerated graphical environment configuration at the same time. If there is some trouble with the accelerated graphical environment configuration, this allows the user to switch to the unaccelerated one.

Big Linux can be downloaded without charge at Big Linux downloads. This distribution is primarily intended for Brazilian users, although anyone can use it. Alien Encounter and The Living Seas at the Walt Disney World Resort are to open today with a makeover.

The Alien Encounter attraction at Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom has been revised to include Experiment 626 from the movie Lilo & Stitch. Now called Stitch's Great Escape!, the dog-like blue creature will lash out of its tube and terrorise the audience. The Galactic Federation's Grand Councilwoman, Captain Gantu and Agent Pleakley appear in this show, essentially a prequel to the movie.

At the Living Seas, Crush the sea turtle from the Disney/Pixar movie Finding Nemo will host a new exhibit called Turtle Talk, joining smaller Nemo exhibits, a mainstay at the attraction for several months. Vegetarian shark Bruce will soon become part of a shark education exhibit.

According to publicity, the Turtle Talk show will run every 15 minutes, from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm. A sign language interpreted performance will run on Fridays at 10:30 am.

Disney is holding the Stitch's Great Escape! Sweepstakes, with prizes including a five-day, four night trip for four to Walt Disney World Resort. Prime minister Hari Kostov of Macedonia has resigned from his position as of Monday, November 15. The Macedonian parliament will meet on Thursday to decide whether or not to accept his resignation.

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

Kostov's resignation was preceded by a referendum organized by the Macedonian opposition, aimed against a decentralisation law which would have given the Albanian ethnic minority in Macedonia additional rights. The referendum was declared null and void due to a low turnout. According to the NOS, some now fear that fights between Albanian guerrillas and the Macedonian army, which came to a halt in 2001, will start again. Democratic Senator Harry Reid has been elected the new leader of the Democratic party in the Senate. Reid, from Nevada, replaces out-going leader Tom Daschle who lost his re-election bid in the state of South Dakota. Reid was re-elected with 61% of the vote in the November elections.

Reid won the position as the Republican party still holds majority in both houses of Congress. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Tom DeLay (R-TX) were re-elected by the Republicans for new terms as Speaker and Majority Leader in the House of Representatives.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) replaced Reid as the Senate Minority Whip. The proposal from Dutch Minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner to strengthen the anti-blasphemy provisions of the criminal code has been rejected by a majority of the Tweede Kamer, the country's parliament. Donner put forth the proposal shortly after the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, but denied that Van Gogh's death had anything to do with the proposal.

NOS reported that Donner's own party, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), supported his proposal. However, their two coalition partners — the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, VVD) and Democrats 66 (D66) — announced they would not back the ban. The Labour Party, the largest opposition party, also refused to vote in favour. Without their support, the motion could not be passed. Consequently, NRC Handelsblad reports, Donner withdrew his proposal.

Although the Dutch criminal code already makes blasphemy illegal, the law has only been enforced three times since the 1930s. The article in question states that anyone who ridicules a cleric or relic may be imprisoned for up to three months. According to Dutch broadcaster RTL, Member of Parliament Lousewies van der Laan (D66), will make a motion on November 17 to have the article removed entirely from the criminal code. According to Brazilian official sources Mr. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian President will meet with the President of Vietnam Mr. Trần Đức Lương today at 11:30 AM at the Palácio do Planalto (Plateau Palace), the Presidential official residence, in Brasília, Brazil. At 13:00 (1:00 PM) there will be a lunch with the Brazilian and Vietnamese Presidents and comitive.

According to Brazilian official sources the Brazilian and Vietnamese Presidents will talk about economic cooperation between the two countries, mainly the production of ethanol. United Nations (UN) reform and the effort by Vietnam to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) will be discussed as well. BRASÍLIA, Brazil – Mr. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil, met with the President of the Republic of Korea Mr. Roh Moo-hyun at 5:30 PM at the Palacio do Planalto (Plateau Palace), the Presidential official residence, in Brasilia, Brasil. At 8:00 PM there was a dinner with Brazilian and South Korean Presidents and comitive.

At the dinner Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said South Korea is a strategic partner in Asia and he also said that business between Brazil and Korea in 2004 will be US$3 billion. Mr. Lula said Brazil supports Korea in their effort to join the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

According to official sources Brazil and South Korea also discussed energy and natural resources cooperation agreements. They signed the Broad Relationship of Cooperation for Common Prosperity in the XXI Century agreement which covers natural resources, science, information technology and technology in general. Mozilla Firefox 1.0, a free open-source web browser, has been released on November 9, 2004 by the Mozilla Foundation.

Some major characteristics of the browser are: pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated RSS news reader, themes, online fraud protection, extendable with add-ons and multi-platform (it works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X). As of November 16, 2004, there are Firefox versions in the following languages: Norwegian, Polish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Greek, Korean, Spanish, Russian, Slovenian, Czech, English, Romanian, German, Hebrew, French, Hungarian, Swedish and Catalan. Other languages should appear later.

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

* "Move over, Internet Explorer. Feature-studded and secure, Mozilla Firefox 1.0 is a safer, better choice for Internet browsing." CNet

* "All told, Firefox is clean and fast. If you want a browser that respects your PC intelligence and helps you get things done, Firefox is a good place to start." PC Magazine

* "Despite its small flaws, Firefox is an excellent browser that is within a sic two years of unseating Microsoft IE from its throne." PCWorld

The software's website can be found at GetFirefox.com. UK Health Secretary John Reid has proposed widespread legislative and health care changes in a new white paper on public health released Tuesday. Titled "Choosing Health", the paper details government plans to restrict smoking in public places, limit 'junk food' advertisements to children, make available "lifestyle trainers", campaign against sexually transmitted diseases and tobacco, and improve food labelling.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The paper has been criticized by many parties. The Tory Shadow Health Secretary has criticized the Labour government's comprehensiveness and creation of a "new nanny state approach". He has additionally described it as "gimmicks". The Liberal Democrats have accused the government of not being comprehensive enough. It has also been criticized by the British Medical Association as being implemented too slowly, saying "When lives need saving, doctors act immediately".

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

The full white paper "Choosing Health" can be read here. The British-Iraqi careworker Margaret Hassan, who was kidnapped in Iraq over a month ago, may have been killed by her kidnappers, according to the husband of the 59-year-old. He was informed by the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs after analysis of a videotape showing the execution of a blindfolded woman. Al Jazeera was also said to have received the tape days ago, but after delaying to confirm Hassan's identity, ultimately decided not to broadcast it.

The international organization CARE was shocked by the news. Hassan led the CARE-department in Iraq for years.

Since her kidnapping on October 19, 2004, has appeared on several tapes pleading for her life. She made a personal request addressed to Prime Minister Tony Blair to remove British troops from Iraq to meet her kidnappers demands. MOSCOW — Russia's highest court has judged that Tatars living in the federal state of Tatarstan may not apply the Latin alphabet to their language without permission from the federal government in Moscow. The Tatars had instituted legal proceedings because their Turkic language differs greatly from Russian, the BBC reports.

The law banning all alphabets but Cyrillic has been one in a long range of regulations and restrictions, claimed by officials to be designed to protect Russia's linguistic heritage. The Russian federal government has been cited to consider the use of a non-Cyrillic alphabet by federal states a 'separatist tendency'. Japan's Diet has proposed to reduce economic assistance given to China. Economic aid is currently given in the form of grants and technical assistance under the Official development assistance (ODA) program. ODA contributes to the development of the economies of states harmed by Japan during World War II, an approach pursued not only as restitution but to improve regional stability and to secure scarce natural resource trade.

Assistance to mainland China will total $8.9bn this year, making Japan an unusual second to the United States in aid. This is down 30% from 1997, and is the fourth year-on-year decline as of 2003. Loans to China total $30bn to date.

The ODA has been a key feature in Sino-Japanese economic and diplomatic relations. It was begun in the 1980s as China "opened up" to foreign investment. It is in part restitution for damage inflicted on China and atrocities such as the Rape of Nanking, seen in Chinese culture in much the same way as The Holocaust is in Western culture.

China is increasingly being seen as a competitor, however. Popular opinion in Japan is also increasingly resentful of what is perceived as anti-Japanese sentiment in China. Some feel that China should be grateful for ODA funds and that it is not. China has also been criticized by Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura for not being sufficiently cooperative with regards to environmental issues, which necessarily affect its eastern neighbor Japan.

The People's Republic of China's Communist leaders have also been criticized for violating w:human rights and effecting a military build-up. Some argue that economic aid should be tied to compliance on relevant standards.

Through the ODA, Japan enjoys the support of many developing nations in UN votes. When China did not react favorably to Japan's intention to seek permanent UN Security Council membership, The Japan Times criticized the aid as a "complete waste".

Asia Times Online predicts "it is inevitable that funds flowing to China are set for further downsizing."

Total Japanese expenditures on ODA have reached $221bn distributed to 185 nations. Currently, the biggest recipient of Japan's ODA aid is India. Japan may soon be outspent in aid to China by France, Germany and Italy. A report by the United States government's Congressional Research Service (CRS) analysing al-Qaeda statements was made public Tuesday. The report examines methods used, ideas presented, and audience intended in al-Qaeda public statements, and how they have changed over time. The CRS is an auxiliary research office for the United States Congress, and does not make its unclassified reports public.

The full report is available at the website of the Secrecy News project run by the Federation of American Scientists. Released November 16th, 2004, it is titled "Al Qaeda: Statements and Evolving Ideology". The head of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, has revised his choice of 25 Commissioners after he was forced to withdraw his last list of candidates. Controversy was sparked by his choice of conservative Italian Rocco Buttiglione for the Justice Commissioner position, who made several statements regarding homosexuality and women that members of the European Parliament objected to.

His new line-up, according to the BBC, is mostly identical to his previous one; only two previous candidates (the Italian Buttiglione and the Latvian Ingrīda Ūdre) have been replaced. The European Parliament voted in favour the Commissioners on November 18th, giving Barroso and his staff the green light to start their official five-year term starting on Monday. While the Greens, Eurosceptics and the Communist Party voted against, the Commission secured the approval of the Parliament's biggest parties - the Socialists, the Liberals and the European People's Party. The vote ended with 449 in favour, 149 against and 82 abstentions, CNN reports. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon considered a temporary coup d'état of the Israeli government with other members of the Israeli military shortly before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, it has been revealed.

Days leading up to the '67 Arab-Israeli War featured a build-up of Egyptian, Syrian, and Iraqi forces on the border that was perceived by many as a threat to the very existence of Israel. Military advisors pressured for a preemptive strike, which was felt necessary to offset Israeli numerical inferiority. Then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol was under intense pressure from his cabinet and military on the decision to pursue diplomacy or war. Many pro-war officials considered war inevitable and a delay only harmful to Israel.

Ariel Sharon was a Major General in the Israeli military during the war. On May 28th, he advised the Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin that the cabinet could be detained and a coup declared. Sharon and others felt that the civilian government was unable to reach a necessary decision. The military would make the decision the government would not, and begin war in the government's best interests.

He explains: "We often asked whether in the State of Israel there could arise a situation in which the army takes control. And I always said it was impossible, that this couldn't happen in the State of Israel."

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

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

Sharon stressed that no definite plan existed. However, he defended giving it serious consideration, saying: "They the civilian government would have accepted it with a sense of relief. That was my feeling."

Prime Minister Eshkol later decided in favor of war on June 5th. Ariel Sharon served as a commander of the Southern Division. His comments may be found in full in Ma'arachot, a publication by the Israeli defense ministry. Discount retailer Kmart Corp. announced Wednesday morning it will buy department store operator Sears, Roebuck & Co.. The deal is to cost $11.5bn and will lead to the creation of the third-largest U.S. retailer, after Wal-Mart and Home Depot, and replacing Target at number three.

The new company, which is to be called Sears Holdings and be based near Chicago, will have $55 billion in annual revenue and nearly 3,500 retail stores. Edward Lampert, the chairman of Kmart, will become the chairman of the new company, while Alan Lacy, current chairman and chief executive of Sears will be the new chief executive. Sears CEO Alan Lacy, speaking about the deal, promised up to $500 million a year in savings within three years from improved efficient, greater purchasing power and possible store closures. The stores will retain their current names.

The purchase will allow the two stores to sell each other's brands, including Craftsman Tools, Kenmore, and Lands' End from Sears, and Martha Stewart and Joe Boxer brands from Kmart. The move is considered a boon for Sears, which until recently has confined itself to malls, and can now sell its products in the many Kmart locations.

Shares of both companies soared after the announcement, Sears was up 22 percent on Wednesday, whilst Kmart gained 15 percent. Sainsbury's, the UK supermarket chain, announced on Wednesday that it had made its first ever loss. For the six months to 9 October, it reported a pre-tax loss of £39m ($72m), compared with a profit of £323m the previous year.

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

Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King admitted the firm had been failing to properly stock its shelves after struggling with faulty distribution systems. This problem however is only one of a series of problems that has plagued Sainsbury's in recent years. Once the UK's largest supermarket chain, Sainsbury's has been overtaken by both Tesco and Asda in recent years. Tenuous relations between Japan and the People's Republic of China were strained last week when a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine entered Japanese territorial waters southwest of Okinawa.

The intrusion occurred on 10 November, Japanese time (UTC+9). The submarine was quickly spotted by Japan's Self-Defence Forces and was tracked by helicopter as it wandered in Japanese waters for two hours before moving north-west. International law requires a tracked submarine to surface and identify its nationality in times of peace; the submarine did not do so.

Many Japanese officials in the Defence Agency considered the intrusion an act of provocation and "showing off," as the submarine in question was a particularly noisy model. It continued traveling very slowly after being spotted, and remained in shallow waters. The intrustion caused Japanese Self-Defense Forces to go on alert for the second time since the Second World War.

The submarine in question is believed to be a Type 09-1 Han Class attack submarine. It is a nuclear-powered submarine designed in the 1950s and first built in the 1974. This class of submarine is thought to suffer numerous defects, including radiation leakage, noise, and an inability to fire missiles while submerged. Only two of five submarines are thought to be operational. China has recently begun an active modernization of its navy.

On 17 November, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Daiwei met with the Japanese ambassador to China Anami Koreshige in Beijing and offered an apology for the incident, stating that the submarine was on a training mission and the intrusion was due to a "technical error" and was "regrettable." Japan's Defence Agency is studying whether "technical errors" is a feasible explanation for the incident.

Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro has publicly stated he wishes to speak with Chinese President Hu Jintao about this and other matters of Sino-Japanese contention at the upcoming annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile later this month.

Despite the increasingly close economic ties between the two nations, distrust has long exisited between Japan and China. Many Chinese people still resent the Japanese invasion and occupation of China during World War II and Japan's refusal to formally apologise. Japan, on the other hand, sees China as a potential competitor and an increasing threat to its national security.

Japan's Constitution forbids the nation from exercising military strength in matters other than that of self-defence, but Japan's ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party or LDP, has recently proposed constitutional amendments to give the military more offensive capabilities, among other things. On Wednesday North Korea's official media dropped Kim Jong Il's honourific title "Dear leader", reported Japan's Radiopress. It was only days after the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported that portraits of Kim Jong Il have recently been removed from public display in North Korea.

According to Radiopress, a Japanese news agency that monitors North Korea's radio broadcasts, the North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station, as well as the Korean Central News Agency and other North Korean media, have stopped using the term "Dear leader" when referring to Kim Jong Il, the country's supreme leader. Now the media in North Korea only use the official titles "General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea", " the Chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission" and/or "Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army" when referring to Kim.

Earlier Itar-Tass also reported that according to an unnamed foreign diplomat in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Il's portraits have recently been taken down from public display secretly and without explanation. However, the portraits of Kim's father, Kim Il Sung, still remain, according to the same report. This report has been confirmed by some expatriates living in the country.

This recent development in North Korea has given rise to speculation among analysts, some of whom suspected that these may be a sign that Kim is losing power, or that a power struggle is going on among the top leaders of the totalitarian state. But most observers believe that the portraits were taken down by the order of Kim Jong Il himself, who might be trying to downsize his own personality cult. "We believe the change was made at his will to soften his image as a leader of a personality cult, although it is hard to determine what his real intentions are," said Shinya Kato, the editor of Radiopress.

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

North Korea is one of the few Stalinist states that still exist today, and the political control in the country remains tight. In recent years North Korea underwent several minor reforms that did not appear to significantly improve quality of life. It has also remained largely mysterious and secretive to the outside world, as few foreign correspondents are allowed to visit and stay in the country. The South American 2004 World Cup Qualifiers were decided today in the Eleveth Round of play.

*Argentina 3 x Venezuela 2 - place: Buenos Aires (Argentina)
*Colombia 1 x Bolivia 0 - place: Barranquilla (Colombia)
*Ecuador 1 x Brasil 0 - place: Quito (Ecuador)
*Uruguay 1 x Paraguay 0 - place: Montevideo (Uruguay)
*Peru 2 x Chile 1 - place: Lima (Peru)

Rank Points Country
#22 Argentina
#20 Brasil
#16 Paraguay
#16 Ecuador
#14 Uruguay
#13 Colombia
#13 Chile
#13 Venezuela
#13 Peru
#10 Bolivia GAZA - The Israeli Army is believed to have killed three Egyptian soldiers in a border incident. The shootings occurred near the Philadelphi Route on the Gaza-Egypt border. Both nations patrol the area intensively for arms smuggling into Gaza.

An Israeli tank apparently mistook Egyptian troops for smugglers.

Foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev has apologized for the incident, saying: "If Egyptians were hit then we regret it. This was not our intention. We want good co-operative relations with Egypt ... and if Egyptians were hurt then our thoughts go out to them and their families and the Egyptian people."

Israel has said it is investigating the shootings "at the most senior level." Egypt has said little so far. In the United Kingdom, the music video for this Christmas' remake of the charity single Do They Know It's Christmas? was launched simultaneously today (Thursday) on several UK and Irish television channels including BBC One, BBC Two, RTE 1, ITV1, Channel 4, and Sky One. The debut was made at 17:55 GMT.

The song was originally recorded in 1984 by several of the biggest artists of the time including Bono, Bob Geldof, Paul McCartney and George Michael. This year, in celebration of 20 years since the first single, the song has been remade by over 50 of today's best selling artists, including Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, Robbie Williams, Bono, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness and Dido.

The song, which is in aid of charity, is already tipped to be the Christmas No. 1 in the UK and Ireland. The song will also be launched as a charity mobile phone ringtone to raise funds for Sudan's troubled Darfur region. Mycokemusic.com said it was going to put the track on its website from Thursday with all profits to be donated to charity. The single will be available to buy in shops from the 29 November. Microsoft has released the new MSN Search service. According to Microsoft press release, the new MSN Search offers the largest, up to date selection of information and a new class of search tools, reducing time and effort required by users to find information.

Some major characteristics of the new MSN Search service include: up to date information, direct answers, direct actions, content specific searching, Search Near Me feature (results tailored geographically), Search Builder (the user can customize search results by defining search criteria).

The global beta version of MSN Search is available here. At Microsoft IT Forum 2004 Copenhagen technological conference Bill Gates, founder and current Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft, has said the future operating system of Microsoft called Longhorn will be released in 2006. There had been fears that Longhorn would not ship until 2007 or later. Microsoft has responded by cutting features from Longhorn, notably WinFS. Features planned for Longhorn include a new 3D graphic user interface, a more sophisticated replacement for MS-DOS, and execute for processor NX, or No Execute, security features that prevents some malicious code from being run.

This is expected to be the first Microsoft release since Windows XP in October of 2001. There has, however, been some speculation of a "Windows XP Reloaded" in the interim. Longhorn is currently in Alpha as a preview-release to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers. Television reporter Jim Taricani was convicted of criminal contempt Thursday for not revealing to authorities the source of a video that he had received and reported on. The video had been sealed to prevent the public from seeing it.

US District Court Judge Ernest Torres convicted Taricani, a reporter for WJAR-TV News in Providence, Rhode Island. The video in question showed the city's mayor, Vincent Cianci, taking a $1000 bribe. The official was subsequently convicted for corruption. During Cianci's trial, the court had ordered the video to be sealed. It was subsequently released to reporter Jim Taricani. Torres opined that the leak had been designed to prevent a fair trial and, as the video was sealed, the person who leaked it had broken the law.

Taricani's refusal to identify the leaker had been the basis for his conviction of civil contempt on March 16. A USD $1000 fine was to be issued every day until Taricani revealed his source. He has paid all fines, and was reimbursed by WJAR-TV News for all expenses. Torres suspended the fine, calling it ineffective.

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

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

Sentencing is to take place December 9th. Torres has said Taricani will receive no more than six months due to ill health. According to local State Road Police, about 250 members of the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement called MST (Movimento dos Sem Terra, in Portuguese) blocked the PA-391 highway for about three hours and later invaded the City hall of Santa Bárbara do Pará, located at abbr=yes from Belém, Pará.

MST said they wanted to be received by the mayor Marise Andréa Barbosa Colares (PSDB). She was not available and the MST was received by the mayor-elect Ismael Rasp Rock (PMDB). There was not an agreement, and the MST has camped in front of the city hall. A new meeting is expected in coming days with the participation of the Incra (National Institute of Colonization and the Agrarian Reformation), a government institute.

MST demands the city hall issue a Certificate of Agreement regarding the dispossession of an area in Santa Bárbara do Pará which belongs to the Dendê do Pará S.A, a company of Pará, that according to Incra passes for dispossession process. In accordance with information passed for the cabinet of the superintendent, the document was required in September, but the city hall had not issued it.

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

The MST is a Marxist-Maoist inspired movement of agricultural workers in Brazil. According to MST, in 2003 there were about 632 MST camps in Brazil. MST say they fight for the Agrarian Reformation in Brazil. Some Brazilians have already protested against MST tactics, saying they are against the law and they are violent. Currently, MST receives help from the Brazilian government and donations from international organizations. Reuters has reported that Philip Knight, co-founder of shoe giant Nike, Inc. will step down as the company's CEO and President on December 28. He will be replaced by William Perez, current CEO of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

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

The move is a blow to activist organizations which have targeted the company for its use of sweatshop labor and other practices. For example, the progressive anti-consumerism magazine Adbusters recently introduced their "Black-Spot Sneaker" which they promote as being "for just one thing: kicking Phil Knight's ass".

Nike spokesman Kirk Stewart said Perez was chosen for his experience in dealing with international markets and brand-building, an important skill as Nike continues expansion internationally. Nike's international sales now surpass domestic sales, reports Bloomberg.

According to ESPN, Knight was responsible for Nike's endorsement contract with Michael Jordan, signed in 1984 when he was still a rookie with the Chicago Bulls. Jordan said of Knight, "To me, Phil Knight will always be recognized as a sports marketing visionary -- he will always be a part of Nike. I learned so much about the industry from him and will always admire his drive and creativity."

Knight, who according to Forbes gave no reason for his departure, intends to retain his position as the chairman of Nike's board of directors. He will also hold on to his 28% voting share in the corporation, as well as his 92% share of the non-voting stock. Representatives of both the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed a peace pledge today in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, under the watchful eye of United Nations ambassadors.

According to the BBC, the document concluded with a memorandum saying that "prompt completion of the peace process is essential for all the people of Sudan". The actual peace treaty should, according to the pledge, be signed no later than December 31st 2004. While the pledge focuses mainly on the fights between the rebels in the south and the Khartoum-based government in the north, there is also attention for the ongoing crisis in east Sudan (Darfur).

Several aid agencies have criticized the UN for taking a weak stand against the Sudanese government. The Security Council has already signed two resolutions threatening economic sanctions against Sudan if the government does not disarm its troops in Darfur, but, so the BBC reports, the violence is continuing. The civil war in Darfur was sparked in 2003, when insurgents started attacking government buildings. The Arab government in Khartoum subsequently sent troops to the region, which have been reported to mass-violate human rights of the black Africans living in Darfur. U.S. soldiers fighting in Mosul, Iraq discovered up to twelve beheaded bodies in the western part of the city, the New York Times has reported. The bodies are believed to be those of Iraqi soldiers killed for assisting U.S. forces in eliminating local resistance; however, no identification has been made.

The bodies were found after a Jordanian named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi made an Internet posting in which he claimed that two Iraqi National Guard officers had been publicly decapitated in Mosul. A local businessman, Senan Shukri, claims to have witnessed the executions, stating that all onlookers had been warned that if they moved or otherwise disturbed the bodies they, too, would be beheaded.

According to Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla of the 24th Infantry Regiment, high-ranking officials in the Iraqi National Guard have been notified of the claimed beheadings; he states, however, that they have been unable to determine if any of their officers were missing, pointing out that many were on leave and thus difficult to track down in any circumstance.

The bodies have not yet been removed by U.S. troops for fear that they might trigger booby-trapped explosives. About 250 people from the MST (Movimento dos Sem Terra, in Portuguese) or Brazilian Landless Workers Movement has invaded a 223 hectares farm in the city of Ubaitaba, Bahia. According to Agência Folha, Fernando Rodrigues da Silva, 34 members of the movement says they want to press the Brazilian government institute called Incra (National Institute of Colonization and the Agrarian Reformation) to look after their cause.

Raul Pinto Farias, owner of the farm has said he will demand the expulsion of MST out of his property before the Court of Law.

The MST is a Marxist-Maoist inspired movement of landless peasants in Brazil. According to MST, in 2003 there were about 632 MST camps in Brazil. MST is a large organization with many settlements throughout Brazilian countryside, especially in the Brazilian Northeast. Their main visible tactic is invading lands around the country.

MST says they fight for agrarian reformation and justice in Brazil. Some Brazilians have already protested against MST tatics, saying they are against the law and are violent. Currently, MST funds itself by selling produce grown on its agricultural cooperatives and from donations from international organizations. Also the movement receives funds by selling videos of their invasions. ' -
Juan Carlos Concero, aged 34, a Spanish tourist, was shot in the head during an assault in Rio de Janeiro today.
He was carried to Souza Aguiar Hospital where he was in a coma, breathing with the help of life support machines. Hours later doctors pronounced him braindead.

The Brazilian police offices in charge of the case announced the arrest of three man suspected of shooting Concero. Nineteen Burmese political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader Min Ko Naing, have been freed by Burma's military junta after it declared their imprisonments invalid, the Associated Press reports.

The releases came after the current regime under Soe Win dissolved the National Intelligence Bureau run by Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt, who was ousted last month. The Burmese state-run television and radio network claimed that the NIB had wrongly charged 3,937 prisoners.

Min Ko Naing had been imprisoned since 1988 after leading pro-democracy protests that were quickly crushed by the ruling regime. In total, three senior members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy were released. Aung San Suu Kyi herself has been under house arrest since May 2003 following a violent confrontation between loyalists and her dissidents.

At least one NLD member expressed optimism about the new development. 77-year-old Ohn Maung, an NLD member freed on Friday after being imprisoned since 1998, told Reuters "It was a pleasant surprise for all of us." He added, "I did not have to sign any undertaking and I expect most of the NLD members will also be released like me."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan released a statement in which he said that he is "encouraged by reports that a number of people detained for political activities are included among the prisoners released." He also called for the release of all remaining political opponents and dissidents, either from prison or from house arrest.

According to witnesses outside Yangon's Insein Prison, altogether approximately 200 prisoners--most serving terms for minor criminal offenses--were released Friday.

Although Burma's military regime changed the country's name to Myanmar in 1989--a change recognized by the United Nations--many national governments and a large portion of the Burmese population still use the name "Burma" because they do not recognize the legitimacy of the junta that instituted the change. The Brazilian Economist Celso Furtado, aged 84, has died today between 11 and 11:30 am, in his apartament in Rio de Janeiro.
According to ABr (Government Brazilian news Agency) Celso Furtado was victim of a heart attack.

He will be buried tomorrow at São João Batista cemetery, Rio de Janeiro at 12:00. Four National Basketball Association players have been suspended indefinitely for their actions during a brawl at the end of the Friday, November 19th game between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers.

Ron Artest, Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson of the Pacers and Ben Wallace of the Pistons learned of the length of their suspensions on Sunday. Ron Artest has been suspended for the rest of the season, Stephen Jackson for 30 games, Jermaine O'Neal for 25, and Ben Wallace for 6. Pacers guard Anthony Johnson received a 5 game suspension. In addition, Reggie Miller from Indiana, and Detroit Pistons Chauncey Billups, Elden Campbell and Derrick Coleman were each suspended one game for leaving their bench.

The brawl began with 45.9 seconds left in the game, as Ben Wallace shoved Ron Artest after a particularly hard foul by Artest. That was settled quickly, but a fan then threw a cup at Artest as the referees were handling the aftermath of the fight, and Artest went into the stands, and began throwing punches. Jackson then joined in and began to throw punches as well. Due to the brawl the game was called, and ended with 45.9 seconds left. The Pacers were ruled the winner.

Artest has had a history of suspensions before this incident. Last season he was suspended twice, once for leaving the bench during a fight, and once for elbowing Portland player Derek Anderson. He was suspended 5 times during the 2002-2003 season. European finance ministers at the G-20 meeting which opened Saturday, November 20th, are expected to discuss the current exchange rate of the euro vs. the dollar. The euro is currently trading high against the dollar, so that it takes around $1.34 (as of December 4, 2004) to buy one euro. This has the effect of making exports from Europe to the USA more expensive, increasing the likelihood that US consumers will buy from a non-EU country. The exchange rate is set by the currency markets, although it is heavily influenced by the current account status (ie. the balance of trade between countries).

Some European leaders want the United States to take action to increase the value of its exchange rate. The US though is seen as not wanting to do this, for two reasons:
# A low dollar relative the euro means that all exports from the US to Europe are cheaper for Europeans to buy, increasing the likelihood that Europeans will buy US items and thus helping the US economy
# Many actions which governments have done in the past to bolster unnaturally their currency have been fought by the market, and the market won. The most famous example is George Soros' "breaking of the Bank of England"

One side-issue that this discussion might evoke is that of the exchange rate between the dollar and the Chinese yuan, which is fixed by China. Studies of this exchange rate using the concept of purchasing power parity (ensuring that a dollar traded to Chinese yuan will still buy roughly the same amount in China) show that the Chinese yuan has been around 50% undervalued for the past two years. This makes things from China on average 50% cheaper for a US consumer than they should be. US officials have throughout 2004 repeatedly called for China to end this practice. Normally it would end itself, i.e. even with a fixed exchange rate this process could only go on for so long before the entire Chinese market becomes valued differently. But since the Chinese central bank has been constantly lending money to the United States government (via the purchasing of US treasury bonds), that effect is mitigated. Seven unknown men armed with guns invaded the Terra Prometida camp, in Felisburgo
city, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and killed five members of the
Brazilian Landless Workers Movement movement (MST). The Terra Prometida camp
had been invaded by the MST in May 2002 and there were about 200 MST families
living there at the time of the attack.

According to the Brazilian newspaper Agência Folha, police said 13 of the
members of the MST movement were injured and five died. Four of them are still
hospitalized. Two of them, Joaquim Batista da Silva and his son (a 12-year-old
child), are in the Felisburgo Municipal Hospital. The other two, Valdemar
Barbosa Lima and José Maroto Lima, are in the Santa Rosária Hospital in
Teófilo Otoni city.

According to MST camp leaders the gunfighters set fire to MST tents and started
shooting.

The police are investigating the case. The Workers
Party (PT) has demanded the gunfighters' arrest and punishment.

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

Currently, MST receives help from the Brazilian government and donations from
international organizations. The movement also receives funds by selling
 videos of their invasions.

Overall, a recent report on labor standards in Brazil has shown that conditions
for laborers are poor
. The nineteen member nations of the Paris Club have agreed to forgive 80 percent of Iraq's debt, reports the Reuters news service. The plan will reduce Iraq's total debt to the member nations to $7.8 billion, from the original $38.9 billion, over a period of four years.

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

Adel Abdul Mahdi, Iraq's Finance Minister, said that the deal was "historic". He also expressed optimism that other creditor nations, including neighbors in the Middle East as well as several Eastern European nations, may follow the West's lead in forgiving Iraqi debt.

However, Bulgaria and Romania have announced that they intend to recoup as much as possible of the debt owed them by Iraq, claiming that the inflow of cash from Iraq is essential to their respective economies. They have, however, indicated their willingness to discuss rescheduling of payments on the debt. Dimitar Tsonev, spokesman for the Bulgarian government, told the Sofia News Agency that the requests from Western leaders to reduce Iraq's debt were not the first such requests he had received. Romania has said it would like to take a flexible approach to the debt repayments, one which is in line with its economic potential.

The plan is the culmination of a trans-Atlantic struggle over the amount of Iraqi debt to be forgiven, the United States pushing for a 90 to 95 percent reduction while France argued for much less. The president of Brazil, Mr. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, met with the president of Russia, Mr. Vladimir Putin, at about 12:00 in Brasilia.

The main discussion topics were the end of the embargo on the exportation of Brazilian meats, from animals such as bovines and pigs, to Russia and the interest of the Russian government in conquering the support of Brazil to enter the World Trade Organization.

Lula said Brazil will support Russia to enter the World Trade Organization, but Russia did not agree with the end of the embargo of Brazilian meat. Russia has forbidden the entrance of Brazilian meat in their country because there was a suspection of Brazilian cattle contamination by aftosa fever. Brazilian authorities said there is no danger and the cattle's health has been monitored.

By another agreement Brazil will teach the Russians techniques of soccer and the Russians go to repass techniques of athletism and swimming. According to the Associated Press, around 16,000 protesters demonstrated outside a Fort Benning, Georgia, military school this weekend, demanding it be closed in connection with accused human rights violations. Indymedia reports 20 people were arrested in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.

Among the crowd were celebrity-actors Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon; Sarandon narrated the 1997 documentary School of Assassins about the school's history. Indymedia web site quotes Elizabeth Nadeau, a 27-year-old student, as saying "Prison will not deter us. We will be here until we close the school and change the foreign policy that it represents."

In 1946 the military Latin American Training Center U.S. Ground Forces was established in Panama; in 1949 it became the U.S. Army Caribbean Training Center and during 1963 the training center expanded and became the U.S. Army School of the Americas (USARSA or SOA). The SOA mission was to counter the influence of Communism in the region, and to assist Latin-American nations in fighting armed Communist movements. In 1984 the school was moved to Fort Benning, near Columbus. At the end of 2000, the SOA was closed as its reason of existence as an anti-Communist school was rendered unnecessary. In 2001, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation was opened in the same location. WHINSEC offers training to Latin American military and civilian forces in combat, counter-narcotics, and counter-insurgency techniques, with training completed mainly in the Spanish language.

Activists claim that both SOA (in the past, during 80's) and WHINSEC (at present day) trained militias in tactics of violence that are/were used against political dissidents in their native countries. They accuse SOA graduates of been responsible of death squads, drug deals, murders, rape and torture. They say the school is responsible by these acts and that many techniques of torture its graduated students have used in their countries had been learned at the military American school. A list of allegeds SOA graduated students's crimes can be seen at the Virtual Truth Commission, an anti-SOA webpage.

Pro-SOA say the school was important in the maintenance of the security in the Latin America and United States during Cold War. A list of death victims by communist groups between 1935-1972 only in Brazil can be seen at the Ternuma (Terrorism never), a Brazilian alleged anti-terrorism webpage. Also, the US Department of Defense maintains a list of significant terrorist incidents between 1961-2003, among them are several crimes committed by communist groups. The UK version of IndyMedia distributes a copy in English of the Manual of the Urban Guerrilla which details techniques of urban terrorism for communism, written by Carlos Marighella, a communism fighter. The Cuban dictator Fidel Castro advocated armed revolutionary struggle in Latin America. The USSR or Soviet Union gave trainning, military and economic help through Cuba to various communists groups in American continent.

The protest at Fort Benning which involved a mock funeral procession is an annual event organized by the School of Americas Watch (SOAW) to commemorate the first assassination attributed to school's graduates, the November 16 1989, killing of six Salvadoran Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter, at the University of Central America (UCA). Of the 27 soldiers cited for that killing by a 1993 UN Truth Commission, 19 were SOA graduates. SOAW lists 11 former Latin American dictators as graduates of the School. USA deny they supported dictators and they protest against Fidel Castro, the long-time dictator of Cuba, who has received support, military and economic help from USSR for a long time.

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

Pro-military activists planned a concurrent gathering called "God Bless Fort Benning Celebration," to honor the soldiers and history of the military base where WHINSEC is located. "If they have 10,000, then we have 10,001," organizer Miriam Tidwell told Associated Press. Unverified reports of this counter-demonstration put attendance figures between 10,000 and 15,000.

WHINSEC operates with an annual budget of approximately $8 million, the school curriculum now includes a mandated 8 hours of training in human rights which includes "human rights, rule of law, due process, civilian control of the military, and the role of the military in a democratic society." Dan Rather has announced that he will retire on March 9th, 2005 as anchor of CBS Evening News. He will continue to be a correspondent for both of the 60 Minutes shows.

It is reported that Rather's leaving has nothing to do with a report in 2004 regarding US President Bush's National Guard service that was widely reported to be factually false. A CBS panel is looking into that report.

Others believe that Rather is stepping down due to this report and investigation. Howard Kurtz, a reporter for the Washington Post, states that "It's pretty clear that Dan Rather faced a very unpalatable choice... His contract had at least two more years to run. Should he step down now before the outside investigative report, commissioned by CBS News expected in the next few weeks about his botching -- and the network's botching -- of that story about President Bush's National Guard service? Rather decided today that it would be better for him to step down on his own terms."

Dan Rather, 74, has been the anchor for CBS Evening News for 24 years, succeeding Walter Cronkite. Rather is the third most watched anchor on United States television. President Leonid D. Kuchma Monday proposed holding a new election to end the political crisis threatening to tear the country apart, according to The New York Times.

Mr. Kuchma's remarks, which came as Ukraine's Supreme Court heard complaints of electoral fraud involving perhaps millions of ballots in the November 21 presidential election, represented the collapse of what had been the government's united position that Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovych won the election.

Amid protests of up to 200,000 over Ukraine's disputed presidential election, officially declared loser Viktor Yushchenko has called on the army and police to join a revolution against the government.

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

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

Viktor Yushchenko is a banker seen as pro-Western. His opposition is the incumbent Mr Yanukovych, who is seen as pro-Moscow, a sensitive issue in a former territory of the Soviet Union.

The Daily Telegraph quotes Yushchenko as saying to deputies: "Ukraine is on the threshold of a civil conflict. We have two choices: either the answer will be given by the parliament, or the streets will give an answer." Emails exchanged among United States Air Force officials regarding a USD$23 billion dollar deal with aircraft manufacturer Boeing have been entered into the public record. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) entered them into the Congressional Record during a speech last week against the now-cancelled deal to lease 100 mid-air tanker aircraft from Boeing.

Congressional lawmakers rejected the proposal in October, although industry experts say the deal had been killed by the Pentagon because of reports stating that the deal had favored Boeing. Senator McCain has been the deal's most vocal critic.

The original negotiations with Boeing were over a no-bid contract. Such contracts are often justified by the speed they offer, eliminating a preliminary bid and selection round that may last months. However, no-bid contracts are only open to the company selected by the procuring agency. This leaves no-bid contracts open to accusations of conflicts of interest among the procurement personnel. Such accusations have previously been leveled against Vice President Dick Cheney for a no-bid contract to Halliburton, and are now being made against senior Air Force officials for choosing Boeing to replace its tanker fleet.

In the released emails, Air Force officials responsible for the awarding of contracts appear biased against Boeing's main competitor, Airbus and its CEO Ralph Crosby.

Airbus is owned by European Aeronautic Defense & Space Company (EADS). Airbus manufacturers a number of passenger and military aircraft and has gained market share in passenger aircraft over Boeing in recent years. The following is a sequential email exchange regarding Airbus as recorded in the Congressional Record:
:Special Asst. to the Secretary and Director of Air Force Communications Bill Bodie: "We don't have to turn the other cheek, you know. I'm ready to tell the truth about Airbus's boom, footprint, and financial shortcoming. But maybe we should sleep on it."
:Secretary of the Air Force James Roche: "No, Sir, save it and blow him away. He admits that they were not technically qualified! And, we keep their record of bribes as our trump card! Jim."
:Civilian Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Darleen Druyun: "I read with disgust the article on Airbus tankers from the new EADS CEO of North America. What BS . . . should not have been surprised at the slime . . . his day of reckoning will come hopefully."
:Secretary of the Air Force James Roche: "Oy. I agree. I had hoped you would have stayed and tortured him slowly over the next few years until EADS got rid of him! Jim."

An email from Burkhardt & Associates to James Roche advises the Secretary to release fiscal numbers favorable to Boeing, apparently regardless of the facts: "I'd distribute a one page memo saying the per plane cost of the lease will not be greater than x and have x be less than the last lease Boeing did for some commercial entity--or that x is y dollars less than the cost of a new tanker," it said. An additional email by Roche provides a stark contrast to his criticism of Airbus, as he talks to Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Marvin Sambur about Boeing, saying, "I love Ya, Big Guy. Give it to the Blue Eyed Arabs of the North (the expression we used for Boeing)."

 GovExec.com quotes a "Senate aide" as saying: "The House language of the spending bill ignores an analysis of alternatives called for in last year's authorizing language and by Pentagon Acquisition Director Michael Wynne and the DSB. It precludes such an analysis and predetermines the outcome in favor of the Boeing 767 before the study is even initiated." The activist organization the Project on Government Oversight has called it "a textbook case of favoritism to a single defense contractor."

Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Marvin Sambur defended the Air Force's exclusive consideration of Boeing, saying, "This was not a competitive bid process. The Air Force was ordered by Congress to work with Boeing on the new tanker program."

Boeing had previously hired Civilian Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Darleen Druyun. This caused a controversy over conflict of interest and led to felony charges against Boeing Chief Financial Officer Michael Sears for illegally hiring her. Former military personnel are often hired by defense contractors to lobby for contracts.

Days after Sen. McCain's remarks, the Air Force said the tanker replacement contract would be revived as an open bid. Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz published an open-article in the Congressional Record, saying: "After we have selected an appropriate alternative, we intend to require competition." Orange-clad supporters of Viktor Yushchenko gather in Independence Square in Kiev

In Ukraine, a dead heat in the October 31 election between current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko resulted in a runoff election on November 21. The runoff was plagued with allegations of large-scale voter fraud, particularly in the oblasts (regions) of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine where Yanukovych had the strongest support. Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) state that the election did not meet international standards and was subject to wide-scale, planned election fraud. On the other hand, some groups of international observers such as British Helsinki Human Rights Group give a quite different picture of massive violations in Western Ukraine, and pro-opposition bias of local media there: BHHRG Report(The report is discredited in this Guardian article ).

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

*Ukrainian presidential election, 2004- from our sister project at Wikipedia.

* Sun. Nov. 21: Runoff elections take place.
* Ukrainian opposition leader calls for police and army to join revolution
* Thu. Nov. 25: Ukraine election results delayed by court. Protests continue for a fourth day, while Ukraine's highest court delays announcement of the final election results until it can resolve a dispute over the legitimacy of those results. Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko praises the court's action. According to The Times of India outgoing President Leonid Kuchma met with pro-Russian officials who had threatened to declare regional autonomy but said after the meeting that any breakup of the Ukraine was unacceptable.
* Sat. Nov. 27: Ukraine parliament declares election invalid. In a non-binding, symbolic gesture, the Ukrainian parliament votes to declare the election results invalid, as well as passing a vote of no confidence in the elections commission.
* Tue. Nov. 30 Ukrainian election negotiations break off. Yushchenko broke off from negotiation talk with incumbent Prime Minister Yanukovych stating that the negotiations were one-sided.
** Ukrainian election negotiations restarted
* Wed. Dec. 1: Ukraine parliament sacks government. Ukraine's parliament passes a vote of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
* Fri. Dec. 3: Ukraine Supreme Court orders new election.
*Sat. Dec. 4: Election reforms fail in Ukraine parliament.
*Sat. Dec. 11: Ukraine opposition candidate Yushchenko is suffering from a Dioxin intoxication, doctors say. This is reported as being the second highest level of Dioxin ever found in a human.
* Mon. Dec. 27: Yushchenko claims victory in re-run. Pro-government candidate Yanukovych refuses to accept results.
* Fri. Dec. 31: Yanukovych declares his resignation from his post as Prime Minister.
* Sun. Jan. 23, 2005: Yushchenko sworn in as president of Ukraine

* A Fistful of Euros
* The Periscope - particularly Victor Katolyk's running updates here here and here
* Postmodern Clog
* Abdymok
* Neeka's Backlog
* SCSU Scholors
* Europhobia
* Orange Revolution
* OrangeUkraine
* Ukraine_Revolution
* Foreign Notes
* Tulip Girl
* Ukraine, Russia, Europe, the US, Oh My!
* Tsymlyakoff's Blog
* International Support for Ukrainian Democracy
* Vladimir Ivshin's photos
* Kyiv, Maidan Nezalezhnosti(Independence Square). Web-cam.
* Maidan
* http://hotline.net.ua/eng
* LJ community dedicated to 2004 elections Ukraine's supreme court has banned publication of election results due to possible election fraud. As the court announced its decision Ukraine's opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko spoke to thousands of his supporters telling them that "This was only the beginning".

According to Interfax, the Ukrainian Supreme Court will resume its investigation of this issue on Monday. While the decision was being made, reports were released stating that the foreign policy chief for the European Union, Javier Solana, will visit the country in order to meet with the central figures in this crisis. At stumps on day one, Australia has opened a commanding lead in the second cricket test against New Zealand.

The laughter started soon after Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat on the hard, dry pitch. Openers Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden got off to a flying start, achieving 0/19 off the first two overs. Hayden was later caught and bowled by Paul Wiseman for 70. Although Hayden was clearly out, he refused to walk, insisting after the incident with Craig McMillan in the previous test, that the field umpires called for the video replay, which quickly ruled that he was out.

Ponting then came out to replace Hayden, and quickly took a fancy to the New Zealand bowlers. He eventually misjudged a spin delivery from Daniel Vettori and was stumped for 68. Damien Martyn briefly stepped in, but was cheaply dismissed for 7, only to be replaced by Darren Lehmann, who is not out on 28.

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

Australia has already won the series with their previous victory in Brisbane, and this test is widely regarded merely as batting practice for Stephen Fleming's New Zealand side. Key bowler James Franklin is returning from injury in this game, but has had a poor start, with figures of 0/84 off of 14 overs. Around 170 workers were trapped in the Chinese Chenjiashan mine, early Sunday morning, November 28th, the BBC reports.

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

China has had a long history of mining accidents —its mines are known as being among the most dangerous in the world. Last month, more than 150 people died after a gas explosion in a mine in the Henan province. The official tally of 4,153 mine fatalities during the first nine months of this year is actually a 13% improvement over the same period last year, which had a total of 6,246 mine worker deaths —4,620 of them coal mines. 5,203 deaths occurred among workers in other China industries. Romania's ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD) has emerged ahead in yesterday's legislative and presidential elections. The voter turnout was around 57% of all eligible voters, which number 18 million people in a country of 21.7 million.

However the PSD did not gain the vote majority needed to declare an outright victory, and it will now proceed to a run-off election against the centre-left opposition. Called the Truth and Justice Alliance, the main opposition is a union of candidates from the National Liberal Party and the Democrat Party.

While PSD+PUR is currently leading, the most hotly-contested election in Romania's post-Communist history may come down to the run-off, to be held on December 12. The winning presidential candidate of the run-off will not only become the country's president but will also appoint a prime minister to lead the government.

In the presidential election, Adrian Năstase, the PSD's presidential candidate, won approximately 42% of the vote, while Traian Băsescu of Truth and Justice obtained around 35%, according to exit polls.

Năstase led the exit polls due to greater support in rural Romania, as well as support from the urban poor, due to his policy of boosting the economy. Năstase's PSD+PUR coalition was also supported because they are credited with saving Romania from economic collapse during their presidential and legislative term from 2000 until the present time. During his term of prime-minister of Romania, from 2000 to 2004, Năstase not only boosted the economy but ensured that Romania entered NATO and progressed towards its accession to the European Union, expected to occur in 2007. In 2004, the economy is expected to grow by 8.6%, the highest rate in Europe.

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

In the legislative election, the PSD+PUR coalition obtained 40% of the vote, while the Truth and Justice alliance trailed with 35%. Because the PSD+PUR coalition did not gather the majority of the votes (50%+1), it will have to form a governing coalition with the minor parties, a process which is expected to be tedious given the fact that both of the major parties have ruled out entering into a coalition with ultra-nationalist The Greater Romania Party, which obtained around 12% of the vote. A more efficient way to produce useable hydrogen has been demonstrated by researchers. It uses very high-temperature electrolysis to separate hydrogen from water, so that hydrogen may be used for energy production.

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

Researchers in Salt Lake City, Utah, at Ceramtech Incorporated, in collaboration with workers at The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory report that when water is superheated to 800 degrees Celsius, far less electricity is required to produce the same volume of hydrogen. The researchers envision that future nuclear fission plants could be used both to heat the water as part of their cooling system, and generate the needed electricity.

Concerns have been raised regarding the safety of such arrangements, however. Jeremy Desterhoft, an independent consultant on nuclear energy safety, warns the "elevated levels of radiation required to sufficiently lower the atomic separation point is beyond the current capabilities of any recent cooler." He does not believe that economically viable cooling technology will be available for at least four to six more years. Rachelle Waterman, (aka Rachelle Ann Monica Waterman and "smchyrocky"), a 16-year-old girl from Craig, Alaska, USA, has been charged with the first degree murder of her mother.

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

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

A diverse group of users, both friends and strangers, have posted over 5,000 comments on the journal, positive and negative, transforming the case into an Internet phenomenon. Every entry since March 2004 has apparently now been deleted or hidden, but a ZIP of the entire weblog, from before the entries were deleted, is available on Deadly Blogging.

Waterman was a tenth-grade honor (A-average) student in her second year at Craig High School. She was also a member of the Academic Decathlon team (ACDC) and sang in the choir, a profile that has left many people questioning her involvement in the killing and asking what motive there might be. At the time police say the killing occurred, Rachelle Waterman was apparently playing in a volleyball tournament in Anchorage, Alaska.

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

The Waterman family is a locally prominent, middle-upper class family. Born on August 26, 1988, Rachelle showed an interest in acting, computers, movies and music, and was an honor roll student, involved in many extra-curricular activities, including choir, volleyball, and the decathlon team - advancing to upper levels and winning prizes in almost every endeavor. Her mother, Lauri, was a teachers' aide and served on the board of the Little League and the town library. Rachelle Waterman's 60-year-old father, Carl "Doc" Waterman, is a real estate agent and serves as president of the Craig School Board. Rachelle's older brother, Geoffrey, lives out of town and is a student at Tacoma College.

Waterman and her alleged accomplices, Jason Arrant and Brian Radel, both 24 years old, are accused of murdering and conspiring to murder Waterman's 48-year-old mother, Lauri Waterman.

Reportedly, Arrant dropped Radel off near the Waterman home shortly after 12:00 a.m. Sunday, November 13, 2004 (local time) where Radel proceeded to kidnap Lauri Waterman, force her into a minivan owned by the Waterman family, and kill her with a blunt object.

Arrant and Radel then allegedly met at Forest Service Road 3012 at about 2:30 a.m., and Arrant followed Radel to its dead end, where Radel had driven the Waterman's van.

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

Alaska State Police Lt. Rodney Dial has stated that a hunter discovered Lauri Waterman's body and her burnt-out van, while driving on Forest Service Road 3012, a remote logging road, early in the afternoon of Sunday 2004.

On Saturday, 2004, Alaska State Police Trooper Robert Claus stated:

During ... interviews all three made admissions as to their involvement in the murder. Physical evidence recovered at the various crime scenes corroborated many of the defendants' statements ... Radel, Arrant and Waterman have been charged with murder in the first degree. Due to the severity of the charges, Waterman has been waived into adult court. Additional charges of solicitation, conspiracy, tampering with physical evidence and other charges are pending. Arrant and Waterman will be arraigned in the District Court in Craig this morning.

On Saturday, November 20, 2004, Rachelle appeared in Craig District Court, dressed in an orange CCJF jumpsuit, for arraignment on the charges. Waterman and her alleged co-conspirators, Jason Arrant, and Brian Radel, faced a 10-count indictment, listing 26 felonies.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that, "the complaint against Rachelle Waterman relied on statements by all three co-defendants. The complaint says the girl told one of the suspects when she and her father would be out of town."

A report in The Ketchikan Daily News stated that, "The first seven counts of the indictment allege that all three defendants committed the crimes of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder; first-degree murder; second-degree murder; kidnapping; first-degree burglary; first-degree vehicle theft and tampering with physical evidence." Other charges were made against Arrant and Radel. The same report went on to state, "Trooper Robert Claus, Klawock resident Jan Bush and Deputy State Medical Examiner Susan Klingler testified before the grand jury."

Magistrate Kay Clark presided over the arraignment and set bail at $150,000. Clark also appointed a public defender to represent Rachelle, who was sent to the Juneau Department of Corrections facility.

Judge Patricia Collins, of the Juneau Superior Court, has been assigned to run the trial for the case. Judge Collins originally set a date of February 3, 2005 for the trial, but, at an arraignment that week, the trial was rescheduled for August 22. According to court officials, another postponement is likely.

Rachelle Waterman's court-appointed attorney for the trial is Assistant Public Advocate Steven Wells. Assistant District Attorney Daniel Schally is assigned to prosecute the case.

No motive for the crime has been suggested. Readers are closely scrutinizing Rachelle's online journal for clues.

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

:"Don't you hate it when the little pieces of shit pile up to the point you're at the breaking point, and you want to scream and cry at the same time. I don't know weather to kill somebody, myself, or just curl up into a fetalsic position under my covers and lay there for a couple of days. Either way . . . I'm not good . . . "

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

:"My mom finally gave me back the right to eat but wants to send me to fat camp this summer. I think it's rather hallarioussic. I mean, I agree I'm chunky but if she sends me off I"ll be the skinny girl and get sat aponsic. That part wouldn't be funny, but overall it's quite amusing. Silly mother," (verbatim spelling).

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

:"well I'm grounded, last ngihtsic my mom went psycho bitch on me and cast me out. So I went to crash at someone's house then she freaked out, wanted me home incasesic I told someone. Wee for loving parental units"

:"I even got to fly...down the stairs...."

Other readers have pointed to the title of Rachelle's journal, "My Crappy Life (The Inside Look of an Insane Person)", and her negative description of her hometown as "Hell, Alaska, United States":

:"I live in the suckiestsic place on earth, a shit hole in alaskasic."

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

:they hold the key to my chamber
:locked within it's depths.
:never to see the sunlight,
:and contemplating death.
:starving more than one way
:soul and body combine,
:the pain curses through
:sending chills up the spine.
:will I live to see the stars?
:the sunrise once more?
:or will I wither and rot
:my heart gone forevermore

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

:"I just want a job, keep me occupied and not at home"

and even posted an "Ode to Suicide" under the following post:

:"Ever feel completely alone? All the people who you care about and you thought cared about you just leave and you're....just alone...nobody to connect with, nobody to comfort you when you find out you might die, nobody...nothing...."

:Ode to Suicide

:Pain consumes my body,
:eating away like lye.
:Tearing at my flesh,
:no more tears left to cry.

:Nobody loves me,
:nobody cares.
:Why continue on?
:I want out of these snares.

:Relief and release,
:is what you bring to me.
:No more matters to cry for,
:I can finally be free.

:"wow I suck amazingly at poetry"

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

Rachelle Waterman is currently incarcerated at the Lemon Creek correctional facility, in Alaska. She signed an agreement to be placed into the general population. Corrections Deputy Commissioner Portia Parker indicated that Waterman "is an adult in the eyes of the law."

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

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

:"Well not a lot has happened lately I jsut thought I should let people know I"m still alive, not like too many people care cus I'm not even sure if anyone reads these from me anymore."

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

LiveJournal has subsequently restricted the viewing of her journal.

When interviewed by Alaskan television station KTUU about the nature of online journals, (in late November, 2004) forensic psychologist Susan LaGrande commented that "it's such an anonymous vehicle that you can be whoever or say whatever you want. You don't have all the responsibilities that are inherent in a face-to-face real, legitimate relationship.

This same report pointed out that Rachelle Waterman had mentioned suicide in her online journal.

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

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

Although Waterman has been waived into the adult justice system due to the nature of the crime, the Governor of Alaska, Frank Murkowski, has proposed increasing the number of personnel assigned to the juvenile justice system. People in Kansas like to just go have a look at things from time to time, particularly if it is kitchy and big. Frank Stoeber died in 1974, but not before he left behind a legacy of twine. Frank started a building a ball of sisal twine (a form of hemp) in 1953, which as grown to 40 ft in diameter hence. The ball of twine's domicile is a mini-museam located in the downtown of Cawker City, Kansas, which onlookers can simple look at or add twine to. In some ways Frank's ball of twine mirrors that of the failed culture of Easter Island. On Easter Island, the people built large stone heads in some final attempt to perserve a culture that was dying from lack of trees. Similarly, Frank's large ball of twine stands an object of preservation. In case you don't make off the coast of Chili, head out to the heartland and have a look. The 1994 settlement agreement between UNIX Systems Laboratories (USL) and Regent of University of California (USL v. BSDi) was unsealed in November 2004 under the California Public Records Act (California Code § 6250-6270). The details of the settlement may have ramifications with respect to the SCO v. IBM case with SCO believing it is the successor in interest to USL. Internet portal and mail-provider Lycos Europe has launched a program to increase spammers' bills by having thousands of voluntary users' computers repeatedly query websites from which spam originates. Such a tactic would increase the bandwidth costs for these websites. However, it also faces legal questions.

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

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

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

Lycos Europe operates in Germany where, according to Joerg Heidrich of Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, less than completely shutting down a server is not clearly illegal under the penal code. It may, however, be actionable under the civil code. But Lycos may be betting that no one will file a suit, as that would require those participating in illegal spamming to reveal their identity.

The website no longer allows downloads of the screensaver, and users of the screensaver cannot connect to spam sites, but are instead given the message 'Stay Tuned' The Valech Report, officially titled The National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture Report, was made public yesterday (November 29, 2004) by Bishop Sergio Valech, the head of the eight-member panel commission into abuses committed in Chile between 1973 and 1990 by agents of Augusto Pinochet's military regime. It was prepared by the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture at the request of the president, and it is freely available to the public as a document on the Internet.

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

On addressing the nation on November 28, 2004, president Ricardo Lagos said he would propose a bill that will provide compensation to the victims.

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

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

The full report, in Spanish, can be found here.

Excerpts from the report as translated by The Miami Herald .

:Consciously or unconsciously, a conspiracy of silence about the torture spread slowly through the country. Political prison and torture constituted a state policy during the military regime, defined and promoted by the political authorities of the period which mobilized personnel and resources of various public organizations and issued decrees and laws that protected such repressive behavior. And this had the support, explicit sometimes but almost always implicit, of the only power that was not a member of that regime: the judiciary.

:More than 18,000 of the 35,868 respondents said they were detained between September and December 1973. During that period, torture was practiced by members of the Armed Forces and Carabineros paramilitary police in what became a generalized practice on a national scale.

:More than 5,266 respondents were political prisoners detained between January 1974 and August 1977, when new modalities of detention and torture were created. By June 1974, the DINA Directorate of National Intelligence was granted full legal recognition and its own budget.

:Almost 4,000 respondents were persons detained for political motives between August 1977 and March 1990. The final period of the repressive process was distinguished by the activities of the CNI National Information Center. In 3,059 cases, the detainees were kept in CNI facilities.

:As the citizenry rearticulated itself politically, the Investigations Department Police police detectives and Carabineros intervened again most actively in the tasks of coercion, detaining (for shorter periods) and torturing (with the usual methods) either on their own or placing oppositionists at the disposal of the CNI, military or civilian tribunals for processing. Alfred Gusenbauer has been reelected as leader of the Austrian Social Democrat Party (SPOE) at the party's convention in Vienna. Gusenbauer received 88.93% of the vote, an unexpectedly low value. In 2002, he was reelected with 99.6%. Gusenbauer leads the SPOE since 1999.

Albeit the low result he has called the vote an "impressive display of confidence". Gusenbauer and other heads of the party, including influential Vienna mayor Michael Haeupl have confirmed that Gusenbauer will be the party's top candidate for the next parliamental election which will also determine the Austrian chancellor.

In his keynote address Gusenbauer has issued heavy criticism at the current Austrian government which is led by chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and the Austrian People's Party (OEVP). The People's Republic of China has signed an agreement with ASEAN to establish the world's largest free trade area. Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, India and Australia are considering joining. ASEAN members include Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and Indonesia.

In the last four years China has become a major importer of oil and commodities, and a major exporter of finished goods. China has also strengthened relationships with oil suppliers in the Middle East and Africa. This pact lifts trade restrictions and removes tariffs from many imports and exports. It also allows China to continue manipulating the value of its currency in its own interests. The yuan is currently undervalued, making Chinese-made goods artificially cheap for foreign importers.

Stated in the agreement is ASEAN's intention to create a unified economy--and by implication polity--similar to the EU. This agreement will cement China's role as the center of the South Asian regional economy, and at the same time strengthening bonds between China and other countries in the region and ease their suspicions over a growing superpower.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun separately adopted accords with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, agreeing to launch the talks early next year. Both agreements aim for trade pacts within two years. Australia and New Zealand are expected to sign similar agreements with ASEAN before discussions close later Tuesday, although ASEAN remains wary of Australian Prime Minister John Howard's refusal to sign its nonaggression treaty. Howard played down these concerns but said on record that he reserves the right to preemptively act against terrorists on foreign soil if they threaten Australia. Hopes were rising that the impasse in the Good Friday Agreement could be broken with high level talks in Downing Street between the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley.

It is also expected that the Republican Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams would have separate meetings with the Irish leader Bertie Ahern in Dublin.
These meetings follow a historic meeting between Gerry Adams and Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde over issues of police reform and decommissioning.

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

Some Unionists are insisting on photographic evidence of the destruction of IRA weapons, a request that is bound to be resisted by more militant Republicans. Even if further decommissioning occurs, Republicans are almost certain to want a specific timetable for the removal of British Army bases in Republican leaning areas of Northern Ireland (such as South Armagh), which are much resented by some local inhabitants.

If the current deadlock were broken, it would mean the reconvening of the Northern Ireland Assembly, which was shut down in 2002 amidst accusations of spying by both Republicans and Unionists. United States President George W. Bush made his first official state visit to Canada this week.

After the political frost between the two states surrounding the U.S.' War on Terror policy and its invasion of Iraq in 2003, the kind of relationship the neighbor states can build or rebuild is thought to be of concern to many Canadians — the majority of whom remain highly critical of the Bush administration's policies.

Topics discussed included the U.S. "Star Wars" missile defence system, the future of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command), combatting of AIDS and other diseases in Africa, and cracking down on illegal activities on the U.S.-Canada border. They also discussed trade issues including beef, lumber, and prescription drugs.

 Protesters clashed with riot police in Ottawa briefly on Tuesday in a break from what has been for the most part a calm series of demonstrations. The Indymedia group of websites reported a demonstration on the 29th against the deportation of Palestinian refugees.
They also report 15,000 people marched against Bush in Ottawa on the 30th and have text photos, and a video of the protests.

During an early afternoon news conference with Prime Minister Paul Martin, Bush said he was pleased with the welcome he received Tuesday morning. "I want to thank the Canadian people who came out to wave —with all five fingers —for their hospitality," he said with a chuckle.

The official 26-hour visit will take the American President to Canada's capital city, Ottawa and to Halifax, where he will pay tribute to the hospitality shown by Canadians on September 11, 2001, when, after the U.S. closed its airspace, more than 200 flights were diverted to Canadian airports. Thousands of Americans were sheltered in Halifax (the largest city in Canada's Atlantic provinces) as well as St. John's and Gander in Newfoundland, and other centres. In a resignation statement today, United States Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge announced that he will leave his position by February 1, 2005, unless a successor is named sooner.

In his tenure as the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Ridge has been instrumental in establishing protocols aimed at thwarting terrorism, including a national warning system based on color coding that is routinely publicized nationally.

In his resignation, Ridge thanked President Bush for the opportunity to help secure the nation and expressed his sentiments that the new security systems put in place since the September 11, 2001 attacks had made America safer and more prepared than it had been. He cited family and personal issues as major reasons for his resignation stating that, "After more than 22 consecutive years of public service, it is time to give personal and family matters a higher priority."

Several days after Ridge's announcement, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson announced his departure and warned that the nation remains vulnerable to potential food-borne terrorist attacks, stating, "I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do."

As the United States's first Secretary of Homeland Security, Ridge resigned his position as Governor of Pennsylvania in 2001 to take the position for which President Bush had nominated him.

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

The Department of Homeland Security is a new player in the power struggle in Washington. Throughout his tenure, Ridge fought a losing battle with the FBI for jurisdiction because the Bush administration allowed the FBI to remain a part of the Department of Justice. A U.S. Department of Defense
advisory committee has released a report harshly criticizing the U.S.-led "War
on Terror". The report details communication failures with the Muslim
world, and notes that current efforts may have achieved the opposite
of their intended effect.

The report released without publicity the Wednesday before Thanksgiving by Defense Science Board, focuses on a failure of communication, which the Defense Science Board considers vital to the war on terror. It asserts this failure of "strategic communication" contributes to a perceived "negative image in world opinion and diminished ability to persuade" of the United States, and that a resulting atmosphere of hostility can manifest in numerous ways.

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

According to the report, "The information campaign ... is an essential objective, because the larger goals of U.S. strategy depend on separating the vast majority of non-violent Muslims from the radical-militant Islamist-Jihadists. But American efforts have not only failed in this respect: they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended."

By way of example, the report quotes figures from a June 2004 Zogby poll, claiming to show a significant drop in Arab support for the U.S. in the past couple years. Statistical results are reproduced below.

The report further claims, "American direct intervention in the Muslim World has paradoxically elevated the stature of and support for radical Islamists." As summarised in a Christian Science Monitor headline, 'They hate our policies, not our freedom'.

So why has support for the U.S. dropped? -- to single digits in some Arab nations. President Bush and others have famously claimed that America is hated for its freedom. But the Defense Science Board concluded that most Arabs "do not hate us for our values, but because of our policies." From the same Zogby study:

This study explains that while support for American values may not be overwhelming, it is practically non-existent for America's policies in the Middle East.

"The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf states. Thus when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy."

In the eyes of Muslims, according to this report, America is really only looking out for its own interests.

It concludes from this that the fundamental problem with relations with the Muslim world is not a simple matter of crafting the right message. "Rather, it is a fundamental problem of credibility. Simply, there is none." Late today, Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store (iTMS) was opened to Canadians. The 700,000+ songs are priced at CAD 99¢ (USD 84¢) per song, the lowest price of any iTMS localization to date. The Canada localization also provides customers the same personal rights for songs as with existing stores:

* Ability to listen to a song on 5 computers.
* Unlimited CD burning.
* Burning the same playlist up to seven times.
* Unlimited iPod usage.

iTMS Canada was announced during the launch of the iPod photo, iPod Special Edition: U2, and EU iTMS on October 26. Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated that the Canada localization was planned for November. Apple apologized today for missing its own deadline, and announced that the store will be launched "very soon." No reason was given for the delay.

iTMS Canada is another choice for Canadians in legal music downloads which includes Archambault.ca (Quebecor Media Inc.), Napster.ca (The legal reincarnation of Napster), and Puretracks.com (Moontaxi Media Inc.).

The Canada localization is the 13th nation to be added to iTMS following its launch in the United States in April 2003; France, U.K., and Germany were added, in June of this year and all European Union countries, except Ireland, were added in October. U.S. President George W. Bush nominated Bernard B. Kerik, the police commissioner of the New York Police Department during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to succeed Tom Ridge as the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Kerik resigned as police commissioner two months following the terrorist attacks, citing the desire to spend more time with his family,
but has since kept a very high profile. Following the invasion of Iraq, he chose to lead the training of Iraqi law enforcement. He campaigned for President George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election and delivered a prime time speech at the Republican National Convention.

Among other security qualifications, he has served in the U.S. Army, as narcotics detective in the NYPD and as private security worker in Saudi Arabia.

Kerik faces the daunting task of running the DHS, an agency assembled from 22 other agencies with over 180,000 employees. According to a report issued by U.S. House of Representatives Congressman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), the majority of abstinence-only sexual education programs in schools contain incorrect or misleading information.

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

These programs are funded by the federal government under President George W. Bush's faith-based initiative. According to the report, these abstinence programs—promoted by the administration of President Bush—are receiving increasing amounts of funding: nearly $170 million will be spent in 2005, which is more than double the spending on these programs in 2001.

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

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

The Waxman Report and the Columbia University study describe some abstinence programs as factually wrong and/or ineffective. In a rebuttal, Dr. Alma L. Golden, a deputy assistant secretary in the Health and Human Services Department, said in a statement that Mr. Waxman's report "misses the boat" and that it took information out of context "for purely political reasons." The Democratic Republic of the Congo may be preparing to have its troops face those of Rwanda, which have allegedly been sighted by United Nations personnel on the Congo side of the border.

The United Nations is attempting to mediate the conflict but both sides of the conflict appear to be pursuing independent policies, with Congo's president accusing Rwanda of being predatory, and Rwandan president refusing to back down from the threat of pursuing Rwandan rebels across Congo's territory. The Ukrainian parliament passed a vote of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych bolstering the efforts of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. In addition, the parliament also voted to establish an interim government during the continuing election crisis.

The vote came just before international mediators were to commence efforts to resolve the controversial election. The Basque separatist group ETA was blamed for five explosions at gas stations in the Spanish capital of Madrid on Friday. The explosions claimed no casualties, but two police officers were lightly wounded.

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

While leaders of ETA's political arm Batasuna have recently hinted at the possibility of a ceasefire, the assault makes any form of dialogue with ETA unlikely in the near future. ETA is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - The first new heavy lift space vehicle in a generation is cleared to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Boeing Delta IV Heavy has missed launch opportunities three days in a row (starting Friday, December 12) due to minor technical difficulties. It is now scheduled to launch Dec. 20 or 21 from pad SLC-37B.

The Delta 4 was developed as part of the U.S Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program to reduce costs and improve reliability. The basic design is a two stage, cryogenic LOx/LH2 rocket. Strap-on boosters may be added to increase lift capacity.

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

The Heavy variant of the Delta 4 rocket can place 13,100 kg (28,950 Lb) into geostationary transfer orbit, greater than any other current rocket. Two additional first stage cores are used as strap-on boosters for this configuration. Their rated thrust is 2,900,000 N (656,000 lb) each.

Delta 4's main engine, the RS68, is the most powerful hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine in the world, approximately three times as powerful as the Ariane 5 Vulcain HM60. Its design sacrifices efficiency for increased reliability and lower cost: rated specific impulse is 365s at sea level and 410s in a vacuum. The second stage engine, Pratt and Whitney's RL-10B-2, has a specific impulse of 462s.

The primary market for this launcher will be classified spy satellites for the US intelligence community. Most of these satellites were previously launched on the Titan 4, which has since been retired. The Delta 4 Heavy's published launch cost is $170 million, compared to the Titan 4's $400 million (1999 dollars).

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

The two nano-satellites are part of the US Department of Defense Nanosat-2 Program, and built by students from New Mexico State University, Arizona State University, and the University of Colorado at Boulder. The Mozambique presidential elections vote count continued Friday in all of the country, with Frelimo and it's candidate Armando Guebuza leading, according to the preliminary results already known, and especially in Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane, traditional regions of influence for the party in power.

With just over 400 thousand votes counted, the Frelimo candidate was ahead with 293 800 votes, against 108 807 to Afonso Dhlakama and 7899 to Raul Domingos. Unnoficial estimates report abstention levels to be between 70% and 80%.

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

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

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

The cashew season begins in late November, extending to February or March, mainly in four provinces: Gaza and Inhambane (Frelimo strongholds), and especially in Zambézia and Nampula (Renamo strongholds).

Normally, the income obtained from this can sustain the workers for the rest of the year, and usually takes them away from their homes and voting centers. Tommy Thompson has joined the growing number of secretaries to leave President George Bush's cabinet.

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

Thompson served as governor of Wisconsin for a record 4 consecutive terms until 2001, when he joined the Bush Administration. Scientists using a computer model of the typical European summer with no human influences (without global warming) have compared it to the same model with global warming included. They have concluded that human influence makes extremely warm summers (i.e. summers as warm as the 2003 heatwave) more than twice as likely.

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

The study is based upon climate activity during the last 50 years, which can only be replicated with computer models which include human forcing (CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs)). However, even within a warmer world the summer of 2003 was anomalously warm in Europe. Most simulations of 2003 climate produce cooler weather in Europe than what actually happened. It is not yet known if flaws in the models cause this difference, if the warmth of 2003 was part of a trend, or 2003 was merely unusually hot. If there will be a warming trend, a model predicts that such summers could become an event of 1-in-2 probability only by 2050.

In the Americas, a series of sudden weather changes has been more frequent in the last 15 years since the discovery of the phenomenon knows as El Niño, in which vast regions of North and South America suffered weather extremes ranging from high tides to extreme hail, rain and snowstorms during summer and winter seasons following extremely hot summers. There's still no scientific evidence that El Niño is directly influenced by human factors. Two car bombs were detonated outside an Iraqi police station near the Green Zone here Saturday, killing 16 and wounding dozens.

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

Entrances into the Green Zone, frequented by foreigners and journalists, were immediately sealed.

Among the four killed were police officers, and between 35 and 60 were reportedly wounded. Shawn Fanning, the creator of Napster and a founder of Snocap, Inc., on Friday revealed his plans for a legal peer-to-peer file-sharing platform. Snocap has signed an agreement with Universal Music Group to make the company's entire catalogue available through the new service. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to Snocap's press release, the platform will include a copyright management interface, which will allow content owners to control the distribution of their intellectual property among users. The service's main competitor would be Apple's iTunes Music Store, which is currently the most widely used legal source of downloadable music. According to Agência Estado, members of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST) are accused of beating to death Paulo Brizola Nunes. Mr. Nunes, 51 years old, was an employee of the Noroeste Farm in Cabixi, 820 km (510 miles) away from the regional capital of Porto Velho, Rondonia. The farm was considered at risk of invasion due to its proximity to a MST encampment.

Nunes and another employee of Noroeste Farm known as "Coco" were on a motorcycle when they were allegedly attacked. MST members allegedly extended barbed wire across the road to down the two men, who were then pummelled with axes and sticks. Coco escaped to a Cabixi police station but Nunes was rendered unconscious and did not survive the assault.

MST is a large Marxist-Maoist inspired movement of agricultural workers in Brazil, officially founded in 1984. The movement claims to pursue equitable redistribution of Brazilian farmland. In 2003 there were 632 MST camps in Brazil, containing 116,382 families. According to a recent report on labor standards in Brazil, conditions for laborers are poor. Currently, MST receives financial help from the Brazilian government and donations from international organizations. The movement also receives funds by selling videos of their invasions and other products like books, flags and caps.

MST's most visible tactic has been their armed occupation of mostly privately-held plantations and landholdings. However, some Brazilians have protested MST's use of violence. Many farms hire gunfighters to protect their properties from invasions as MST is known to permanently evict farmholders. MST claims they use arms only to defend themselves from the gunfighters. Millions of origami cranes have been dropped on Thailand's three southern provinces following violence between the government and ethnic minority Muslim populations. The move has been called a "goodwill gesture" towards Muslims.

Up to 120 million such paper sculptures were dropped on Thailand's three southern-most provinces, Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala. Tensions in this area have increased recently, peaking with the recent death of 85 demonstrators arrested during a protest. The government blamed their deaths on physical weakness due to fasting in the month of Ramadan as the cause, as most if not all the deaths occurred during transport of up to 500 arrested protestors. Critics of the Thai government have called for the resignation of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, blaming the "over-eagerness" of Thai security forces as the cause of the deaths.

The dispersal was timed to coincide with the birthday of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and has generated much interest from the rest of the country's predominantly Buddhist population.
The cranes were built by citizens throughout Thailand and had peace messages written on them. The southern, Muslim provinces are often considered neglected by a north that is larger and of the majority ethnic group. Some have welcomed the goodwill gesture, but critics in both the north and south have said that the resources would have been better spent solving the problems in the south. Some Islamic leaders in the south have also expressed concerns that the gesture may not be properly understood by Muslims, as the crane carries no cultural significance with them. ALMERIA, Spain. - A small explosive device was deactivated today by the Spanish police in Almería, Andalucía.

The bomb was hidden inside a small bag, accompanied by a note signed by ETA, and was set to explode at 13:30 on Monday, December 6, a national holiday to celebrate the Spanish Constitution. The explosive device was found by police while patrolling the Plaza de España (Spain Square), according to a memo by the Ministry of Interior, and was deactivated by a bomb squad without having to explode it.

The Civil Guard calculated that the device carried less than 200 grams of explosive, about the same amount as the bombs placed in 5 gas stations in Madrid on Friday, according to "El Mundo". The Spanish Minister of Interior, José Antonio Alonso, appealed for the population to remain calm and trust the authorities. The "War on Drugs" waged by the United States has been criticized in a report released by the Washington D.C.-left wing based human rights group Washington Office on Latin America. The report, "Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: The Impact of U.S. Policy" ( Summary, PDF), investigated "the impact of drug control policies on human rights and democracy" and declared that present policies in the War on Drugs have failed to achieve any meaningful success.

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

The 400-page WOLA report documents evidence that U.S. efforts to combat illegal drugs in the Americas have served to weaken democratic instutions in Latin America, and have placed the burden of the drug war upon the poorest of their citizens. Co-editor of the report, Coletta A. Youngers maintains that the U.S. policy of crop eradication generates "social unrest, instability and violence" as poor farmers are having their source of income destroyed. Youngers further states that U.S. policies "have contributed to confusing military and law-enforcement functions, militarizing local police forces, and bringing the military into a domestic law enforcement role. They have thus strengthened military forces at the expense of civilian authorities – in a region with a tragic history of military rule" .

As a measure of their success in the War on Drugs, the Office of National Drug Control Policy points to statistics from 2001, which are the most recent published on the ONDCP website, that show a decline in the worldwide level of coca cultivation . The ONDCP also claims success in interdiction efforts and highlights statistics on drug arrests within the United States as measurable achievements in the War on Drugs .

However, the Drug Enforcement Agency's latest statistics (from 2003) show street prices of drugs to be near an all-time low . The same DEA report also concedes that most drugs "are readily available".

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

WOLA was founded in 1974 by Joseph Eldridge, Joyce Hill of the National Council of Churches and Thomas Quigley of the U.S. Catholic Conference. Quigley led the Religious Task Force on El Salvador, part of a coalition called Committee In Solidarity With the People of El Salvador (CIPES). Papers captured in El Salvador belonging to FMLN guerrilla leader, Farid Handal, "documented CIPES' connections with member groups of the Latin network and the international communist movement( Richard P. McBrien, Catholicism, Harper/Collins, NY, new edition 1994, p. 682). Serge Vohor, the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, recently came into spotlight as the newest battleground in the diplomatic war between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan, was accused of pushing the ambassador from the People's Republic of China, Mr. Bao Shusheng.

Mr. Bao, the newly-installed envoy from Beijing, yesterday complained to the press that he was "punched on the shoulder" by Mr. Vohor after the parliamentary session ended last Wednesday (December 1). Mr. Bao approached Mr. Vohor at the time to complain that the flag of Taiwan was still flying in the capital city, even after the council of ministers has already made the decision to take it down.

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

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

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

Mr. Vohor has been in office for only four months and his position now seems precarious, after his secret visit to Taiwan last month. In this trip he signed a communique recognising the Republic of China (the official name of Taiwan) as a sovereign state. But the country's council of ministers, which is Vanuatu's ruling body, revoked the deal and reiterated to Beijing its commitment to the one-China policy, which is a pre-requesite for maintaining formal diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China, which sees Taiwan as its 23rd province and the Republic of China as a defunct entity. Currently the Republic of China maintains formal diplomatic relationships with 27 countries, including Vanuatu. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, said holding a referendum on acceding to the European Constitution in Portugal is inadvisable, in light of the current political crisis in that country.

"A political crisis is surely not the best moment to discuss the European Constitution", Barroso said to the press outside a colloquium about European Identity in Lisbon.

The E.C. President refused to comment on the current situation in Portugal, but admitted to have been "surprised" by the Portuguese President's decision to call for new elections, ending the government's term a full year early.

Barroso was the former Prime Minister of the current Portuguese government and leader of the ruling PSD party. He stepped down to accept the nomination for President of the European Commission, favouring current Prime-Minister Pedro Santana Lopes as his successor.

The Portuguese President, Jorge Sampaio, announced his intention to dissolve the Parliament on Tuesday, November 30 and call for new elections. The decision is not yet final but should be settled no later than Friday, after the President has had an opportunity to consult political parties and others concerned. While it awaits the President's decision, the Parliament will vote on the new State Budget for 2005 today, amid protests from the opposition. Donald Rumsfeld revealed today that he will not resign his position as United States secretary of Defense. Several other members of President George W. Bush's cabinet have resigned. Rumsfeld stated he will continue at his post until at least the end of the Iraq war, although he did not commit to remaining for the full four years of the administration. While also not committing to any dates for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Rumsfeld indicated his desire that they be withdrawn sometime within the next four years. Following his win in the presidential election on October 9, Hamid Karzai was sworn in today as the first-ever elected president of Afghanistan.

Although widely hailed as the start of a new era, both Karzai and Afghanistan face difficult challenges ahead. Insurgencies continue and drug lords still control much of the ethnically-divided country. But the peaceful and democratic vote indicates to many that Afghanistan is on the right track.

The Joint Electoral Management Body declared that Mr. Hamid Karzai won 55 percent of the vote in the election. An expert panel, appointed in the aftermath to investigate complaints about improper balloting, verified earlier today that there were shortcomings with the elections. While the panel said the problems that were identified "could not have materially affected the overall result," it hopes the findings will be used to improve the operations of future elections. Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0, a free open-source mail user agent, has been released within the last twenty-four hours by the Mozilla Foundation. Thunderbird has been in development for more than one and a half years. The release of Thunderbird 1.0 comes less than one month after the Foundation released Firefox 1.0, its internet browser.

The new version contains many updates in the areas of security and ease of use. A newsgroup and a RSS reader is integrated into the application, which also features adaptive junk mail filters. Common mail protocols POP3 and IMAP are both supported, so users will be able to access some brands of webmail from within the program.

Thunderbird is directly competing with Microsoft Outlook.

The free download is 5.8 megabytes. Former Houston Rockets star Calvin Murphy, accused of molestation by five of daughters, was found not guilty by the jury, putting an end to the eight-month long trial.

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

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

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

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

On Feb. 20, letters went to Murphy, his three daughters and their grandmother that Murphy was the account's rightful beneficiary. The money was never paid.

A month later, Murphy was arrested and charged with sexual abuse and indecency.

Because of the nature of the accusations, Murphy lost his job with the Houston Rockets, where he was a TV commentator. Murphy has not commented about if he has plans to return to a broadcasting career. An explosion during the early hours of Wednesday blew a big hole in a house in central Stockholm. The tenant, a 48 year old man suspected of stealing valuable books from the Royal Library, is missing. Two persons were lightly injured in the explosion.

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

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

The man had been in custody for a month on charges of theft from the Royal Library in Stockholm. He is suspected of having stolen books worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and has given a partial confession. Some books were found in his apartment on a previous occasion. He was released from custody this Friday.

Claes-Göran Johansson, safety expert on Fortum, the gas provider, says that nothing indicated a gas explosion. "Normally such a large explosion would have started a fire". He also claims that such a large explosion should not be possible by accident.

The body of the 48-year old has been found in the apartment in central Stockholm. After spending weeks going over written statements, TV video and even fan shot video, Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca announced criminal charges against five Indiana Pacer players and seven fans stemming from the November 19th brawl at The Palace Of Auburn Hills.

Stephen Jackson, David Harison, Ron Artest and Anthony Johnson were all charged with one count of assault and battery. Three time NBA All-Star Jermaine O’Neal was charged with two counts of assault and battery. Each charge is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of 3 months in jail and a fine up to $500.

Gorcyca also filed charges against seven fans. John Green, John Ackerman, William Paulson, Bryant Jackson and David Wallace were all charged with assault and battery. David Wallace is the brother of Detroit Piston star, Ben Wallace.

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

Bryant Jackson also faces a felony assault charge for throwing a chair. That is punishable by up to four years in jail, but Gorcyca said Jackson may serve more time based on his prior convictions.

Two other fans, Charlie Haddad and Alvin Shackleford, were also charged with a local ordinance that prevents fans from walking onto the floor. All seven fans have been banned from The Palace. A commuter van (Van Pool No. 36) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) plunged 200 feet into a ravine in the Angeles National Forest this morning. The van was carrying ten people: six JPL employees, two NASA employees, and two private contractors. They are identified as:

* Javier Bautista: Regular Substitute Driver
* Cheryl Lynn Allworth: Executive Secretary in JPL's Space Experiments Systems Section
* Dorothy M. Forks: JPL Human Resources
* Peter Robles
* Helga Maria Wurm
* Jane F. Galloway: JPL Business Manager
* Kerri Lynn Agey: Contractor for JPL Security Services
* Christopher Butts
* Jim Kitahara
* David Myers

Three of the passengers -- Forks, Galloway, and Agey -- lost their lives; the remaining seven sustained various levels of injury, including one passenger suffering critical injury, according to authorities. All victims were airlifted to local area hospitals.

According to witnesses who reported the crash, the van simply drove off the side of Angeles Forest Highway. Despite the presence of fog during the accident, the California Highway Patrol believes that this was not a factor. The CHP has said that the investigation into the crash may take two to three days before the cause is known.

JPL spokesperson D.C. Agle confirmed that the van was from the facility. Initially, JPL refrained from commenting, but JPL security was spotted at the site shortly after the incident occurred.

The Angeles Forest Highway is a two-lane mountain road considered a commuter route for many residents of the Antelope Valley including Palmdale and Lancaster residents. It is an alternative to get to Interstate 210, rather than taking the heavily traveled Antelope Valley Freeway (California State Route 14). U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, after a speech to U.S. soldiers at an American military base in Kuwait, was confronted by Iraq-bound soldiers raising their concerns over a variety of issues.

During a question-and-answer session of unscreened questions following his speech at Camp Buehring, Rumsfeld replied to soldier's concerns over aging equipment and a lack of armor for military vehicles. One soldier, Spc. Thomas Wilson, received applause from the gathered troops after asking the defense secretary, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Rumsfeld hesitated, then replied, "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have." Rumsfeld further clarified that the Pentagon was making all possible effort to provide the materials required as quickly as possible, but that it has been difficult to keep up with demand.

:"It's not a matter of money or desire," Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb, the commander of Army forces in the Persian Gulf, told the troops after Mr. Rumsfeld asked him to address Specialist Wilson's question. "It's a matter of the logistics of being able to produce it" .

However, a recent claim by a company producing such armor for the Pentagon has contradicted this assertion. "We've been telling the Pentagon for months that we have the capacity to double our production," said Matt Salmon, a consultant for ArmorWorks of Tempe, AZ. ArmorWorks, which has a $30 million contract with the Pentagon to supply armor kits to be fitted on Humvee vehicles, claims to be operating at only half-capacity, with little to no interest shown by the Pentagon in increasing their output.

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

Maj. Gen. Gary Speer, the deputy commanding general of U.S. forces in Kuwait, stated that every vehicle deploying to Iraq from Kuwait has at least "Level 3" armor protection. According to Speer, this means the vehicle has locally fabricated armor for its side panels, but not bulletproof windows or reinforced floorboards. He was not aware of soldiers retrieving used bulletproof glass or scrap metal from landfills.

It is difficult to estimate the seriousness of the problems cited by the soldiers, and the Army claims to be unaware of widespread shortages in necessary equipment. However, enough soldiers have expressed concern () since the start of combat in Iraq to have provoked a reevalution within the military on the amount and type of protection U.S. forces require in Iraq .

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

Shortly after the speech, Rumsfeld continued on his way to Kabul to watch President Karzai be sworn in. – According to The Times, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The Right Honourable Anthony Charles Lynton Blair wants to involve the United States of America in efforts to reduce anthropogenic interference with Earth's climates. Historically, the United Kingdom's closest partner in this endeavor has been the Federal Republic of Germany. The United States government has famously refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Blair sais also that the Kyoto Protocol doesn't go far enough. He would like to involve the private sector also and he has put this item on top of the G8, so all the large countries of the world have to talk about it.

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

Some sources are saying, Blair is saying these things because he can make the more progressive voters change their mind, so they would vote for him. Under a draft plan of the Australian Federal Government's "mutual obligation" agreements, members of the Aboriginal community Mulan in Western Australia will be obliged to ensure that homes and yards are clean, students attend school, rubbish bins are emptied twice a week and that children undertake frequent facewashing.

As a "quid pro quo" the community will receive $172,000 AUD in federal funding for petrol bowsers and fuel stations, while the Western Australian Government will provide regular testing for skin infections, worm infestations and the eye condition trachoma, which is widespread in Mulan.

Community administrator Mark Sewell approached Wayne Gibbons, a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission chief executive, to initate an agreement four months, once it became clear that the face-washing program at the Mulan Catholic school was having a positive effect. The program, which has been running for eighteen months, has reduced the levels of trachoma among students from 80% to 16%.

Presently, the residents of Mulan must drive 44km to the nearby community of Balgo for fuel.

Acting race discrimination commissioner, Tom Calma, has approved the deal, despite concerns from members of the Mulan community. Aboriginal lawyer and land rights activist Michael Mansell claimed that placing conditions on funding is unlawful and unenforceable. The government proposal has been widely labelled as 'humiliating' to the community. The 10th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 10) is being held in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires; signatories of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have gathered to discuss issues involving global warming. Senior U.S. negotiator Dr. Harlan Watson came under fire for the United States' refusal to ratify the almost 10 year old Kyoto Treaty (AKA: Kyoto Protocol) which aims to reduce the emission of 6 greenhouse gases in the 55+ signatory nations and requires participating industrialized countries to give money and technology to developing countries.

Watson countered these complaints by arguing that, "Kyoto is a political agreement, it's not based on science." He also stated that the United States remains steadfast to its current position on global climate change. Supporters of the Kyoto Treaty state the protocol's required actions are not sufficient to effect their claimed warming effects. Nathan Gale, 25, jumped onstage during a concert with the band Damageplan and started shooting a handgun at band members, and then into the crowd. He killed four people, including former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, real name Darrell Abbott, who seems to have been the main target. Two others were wounded. The gunman was killed by a police officer responding to the call.

Damageplan was started by the brothers Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell when their former band Pantera split up.

Abbot's death is noted worldwide by guitarists, musicians, and lovers of metal. Former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly jumping on the hood of a man's car outside a nightclub in late November. The incident occurred at 1 a.m. at the Pussycat Lounge. The driver of the car, who identified himself as "Asaf Alikadic" to authorities, claimed that Tyson jumped on the hood of his car while he was leaving the nightclub, causing $1,400 in damage to the vehicle. The man does not plan to press charges but wants the damages paid for.

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

Tyson was released after being given a citation. A court date is to be scheduled within ten days. A US veteran sergeant reports witnessing torture in Iraq and the cover-up activities of his commanding officers.

Honorably discharged US veteran, Sergeant Frank "Greg" Ford reports that he witnessed war crimes in Samarra, Iraq.

 Democracy Now! interviewed David DeBatto on it's December 12, 2004 show. David wrote Whitewashing torture?, which is an account of Sergeant Frank "Greg" Ford's report on Iraqi prisoner abuse at his base in Samarra, Iraq. DeBatto, a former counterintelligence officer in Iraq, is currently authoring a four-part fiction series, as well as working as a journalist.

In Whitewashing torture?, DeBatto explains that Sergeant Ford witnessed the torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees over a two to three week period in the spring of 2003 by his fellow intelligence operatives. Ford attempted to confront his team leader several times without success, and eventually went to his commanding officer Captain Victor Artiga in order to file a formal complaint. According to Ford, instead of an investigation being conducted, he was given thirty seconds by Captain Artiga to retract his complaint. When Ford didn't comply, he was immediately stripped of his weapon and assigned a 24-hour escort. Shortly after he was told to report to an army psychiatrist for a "combat stress evaluation". The psychiatrist deemed Ford to be "completely normal" and filed her report with Captain Artiga.

According to a witness, Sergeant First Class Michael Marciello, when Artiga saw the psychiatrist's report, Artiga was, "livid". He "stormed" back to the psychiatrist and "browbeat" her to change her report to read that Ford was mentally unstable, and ordered her to have Ford shipped out of the country. Ford was later strapped to a medical gurney and medvac'd out of Iraq. He was initially sent to Kuwait and eventually to Landstuhl, Germany. Ford then underwent psychological evaluation in Germany and also two bases in the United States for approximately 8 months.

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

DeBatto reported that Ford was not the only soldier to have this happen to him. According to Col. C. Tsai, a military psychiatrist who examined Ford at the Army Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, there had been three or four other soldiers who had been sent there under very similar circumstances. Specifically, the soldiers had made allegations of abuse or mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. DeBatto indicated he had even came across a decorated veteran from the first Gulf War who made allegations and has committed to a mental ward in Kentucky. According to DeBatto, that officer is still fighting his committal. Tsai had found nothing at all unstable about Ford.

DeBatto reported that Ford was eventually given an honorable discharge in February, 2004. He is currently looking into filing civil and criminal charges against the officers involved. He has contacted the FBI, the Department of the Army's Office of the Inspector General, as well as the Army's Criminal Investigation Division. All three agencies have initiated criminal and administrative investigations into the incident. The final one-day cricket match between Australia and New Zealand has ended with no result after the game was called off due to rain.

The lack of a result means that the inaugural Chappell-Hadlee Trophy will not be awarded, as the series was tied at one game each. In the first game, New Zealand scored a thrilling victory from behind to win with two balls to spare, while in the second game, Australia knocked New Zealand over with 17 balls to spare after a valiant fightback attempt by Kyle Mills.

Australia will next meet New Zealand in international cricket in February of 2006, when the Australian team will tour New Zealand and play three one-day internationals.

New Zealand spin bowler Daniel Vettori was proclaimed to be the man of the series, and took away a 42-inch plasma television as a prize. Lycos Europe has ended its anti-spam operation: "Make Love Not Spam." A company spokesperson said the objective of the time-limited campaign was to raise people's awareness. The reasons why it ended the campaign was variously reported and speculated in media. The operation, while fairly popular, suffered unexpected troubles and drew criticism from security experts and others from the start.

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

Security experts roundly criticized the program. Steve Linford, director of a non-profit anti-spam organization SpamHaus, and Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant of Sophos, pointed out that lowering moral standards to fight spammers was not a good idea. The legality of attacking the servers was also debated since it resembles "Distributed Denial of Service" attacks (DDoS), except that Lycos did not completely shut down the target servers.

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

Some Internet service providers blocked either the traffic to Lycos-Europe, or the requests generated by the screensaver.

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

On December 6, F-Secure reported a virus email disguised as the anti-spam screensaver. When its attachment (a zip file) is opened, it self-extracts and installs a "Trojan horse" --harmful program disguised as legitimate software. The Trojan horse was set up to monitor keystrokes in order to steal passwords, bank account numbers and other important information.

Lycos' software had been downloaded more than 100,000 times by the end of the campaign. South American nations began the creation of an international economic and legislative bloc by a declaration made at the Third South American Summit on 8 December. Named the South American Community of Nations, the organization is a step toward greater coordination among South American states.

Two existing South American trade blocs, the Andean Community (Comunidad Andina) and the Southern Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur, or Mercosur), have been combined and three previously uninvolved states included to create the community.

The summit, held between 7-9 December at Cusco and Ayacucho in Peru, was attended by heads of state from Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Foreign ministers attended for Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The summit was convened principally to sign the two-page Preamble to the Foundation Act of the South American Union on the second day of the summit. Although the Bolivian and Colombian presidents attended the summit, they did not attend the signing ceremony, this instead being done by representatives. Central American states Mexico and Panama attended the ceremony as observers.

The locations for the summit were chosen for their historical significance and their association with events that reflect well on South America. Cusco was the ancient capital of the advanced civilization of the Incas. Ayachucho was the site of an 1824 decisive victory against Spanish troops by the South American independence movement headed by Simón Bolívar. The First and Second South American Summits were held at Brasília, Brazil in September 2000 and Guayaquil, Ecuador in July 2002.

The community will include every state in South America with the exception of French Guiana, itself a territory of France. Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela join SACN from the Andean Community, a trade bloc established in 1969. From the more recent (1991) Mercosur comes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Guyana, Suriname, two small northeastern countries which had previously not participated in a South American trade bloc, will not immediately join the community. Chile will additionally join; it has, however, been cautious.

SACN is a more ambitious union than the previous Andean Community and Mercosur. It has been established to be more than a trade union. The "ultimate goal, which can hopefully be reached, in time, is the United States of South America," explains Secretary General of the Andean Community Wagner. A common currency, tariff-free common market, and regional parliament are all proposed in the Cusco declaration.

Many disputes exist between South American nations that may be issues in advancing SACN.

The principal force behind SACN has been Brazil. The First South American Summit was held in Brazil through the efforts of Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

Chile has been an associate member of Mercosur since 1996. It was a member of the Andean Community from its inception in 1969, but withdrew six years later when ruled by General Augusto Pinochet. With 70% of its GDP attributed to foreign trade, Chile has traditionally favored relations with the United States or the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum over South American agreements.

SACN's short-term political and economic effects may be limited. The elimination of all trade tariffs has long been a goal of both the Andean Community and Mercosur, but has had little success.

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

Details of the South American Community of Nations are expected to be planned further at the first First SACN Summit in March or April of 2005 in Brazil. Work on a constitution is expected to begin in 2005. A Second SACN Summit of unspecified date is to be held in Bolivia. OSLO — The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to Dr Wangari Maathai from Kenya. She is the first African woman to win the Peace prize, and the 12th woman to win the prize since its inception in 1901. The Nobel committee cited "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace" as the reasons for awarding the prize. It is the first Peace prize awarded to an environmentalist.

Dr Maathai is a member of parliament in Kenya, the country's deputy environmental minister, and holds a Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Nairobi. For seven years she was the director of the Red Cross in Kenya, and is most known for founding the Green Belt Movement — a non-governmental organization dedicated to environmental conservation and protecting forests. Since its founding in 1997, the organization claims to have planted over 30 million trees, in the process employing thousands of women — offering them empowerment, education and even family planning.

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

On her Green Belt Movement project, Dr Maathai told the UNESCO Courier in 1999, "If you want to save the environment, you should protect the people first, because human beings are part of biological diversity. And if we can't protect our own species, what's the point of protecting tree species?"

In accepting the prize, Dr Maathai said that she was humbled by the recognition and uplifted by the honor of receiving the award, and discussed social and environmental problems that still challenge Africa and the rest of the world. The award includes a cash component of 10 million Swedish Kronor (approximately US$1.4 million).

Dr Maathai's project was opposed by the Kenyan government during Daniel arap Moi's rule, and Dr Maathai's demonstrations to protect the forests often met with violent resistance; eventually, she was jailed.

"The government thinks that by threatening me and bashing me they can silence me," Dr Maathai said. "But I have an elephant's skin and somebody must raise their voice."

In 1997 Dr Maathai ran for president on the Liberal Party of Kenya ticket. In 2002 — after Moi's Kenya African National Union party lost the presidential race — she was elected to Parliament, and was appointed deputy minister of environment for the new government the next year, a position she holds today. Doctors from the Rudolfinerhaus clinic in Vienna say "there is no doubt" Ukrainian opposition leader Victor Yushchenko was poisoned with Dioxin.

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

Although it has not yet been proven that the poisoning was deliberate, doctors suspect it was. "We suspect a cause triggered by a third party," said Michael Zimpfer, head doctor at the Rudolfinerhaus clinic. He suggested the poison may have been administered orally, through food or drink.

Today's announcements are a follow-up of an earlier press conference, where Dr. Korpan that there were three hypotheses under consideration, one of them involving dioxin. He did not reveal what the other two hypotheses were. Dr. Michael Zimpfer, director of the Rudolfinerhaus clinic emphasized that time there was no proof yet to specify the substance causing the illness.

Yushchenko left Kiev on Friday (2004-10-12) for further examination in Vienna.
When Yushchenko fell ill on October 6th, Ukrainian doctors had initially diagnosed food poisoning, leading to speculation that he had been poisoned deliberately. The illness has disfigured Yushchenko's body and face which doctors say could take up to two years to heal.

He fell seriously ill on the September 6th, during his presidential campaign. Yushchenko was taken to the Rudolfinerhaus clinic of Vienna, where he stayed for four days under Dr. Korpan's care. He was diagnosed with "acute pancreatitis, accompanied by interstitial edematous changes." These symptoms were said to be due to "a serious viral infection and chemical substances which are not normally found in food products" as his campaign officials put it. In laymans terms, he developed an infection in the pancreas and got a bad skin condition that disfigured his face with cysts and lesions. The skin condition has similarities with the chloracne associated with dioxin posioning according to a British toxicologist John Henry.
* Viktor Yushchenko (left) as he appeared in July 2004 and (right) as he appeared in November after the poisoningGleb Garanich/Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters United States President George W. Bush's nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security, Bernard Kerik, has declined to continue through Senate confirmation. In a letter to President Bush, Kerik explained that the immigration status of a housekeeper and nanny, as well as nonpayment of income tax on the housekeeper were his reasons for retracting.

However, Kerik's past dealings may have been the strongest reason for his decision to withdraw from the nomination. Newsweek has uncovered that as recently as 1998, a New Jersey judge had issued an arrest warrant for Kerik following a tangled web of lawsuits relating to unpaid bills on a condominum. Newsday and the Seattle Times have reported that Kerik may have business ties to the Mob and allegations of two extramarital affairs have arisen.

In addition, his windfall profit from stock options in Taser International (i.e. "Taser guns") with no apparent investment, has been under heavy investigation. Kerik received a profit of more than USD $6 million after selling his stock in early November, just before an Amnesty International report critical of Taser guns was released. Kerik had joined Taser International's board shortly after resigning as New York City's police commissioner; both the NYPD and Department of Homeland Security have purchased large amounts of Taser's non-lethal electroshock weapons. Taiwan's opposition parties defeated the pro-independence coalition in the country's legislative elections. The result means President Chen Shui-bian may have trouble pursuing his agenda of distancing Taiwan from mainland China.

Election officials say the Kuomintang-led opposition coalition will end up with 114 seats in Taiwan's 225-member Legislative Yuan - one more than it had going into Saturday's vote. The coalition favors stronger ties with mainland and leaving unchanged Taiwan's political status. The pro-independence coalition led by President Chen Shui-bian's Democratic Progressive Party, failed again to secure control of the legislature. It captured 101 seats.

The election was seen as a referendum on the president's efforts to distance Taiwan from mainland China and move toward greater separation. Taiwan and mainland China split in 1949 after a civil war divided the country. While the People's Republic of China was established on the mainland, the Nationalists fled to Taiwan and continued to cling onto the Republic of China. While Taipei moved away from its claim of being the sole legitimate government of China in the 1990s, Beijing continues to consider the island its territory and says Taiwanese independence moves would be considered grounds for war.

President Chen may find it difficult to push forward his key platform issues. They include legislative approval of an $18 billion arms purchase from the United States; renaming state enterprises and foreign offices that bear the name "China" or "Chinese" to bear the name "Taiwan," and a referendum on a new constitution.

Hsiao Bi-Khim, a member of the president's Democratic Progressive's Party, says those issues are important for his country. "These issues, they're actually reflecting the popular sentiment here and are a pragmatic step forward," said Hsiao Bi-Khim. "It's a process of natural evolution here in Taiwan."

Beijing says the proposals could provoke Chinese intervention but Ms. Hsiao says the president will not push Taiwan toward formal independence. "President Chen has laid out what we will not touch upon, and mainly issues related to sovereignty, independence and national name change, these issues will not be dealt with in the constitutional reform process," she said.

 Washington "does not support" independence for Taiwan. Neither does it categorically oppose it. It does oppose any unilateral changes in the present situation. Saturday, it appeared that by leaving control of the legislature in the hands of the president's opposition, Taiwan's voters did just that. Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes, along with his entire cabinet, resigned Saturday after President Jorge Sampaio dissolved the Western European nation's parliament.

The resignations came after Sampaio warned the government that it would be "politically limited" in the run-up to elections scheduled on February 20. Santana Lopes's Social Democrat Party is severely trailing the Socialists in public opinion polls, reports indicate.

After a slew of crises during Santana Lopes's tenure, including poor credit ratings and accusations of media censorship, Sampaio dissolved the parliament on Friday in an attempt to restore credibility to the nation. He then scheduled new elections ahead of the ones already scheduled for 2006. In Israel, key political parties have begin conversations to form a new government. The Likud party and the Labour party intend to cooperate to ensure a stable formation. If the process works as planned, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon can start his plan to evacuate Gaza. Mr. Sharon needed new coalition partners after sacking Shinui from government. Washington, DC - US President George W. Bush has chosen former Utah governor Mike Leavitt to succeed the outgoing Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. Leavitt, 53, who took over the Environmental Protection Agency last year, will succeed Tommy Thompson if the Senate confirms him. He would oversee implementation of new prescription drug benefits for people on Medicare and Bush's plans to allow religious groups to apply for federal funds to provide treatments for addiction.

Leavitt joined Bush's cabinet in 2003, and has been called a 'fine executive' by the President. The move comes as the Bush administration is trying to find someone to fill the post of Secretary of Homeland Security, after nominee Bernard Kerik withdrew concerning immigration issues with a former nanny.

The department oversees Medicare and Medicaid for senior citizens, the safety of drugs and the nation's food supply through the Food and Drug Administration and it administers the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thompson is the ninth cabinet member to leave after Bush's re-election, and his departure was not seen as a shock by many Washington insiders. Those nine departures mark the largest second-term Cabinet overhaul in more than 30 years. Presidents Reagan and Clinton each had seven Cabinet changes for their second terms. The last to have nine was Richard Nixon in 1972. The Senate must confirm all of the nominees. Confirmation hearings have been scheduled for Margaret Spellings, nominated for education secretary, on January 6, and Condoleezza Rice, nominated for secretary of state, on January 18-19. On the one year anniversary of Saddam Hussein's capture, 13 Iraqis were killed according to AP in a suicide car bomb attack by an al-Qaida-linked terrorist. The attack took place about 9 AM Monday, when many Iraquis were arriving to work, outside the Green Zone which is home to the Iraqi interim government and several embassies. The region is under severe protection.

Authorities said the suicide bomber detonated the car while it was in line at a checkpoint. The explosion was very loud and it could be heard throughout the city. The hotly contested Puerto Rico election for governor has entered the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston to decide whether the Puerto Rican Supreme Court or a U.S. District Judge has jurisdiction over the contested ballots.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has jurisdiction over Puerto Rico. The election has been contested since November.

The ballot for governor allows Puerto Ricans to vote for a governor of their political party and any one person. The largest instance of this occurred when members of the Independence Party voted for their candidate (who trailed a distant third) and for Aníbal Acevedo Vilá of the Popular Democratic Party. Opposition mainly from the New Progressive Party argues that the intent of the voter is not clear on these "mixed ballots." The Popular Democratic Party points out that such mixed ballots have been accepted in the past.

Pedro Rosselló, former governor from the New Progressive Party, is up for re-election.

The Puerto Rican Supreme Court ruled the ballots valid, a decision that was overturned by a U.S. Federal Judge Daniel Domínguez, who ordered ballots be counted but not confirmed until their validity can be decided. The election is a close one, and the validity of the contested ballots will determine the winner.

Time pressure increases with each day, since the inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 2, 2005.

The Independence Party favours Puerto Rico becoming an independent nation, and is a small third party. The Popular Democratic Party currently is the ruling party and favours Puerto Rico to remain a commonwealth. The New Progressive Party favours Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state. Four universities as well as The New York Public Library have agreed to work with Google to make some of their books available via the world wide web. The universities are Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Oxford. Redwood City, California - The jury in the Scott Peterson trial suggest that Peterson receive the death penalty. Peterson was found guilty of murdering his pregnant wife Laci and their unborn child.

The official sentence will be announced on February 25th, 2005. In recent weeks several large European BitTorrent and ed2k link sites have either been closed by the police or have gone offline voluntarily. Sites in France, Netherlands, Finland and Slovenia have been affected.

On December 14, FIOD-ECD, the Dutch economic crimes police, raided the premises of the hosting provider Mindlab. Servers hosting sites Releases4u.com and Shareconnector.com were seized by the police. The reported number of systems seized differs, from 4 ( tweakers.net) to 11 ( the register). The raids were initiated by BREIN, a Dutch non-government "copyright oversight organization".

BitTorrent link sites distribute torrents, which are computer files with information about a larger, shared file co-ordinated by small servers known as trackers. Unlike predecessors of P2P applications like Napster, this sharing is not centralised on the servers of link site operators, and no illegal files exist on the servers of link site operators. Although such a system has been previously thought to be a legal loophole for file sharers, the recent spate of raids by copyright enforcement authorities apparently proves otherwise.

Prior to raids Mindlab clients Releases4u and ShareConnector were the largest link sites for the ed2k network in the Netherlands. Mindlab had previously refused to remove the servers for Releases4u and ShareConnector, arguing that such link sites were legal in the Netherlands.

The servers were taken down after a discussion that went nowhere according to Tim Kuik, head of BREIN. "We simply ran of patience," he says.

At the same time, FinReactor, one of the largest link sites in Finland was raided by the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (Keskusrikospoliisi, KRP) at the request of Finnish copyright organisations.

On December 19 two large BitTorrent sites, SuprNova.org and TorrentBits.org closed without providing an explanation, although these have apparently been voluntary decisions by the operators of the sites.

Prior to its closure SuprNova.org, based in Slovenia, was generally considered to be the largest BitTorrent link site on the Internet that hosted links to both authorised (e.g. Linux software) and unauthorised files (e.g. Hollywood films). This closure is surprising as it has been generally thought that its location in Slovenia would make it invulnerable to the actions of American-based copyright enforcement groups.

According to a statement made later on the site by its site's 18 year-old owner, who goes by the nickname Sloncek, and an interview for Slyck, he decided to voluntarily close the links section of the site after the news about arrests of admins of several prominent P2P sites and after receiving legal warnings.

Although the forums and the IRC network will remain online, SuprNova.org claims that it will no longer hold links to BitTorrent files again.

At the end of 2004, eXeem, a project to decentralize the BitTorrent link network developed by SuprNova.org, reached a beta stage.

In a bid to avoid the pitfall of Napster, most other major filesharing networks are decentralized, including Gnutella, Gnutella 2, KaZaA and eDonkey2000.

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

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

Other torrent sites that have reportedly closed are Delirium Vault, Youceff Torrents (closed by French police), Phoenix Torrents (closed voluntarily).

Activities of P2P link sites have not been proved to be illegal and so far no link site was successfully sued by copyright owners. However, police in many countries are often willing to close the sites when they are accused of copyright violations. Confiscating the servers is usually enough to destroy the site, as most of the sites are run by volunteers on a non-profit basis, who are unable and unwilling to fight a prolonged legal battle.

The first large link site to be closed, ShareReactor, was taken down by Swiss police on March 10th, 2004.

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

Many people have suspected that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a trade association representing the interests of major movie studios based in the United States, are linked to police actions, although the extent of their involvement is unknown at this stage. The MPAA has taken credit for the closure of FinReactor, although the KRP has officially denied that MPAA had any contacts with Finnish authorities .

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file distribution tool written by programmer Bram Cohen which was debuted at CodeCon 2002. BitTorrent allows many people to download one file at fast speeds. It does this by having downloaders swap portions of a file with one another, instead of downloading from a single centralised server or individual. It is particularly suited to quickly distributing new files to a large number of users.

eDonkey2000 is a peer-to-peer file sharing application developed by MetaMachine, using the Multisource File Transfer Protocol. eDonkey network encourages permanent sharing of files, ensuring good long-term availability, but is not as effective as BitTorrent in quickly spreading new releases. In a rare case of man-bites-dog, a Gainsville, Florida man was arrested on an animal cruelty charge on Saturday after authorities determined that he had been biting his dog as punishment.

The man — Mount Lee Lacy, age 21 — told officers that biting was an effective form of punishment. He had most recently used biting in response to his dog defecating in the house. He has not yet posted his $25,000 bail. The House of Lords, the UK's highest court, has ruled that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial contravenes British and European human rights legislation. The appeal, on behalf of nine suspected terrorists, was upheld by the Law Lords with a vote of eight to one. Despite the ruling, Home Secretary Charles Clarke, in his first full day in office, has decided that the terrorists will remain in prison; six of the suspects are being held in Belmarsh prison, the other three in Broadmoor Hospital.

The solicitor representing eight of the suspects has said that she will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if the men are not released immediately. The Liberal Democrats have called on Charles Clarke to stand up to the draconian anti-terror measures enacted by his predecessor, David Blunkett, in the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. This act was passed in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The ruling is the second major blow to Prime Minister Tony Blair's anti-terrorist legislation in the space of 24 hours following the resignation of his key ally, and architect of much of the legislation, David Blunkett yesterday. On the first day of a two day EU summit, a provisional date of October 3 2005 has been set to begin membership talks with Turkey. However, with the large barriers that must be crossed before Turkish membership is accepted the talks could take as long as 15 years, and membership is far from guaranteed.

The first major hurdle is Turkish recognition of Cyprus. EU leaders, including European Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso, have made recognising the island member-state a key pre-requisite for talks, however, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously said that he would not bow to demands to recognise the nation citing this as one of four "red lines" he will not cross. Erdogan has said that recognition is entirely dempendent upon the Greek-Cypriots accepting a United Nations peace plan to re-unify the island, which previously they rejected.

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

Should Turkey's application be successful it would extend the boundary of the EU to the borders of Iran, Syria, and Iraq. Turkey would also be the first majority Muslim nation to join the multi-national organisation. Approximately 100 students gained access to their Higher School Certificate results, before the official release date of Friday 17th December 2004. Police are pursuing the matter.

The access was gained through the Board of Studies website. To read their results, the student required a .zip , which was being distributed among students using the Internet. This seems to have contained a URL. This URL was either directly to the board of studies site, or to a script/site which allowed as student to enter information then assembled a URL to the board of studies site, allowing students to view their results early. The draw for the first knockout round of the Champions League proper has been made today at UEFA's headquarters in Switzerland. In perhaps the tie of the round the league leaders of the Premier League and La Liga, Chelsea and Barcelona, have been drawn together.

Here is the complete draw:

Real Madrid v. Juventus 
FC Porto v. Inter Milan 
Barcelona v. Chelsea 
Werder Bremen v. Lyon 
Liverpool v. Bayer Leverkusen 
PSV v. Monaco 
Manchester United v. AC Milan 
Bayern Munich v. Arsenal

The teams listed first will play their home game first. The first leg matches will be played on February 22/23, with the return games played on March 8/9. The FC Porto-Inter Milan second leg will be played on March 15 due to UEFA rules saying that a stadium cannot be used to host two games on consecutive days; Inter share their San Siro ground with AC Milan This event saw an emergence of the Pacific Island nations into the Commonwealth Judo community. For many years only Fiji's Nacanieli Takayawa was apparent on the international scene. Although not taking many medals, the efforts going into development in nations such as Tonga allowed many of their players to place 5th or 7th. India also performed well, especially their women's team.

13-14 November 2004, Auckland, New Zealand

Mens -60 kg
# Chana, Navjot (IND)
# Smith, Tom (ENG)
# Boore, Stephen (WAL)
# Leat, Alister (NZL)

Mens -66 kg
# Carder, Gareth (ENG)
# Pilley, Ben (NZL)
# Ovtchinnikov, Anton (NZL)
# Singh, Bhupinder (IND)

Mens -73 kg
# Ewers, Craig (WAL)
# Broom, Peter (NZL)
# Reed, Tom (ENG)
# Reid, Lyndsay (NZL)

Mens -81 kg
# Cousins, Thomas (ENG)
# Preston, Luke (WAL)
# Endicott-Davies, Morgan (AUS)
# Solanki, Vinod (IND)

Mens -90 kg
# Cousins, Peter (ENG)
# O Connor, Mark (WAL)
# Dill-Russell, Ryan (NZL)
# Dill-Russell, David (NZL)

Mens -100 kg
# Kelly, Martin (AUS)
# Pragnell, Andrew (NZL)
# Koster, Jason (NZL)

Mens +100 kg
# Takayawa, Nacanieli (FIJ)

Mens Open
# Cousins, Peter (ENG)
# Pragnell, Andrew (NZL)
# Fakaosi, Epoki (TGA)
# O Connor, Mark (WAL)

Women's -48 kg
# Archbold, Lisa (NZL)
# Archana, (IND)
# Chanu, Ningthoujam Gomti (IND)

Women's -52 kg
# Chanu, Angom Anita (IND)
# Welsh, Elizabeth (ENG)
# Fong, Kelly (AUS)

Women's -57 kg
# Johnstone, Sophie (ENG)
# Devi, Laishram Nirupama (IND)
# Stormont, Vicky (NZL)
# Taylor, Sharon (AUS)

Women's -63 kg
# Hutchins, Gemma (ENG)
# Newham, Allison (AUS)
# Kaur, Pawan Deep (IND)

Women's -70 kg
# Holt, Michelle (ENG)
# Williams, Joy (NZL)

Women's -78 kg
# Wilson, Sian (ENG)
# Bittu, (IND)

Women's +78 kg
# Iredale, Fiona (NZL)
# Diviya, (IND)

Women's Open
# Wilson, Sian (ENG)
# Williams, Joy (NZL)
# Healy, Shauna (NIR) The global war on smoking passed a major milestone on 30 November 2004. On that date, Peru became the 40th country to ratify an international treaty to reduce smoking, thus triggering activation of the treaty in 90 days.

According to the World Health Organization's World Health Report 2003, tobacco consumption is the single leading preventable cause of death. It prematurely ends the lives of 5 million people a year, a figure which will double by 2020 if current trends are not reversed. Tobacco is the only legal product that causes the death of one half of its regular users, more than many illegal drugs. This means that of the current 1.3 billion smokers, 650 million people will die prematurely due to tobacco. Another way to look at the effect of smoking is to measure the average reduction in life expectancy among smokers. A study published in the British Medical Journal in June 2004 followed 34,439 male doctors since 1951 and showed that smokers died on average 10 years earlier than non-smokers.

Although the number of smokers has stabilized or fallen in developed areas, it is rising in developing or transitional regions, which contain more of the world's population and already 84% of the world's smokers. To fight this increasing health threat, the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control ( WHO FCTC) was unanimously adopted by the 56th World Health Assembly in May 2003 following almost three years of negotiations. The treaty aims to reduce both the demand for and the supply of tobacco by setting standards on tobacco price and tax increases, tobacco advertising and sponsorship, labelling, illicit trade and second-hand smoke.

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

The treaty requires all countries adopting it to ban, to the extent allowed by their constitutions, all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship within five years. Health warnings must occupy at least half of the principal display areas of a pack, but they must not be less than 30%. These health warnings must be changed regularly and may include pictures. Cigarette packages must contain information on ingredients and emissions.

http://www.ideaexplore.net/news/041217/smoking2.jpg

An anti-smoking ad (source: CDC Media Campaign Resource Center). View more here.

The treaty aims to reduce smuggling by requiring adopting nations to mark all tobacco packages for tracing purposes and to indicate their country of destination, as well as to cooperate with each other in monitoring and controlling the movement of tobacco products and investigating their diversion. The treaty bans tobacco sales to and by minors.

The idea for an international instrument for tobacco control was initiated in May 1995 at the 48th World Health Assembly. But it wasn’t until 1999, a year after the then WHO Director-General, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, made global tobacco control a priority, that work on the present treaty began. During the year after the FCTC was written, 167 countries signed and 23 countries ratified it, making it one of the most rapidly embraced UN treaties of all time. "The momentum growing around the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control seems unstoppable. It demonstrates the importance placed by the international community on saving many of the millions of lives now lost to tobacco," said Dr Lee Jong-wook, WHO Director-General. "I look forward to more countries joining the 40 states that are making it possible for this Treaty to become law."

Of the countries ratifying the treaty, the largest are (in order of decreasing population) India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, France, and Burma. Nations that have signed but not yet ratified include China, USA, Brazil, Nigeria, Philippines, Viet Nam, Germany, and Egypt. The largest non-signers are Indonesia, Russia, Colombia, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan. The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan went beyond the treaty requirements when on December 17 it became the first country in the world to completely ban the sale of tobacco. http://www.ideaexplore.net/news/041116/flu.jpg

Emergency hospital during 1918 influenza epidemic, Camp Funston, Kansas (source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP).

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

There are several theories about where the pandemic began, but the likeliest origin was in Haskell County, Kansas, in the United States. People in the sparsely populated county, where farmers raised pigs, poultry, cattle, and grain, began suffering from influenza in late January 1918. Unusually for flu, it was young, healthy adults who were hardest hit. Victims fell ill suddenly, many progressing to pneumonia and dying, often within days. Within weeks, however, the epidemic ended. The natural geographic isolation of this community normally might have contained the fatal flu in a sort of unintentional quarantine, but the First World War intervened. Men were uprooted from their home towns and congregated in huge numbers in army camps for training and then shipping out to other camps or to fight in Europe. The destination for men from Haskell County was Camp Funston, part of Fort Riley, Kansas, where the first influenza case was reported in early March. As soldiers moved among camps, the virus spread. Within two months, the epidemic spread to most of the army camps and most of the largest cities in the United States. As American soldiers went to France, so did the virus, spreading first from the port of Brest.

The flu then spread worldwide. The pandemic reached its height in the Fall of 1918. Spain was affected early, and because Spain was not fighting in the World War, there was no wartime censorship, and news of the outbreak became widely known, leading to the flu being called the Spanish Flu in many countries. In Spain, however, it was called French Flu or the Naples Soldier. In India, about 12 million people died of flu. In some US cities, people died so quickly that morticians couldn't cope with the bodies. According to Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux, who worked in the Fort Riley laundry during the epidemic: "They were piling them up in a warehouse until they could get coffins for them."

The disease started with cough, then headache. Temperature, breathing and heart rate increased rapidly. In the worst cases, pneumonia came next, the lungs filling with liquid, drowning the patients and turning them blue from lack of air. Patients bled from every orifice: mouths, noses, ears, eyes. Those who survived often suffered temporary or permanent brain damage. Several million developed encephalitis lethargica, in which victims were trapped in a permanent sleeplike and rigid state, as portrayed in the 1990 movie "Awakenings." In others, normal thought processes were impaired. During negotiations to end World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson was struck with flu, and people around him noted that his mental abilities never fully recovered. The French leader George Clemenceau had wanted harsher punishment of Germany than Wilson had desired. Clemenceau may have convinced Wilson in his weakened state to accept such harsh terms, which may have been one of the factors causing World War II.

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

Why was the 1918 flu so deadly? The influenza virus wasn't preserved at the time of the outbreak, at least on purpose. But in the late 1990s researchers Ann Reid, Jeffery K. Taubenberger, and their colleagues extracted and sequenced the genetic material of the virus, RNA, from tissue of victims who died in the pandemic. They used bits of lung that were preserved in formalin from victims on army bases or from victims buried in permafrost in the Alaskan village of Brevig Mission, where flu killed 85% of adults. Comparisons with known flu viruses in humans, pigs, and birds suggest that some genes of the 1918 virus came from birds or an unknown animal source. Other scientists then were able to show that the amino acid sequence of hemagglutinin protein from the 1918 virus had several changes from other flu viruses that may have helped it to easily bind and invade human cells, and that made the virus look different enough from earlier flu virus strains that people had no immunity.

The possibility exists that another flu pandemic will sweep the world like the one in 1918. In 2004, an H5N1 influenza virus has killed millions of birds and at least 30 people in southeast Asia. So far this virus strain has not evolved the ability to pass directly from human to human, but that possibility becomes more likely as the bird flu pandemic continues and humans remain in contact with chickens, ducks, and other birds. The virus has killed two-thirds of people reported to be infected. Dr. Tim Uyeki, an epidemiologist for the US Centers for Disease Control, says, "you have the ingredients in Asia right now for a public health disaster."

But since sequences of this bird flu virus are known, it may be possible to develop a vaccine or set of vaccines to protect against it. At a special meeting of influenza experts on November 11th and 12th, World Health Organization influenza program chief Klaus Stohr said, "It is not only possible, but also important, that influenza pandemic vaccines be made available... and there's a shared responsibility needed to make that happen…. We have a huge window of opportunity now." The Cuban government has erected a number of billboards outside the U.S. interests section in Havana, featuring photos of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses as well as the word "fascists" and a red swastika, covered with the text "Made in USA".

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

Although Cuba made a complaint over the sign and has threatened to take action, the senior US diplomat in Cuba, James Cason, is standing firm by the decision to draw attention to Cuba's human rights offences. The Christmas decorations will remain in place until the end of the holiday season.

The rest of the US display features brightly-lit Santas, snowmen and a large neon pyramid tree, as well as messages wishing the Cubans a Happy Christmas. Miss Marina Souza, aged 43, mother of Robson de Souza - known as Robinho (Little Robin) - a Brazilian soccer player for the Santos Football Club has been released Friday, December, 17 by her kidnappers at Santa Cruz Street, in Perus, a district of São Paulo city, after 40 days been captive. She was kidnapped last Saturday, November 6, in Praia Grande, São Paulo, during a barbecue with her relatives.

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

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

Sunday, December 18, Santos will play the last game of the Brazilian Championship and according to Robinho and his coach there are good chances of he playing. Robinho has not been playing (only trainning) with his team Santos since his mother has been kidnapped.

Santos Football Club only needs a victory against the other team Vasco da Gama to be claimmed the Brazilian Champion of 2004 over its only adversary in championship Atlético Paranaense. A celebration held here today marked the 60th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge — a key battle for American forces during World War II. With thousands—including King Albert II of Belgium—in attendance at the Mardasson monument, the festivities included a parade of military vehicles, soldiers that participated in the battle, as well as a light show.

A memorable moment in the history of the battle — General MacAuliffe's reply "Nuts!" to the German request for surrender — was commemorated with the throwing of nuts into the audience. Many American veterans attended and participated in the celebration. The controversial European Union Directive on the Patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions, also called the "software patent directive" has been put to rest for 2004. The directive was expected to easily pass through the European Council's Fisheries Council on Tuesday, December 21, but was removed from the agenda at the request of
Poland's Minister of Science and Computerisation, Wlodzimierz Marcinski.

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

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

Florian Mueller, campaign manager of NoSoftwarePatents.com, which is supported by three IT companies (1&1, Red Hat, and MySQL AB), applauded Poland's move.

"The Polish government deserves greatest admiration for its courage!" said Mueller in a press release. "Now Europe has the opportunity to have a constructive debate on the severe shortcomings of the current Council text, under the new Luxembourgish EU presidency next year."

Germany's representative also backed the delay, saying it would allow everyone to align the current proposal to changes proposed by the European Parliament last year.

"We were well aware that the current proposal has room for improvement with an eye to the objective of arriving at a consensus position between the EU Council and the European Parliament," Germany's Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries said in a Tuesday statement. "We will continue to work constructively toward finding a solution that even better meets the needs of those concerned than the decision taken in May of this year."

On May 18, 2004 EU Council reached a political agreement on a "Common Position" on the directive which ignored the European Parliament's vote from last year. The Council vote generated a lot of controversy. Later, the Dutch parliament failed to convince its EU representatives to reverse their vote.

According to the new voting weights which took effect on November 1, the majority needed to formally adopt the Common Position (after translations were done) is questionable. The 20 countries that supported the Directive on May 18 fall short of the new qualified majority by 16 votes. The directive about patentability of computer implemented inventions (the so-called software patent directive) has appeared in the agenda of today's meeting of the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Council of the EU as an "A-item" (an item which does not need further discussion).

Everyone following the events expects the directive will pass, despite the vehement opposition of the European Open Source organization and small-to-medium software companies.

Against all expectations, Poland has asked for postponement of the final decision, saying they need a clear text which excludes patentability of software. The Polish Minister of Science and Information Technology, Wlodzimierz Marcinski, travelled to Brussels to tell the Council.

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

With a slim majority, the council voted for the "Common Position" on the May 18th directive.

Since then, most of the countries have received considerable pressure from their citizens and parliaments to reverse the vote. One of the most cited examples is the decision of the Dutch parliament, which urged the Dutch representative (also president of the Council for the second half of 2004) to withdraw their vote. Similar decisions have also been made in Germany, Hungary, Latvia and Poland. However, the result was only some unilateral statements attached to the directive by their respective governments.

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

Germany has already reacted positively to the event.
Germany's federal minister of justice, Brigitte Zypries, said:

:"The German government had already achieved a lot with the political agreement in May. Nonetheless, we were well aware that the respective compromise also has room for improvement with an eye to the objective of arriving at a consensus position between the EU Council and the European Parliament. We will continue to work constructively toward finding a solution that even better meets the needs of those concerned than the decision taken in May of this year. In that process, we will also introduce the position meanwhile formulated by the German parliament (Bundestag) into the discussion in the Council." Thieves have gotten away with money believed to be in excess of £20m ($39m) from the headquarters of Northern Bank, a subsidiary of National Australia Bank, in Northern Ireland. Other sources have estimated the total to be as much as $58m. In what appears to be a meticulously planned operation, the families of two executives were held hostage on Sunday night by armed gunmen. The two executives were made to go to work yesterday as if everything was normal, after closing the bank they opened the vault for a number of robbers who then proceeded to empty the contents into a waiting truck over a two hour period.

The gang members did not hurt anyone, although one of the hostages was taken to hospital with hypothermia, the circumstances of which have not been explained. Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid, a police spokesman, said that it is "far too early" to say if the thieves had "any connections to a paramilitary group".

The money stolen was almost entirely made up of Northern Bank notes which are highly distinctive, and harder to get rid of in large amounts than the more common Bank of England notes. Police are hoping that this fact will help them in finding the gang involved. Opened in limited release on December 3, 2004 (New York City and Los Angeles, 145 screens)

House of Flying Daggers is a martial-arts action/romance film.

*Zhang Ziyi – Mei (小妹)
*Takeshi Kaneshiro – Captain Jin (金捕頭)
*Andy Lau – Captain Leo (劉捕頭)
*Dandan Song – Yee

Anita Mui was originally cast for a major role in the film. She died before any of her scenes was filmed.

Directed by Zhang Yimou.

The movie is set in China in 859 AD, during the Tang Dynasty. The local county army outpost is assigned to assassinate the leader of a rebel group called the "House of Flying Daggers" within ten days. Captain Leo (played by Andy Lau) plots with his co-captain Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to infiltrate a local entertainment establishment, where they suspect Mei (Zhang Ziyi) is operating undercover as a member of the group. The rest of the film follows their attempts to follow Mei and find the headquarters of the House of Flying Daggers group.

Mandarin dialog, subtitled in English.

Running time: 119 minutes

An Edko Films, Zhang Yimou Studio Production in collaboration with Beijing New Picture Film Co., Ltd.

Released by Sony Pictures Classics.

MPAA Rating: PG-13, for sequences of stylized martial arts violence, and some sexuality

* Official House of Flying Daggers site A small asteroid passed just under the orbit of geostationary satellites (22,300 miles - 36,000 kilometers) Dec. 19. The asteroid, named 2004 YD5, was roughly 16 feet (5 meters) wide. If it had entered Earth's atmosphere, scientists believe it would have most likely exploded before impact.

2004 YD5 approached Earth from the direction of the sun, and as such was impossible to detect before it had passed. The presidential elections in the Southern African nation Mozambique have resulted in a landslide victory for the ruling Frelimo party. The party's candidate, Armando Guebuza, was elected to the presidential post for the five-year term starting in 2005 with 63.7% of the vote.

The election was held on December 1 and 2, 2004, and the results were officially announced yesterday by the country's National Elections Committee (CNE). It also announced Frelimo's continued dominance in the parliament. The opposition Renamo party came in second, with its presidential candidate garnering less than half as many votes as Mr. Guebuza. For Frelimo, 2005 will mark the party's 30th year in power — uninterrupted since the country's independence from Portugal.

The election was closely monitored by international observers, who have alleged some amount of fraud. The Carter Center — an organization providing election monitors — certain aspects of the election contained irregularities, and the tally counting process could not be verified. However, observers appear to concur that any voting fraud in this election is unlikely to change the result of the presidential elections — though it could have an effect on the allocation of parliamentary seats. Nevertheless, the opposition Renamo party has announced that it will not take its 90 seats in the parliament because of fraud. The party has one week to appeal the election results. Mr. P V Narasimha Rao, former prime minister of India, passed away this morning after suffering cardiac arrest in a private hospital in New Delhi. He had been in critical condition for the past few days. He was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on December 9 after he complained of breathlessness.

Mr Rao has been credited for Indian economic reforms during his tenure from 1991 to 1996, and for supporting then finance minister and current Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh's economic reforms, which allowed for the greatest sustained GDP growth in the country's history.

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

He was the first person outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to complete his full tenure as Prime Minister. Rao is survived by three sons and five daughters. Frank Ford, an honorably discharged U.S. veteran sergeant who works as a California state prison guard has reported witnessing torture in Iraq and the cover-up
activities of his commanding officers: December 8, 2004, Veteran sergeant accounts US torture coverup. Ford says he was hustled out of Iraq for psychological evaluations at military hospitals in Germany and USA as part of an Army cover-up strategy. David DeBatto, who wrote the original article about Frank Ford states that every doctor that evaluated Ford found him to be completely normal, with absolutely no psychological or mental health issues. However according to VeriSEAL, which claims to provide independent and no-cost verification of Special Operations Forces personnel backgrounds, the cover-up accusations are being made by a fake SEAL member.

Ford has already made several unsubstantiated claims including being a member of President Nixon's security detail, a medical doctor, a nobleman with a castle in Europe, a Navy SEAL and knowing the exact location of Saddam Hussein and Ali Hassan al-Majid known as "Chemical Ali". Also Ford has said he has saved the life of a soldier in Iraq, but according to the sources familiar with the incident—doctors and other witness—his claims were exaggerated and he did nothing more than hold the wounded soldier's IV bag. The name of Ford is listed at the Identified SEAL Impostors page from VeriSEAL.

When inquired about some of the Ford's exaggerated stories, David DeBatto said:Ford IS an inveterate braggart. This is beyond question as far as I am concerned. However, although that trait may make him unpopular with some, it does not make him a liar. Some people seem to have a hard time separating the two.

According to Ford he attended a discontinued BUD/S program for Navy corpsmen during 1980's as a doctor assigned to a Navy SEAL team. However Navy records do not list Ford among the program graduates. About this DeBatto said: he called himself "Doc" when I met him too at Fort Bragg in February 2003. However, I asked him right away if he was an MD or PhD. and he told me no, he was just a medic, but he has always been referred to as "Doc" since becoming a Navy medic over 30 years ago. It just kind of stuck he said. He also said he was in some kind of medical school or internship, which, upon later research, turned out to be true. It ain't Harvard, but it is a legitimate medical school. Actually Frank Ford is a "Doctor of Naturopathy" by the Clayton School of Natural Healing in Alabama.

According to Col. C. Tsai, a military psychiatrist who examined Ford at the Army Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, Tsai had found nothing at all unstable about Ford." Tsai was also interviewed by Speigel Television in Germany on this issue. According to Capitain Vic Artiga, Ford's company commander, who Ford implicates, he was evacuated for "combat stress" behavioal problems.

In a interview to Los Angeles Times reporter, Lt. Col. Timothy J. Ryan, Ford's commander, said: all allegations of prisoner abuse in Samarra were investigated immediately and no wrongdoing was ever found. Lt. Col. Timothy J. Ryan is also implicated by Ford's testimony.

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

According to Sergeant First Class Michael Marciello, an alleged witness, when Captain Vic Artiga saw an initial psychiatrist's report, Artiga was, "livid". He "stormed" back to the psychiatrist and "browbeat" her to change her report to read that Ford was mentally unstable, and ordered her to have Ford shipped out of the country. Ford was later strapped to a medical gurney and medvac'd out of Iraq. He was initially sent to Kuwait and eventually to Landstuhl, Germany. Ford then underwent psychological evaluation in Germany and also two bases in the United States for approximately 8 months.

The Ford accusation was reported by David DeBatto and the article can be seen at Salon News. The case is under investigation. NASA's Near Earch Object Program Office has recently announced that the asteroid named 2004 MN4, discovered last June, has the highest risk of earth impact to date. In the December 23 annoncement, NASA advised that the 400-meter wide asteroid has a 1 in 300 chance of colliding with earth. As scientists gather more data on 2004 MN4, the probability of collision with earth is expected to decrease.

The level of impact risk is measured in terms of Torino Impact Hazard Scale, and the MN4's score was initially 2 out of 10. 2004 MN4 is expected to come closest to the Earth on April 14, 2029. Officials in Mumbai, India, demolished over 6,000 shanties today in a push to eradicate the capital city's slums. In total, 39,000 shanties have been flattened, displacing over 200,000 people, in the city’s biggest-ever demolition drive, which began in early December.

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

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

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said that citizens would see a change within six months. "Every chief minister likes to be remembered, and I’m no exception," said Deshmukh, who despite having an empty exchequer, also announced that Rs 31,000 crore will be spent on new roads, sea links and rail lines. Sergio Galvarino Apablaza,aged 54, nicknamed "Comandante Salvador", has been charged by the Chilean judge Hugo Dolmestch for the following crimes: the
kidnapping of Cristian Edwards(son of Agustin Edwards, owner of the newspaper
El Mercurio) and the assassination of Senator Jaime Guzman Errazuriz.

Galvarino Apablaza is the leader of the Marxist group FPMR - Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front. FPMR was founded in 1983 and became the armed wing of the Chilean Communist Party to carry out terrorist attacks against the Chilean militarist government of the dictator Augusto Pinochet. Its name is a tribute for Manuel Rodriguez Erdoiza, considered a Chilean hero in the war of the independence of Chile against Spain.

After the fall of Pinochet's government and the return to democracy in 1989 in Chile the organization broke up into two factions: the FPMR Party, which gave up the armed fight, and the FPMR-Dissidents, which continued terrorist activities. Some of the FPMR most recent attacks include the explosion of a building in which the American company Flour Daniel has offices (August 1994), an attempted bombing of a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Santiago (September 1993), an explosion near the Chinese Embassy in Santiago (May 1993), and a bombing of a Mormon church in Santiago (December 1992).

Galvarino Apablaza has been arrested in November 29 in Argentina. Chilean authorities request now the expulsion of Apablaza so he can be tried in Chile. Apablaza and some left-wing organizations want Argentina give him political asylum.

Apablaza is also suspected of participating to the kidnapping of the Brazilian advertising executive Washington Olivetto in 2001, according to Brazilian police authorities. According to Defend America, US Department of Defense News website, US
soldiers members of the 256th Brigade Combat Team, the 199th Forward Support Battalion (FSB), with several units from Camp Liberty (18th Military Police Brigade, 16th MP Brigade, 617th MP Brigade, 307th Psychological Operations Battalion, and the Iraqi Highway Patrol) provided medical assistance to Iraq children at an elementary school in Bagdah.

US Major Alan Kabakoff, with the 16th MP Brigade, says humanitarian
missions are very important in winning the war on terror, although you can't see
the importance sometimes: "It's like fire prevention, everyone knows
that it works, it's just hard to prove, unless something bad happens. These
people want the same things that we do, they want safe schools,
safe homes, and safe areas to raise their kids."

Staff Sgt. Jason Escoyne, Co. C, 199th FSB, who examined the children said
that there was nothing seriously wrong with them.

This effort is part of the US reconstruction of Iraq. Till now according to USAID, U.S. Agency for International Development, in Iraq 2,405 schools were rehabilitated including the supply of chairs, cabinets, desks, chalkboards and kits for secondary and primary schools, about 8.7 million science and math textbooks have been distributed, 33,000 secondary school teachers have been trainned, high protein biscuits have been distributed to more than 450,000 children and 200,000 nursing and pregnant women, trainning have been provided to 700 physicians and 2,500 primary health care providers, over 3 million children under five have been vaccinated and more than 1.3 million children under five suspected of malnutrition have been examined. Indian Ocean - The death toll continues to grow and millions face a homeless life in the new year as coastal communities in south Asia struggle against continued aftershocks and flooding caused by the largest earthquake to strike the planet in more than a generation.

The magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake struck off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004, at 00:58:50 UTC (or 07:58:50 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok).

The earthquake was the strongest in the world since the 9.2-magnitude Good Friday Earthquake which struck Alaska, USA in 1964, and the fourth largest since 1900. More than 140,000 deaths were caused by resulting tsunami, which in Thailand were up to 10 meters (33 feet) tall, and struck within three hours of the initial event.

Multiple tsunamis struck and ravaged coastal regions all over the Indian Ocean, devastating regions including the Indonesian province of Aceh, the coast of Sri Lanka, coastal areas of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the resort island of Phuket, Thailand, and even as far away as Somalia, 4,100 km (2,500 mi) west of the epicenter.

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

Note: All figures are approximate and subject to constant change.
* Includes 14,000 casualties from the regions controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels.

The great earthquake triggered massive tsunamis (popularly known as "tidal waves"), which struck the coasts of the Indian Ocean. However Pacific Ocean coasts were not affected.

The Aceh province of Indonesia is the most affected. Officials in Sri Lanka estimate the death toll to be over 40,000. Much of the capital Colombo is flooded and high number of casualties are feared in the North East of the country around the town of Trincomalee. The New York Times estimated that at least 2 hours passed from the time of the earthquake before the island was affected. The tragedy has caused at least some Sri Lankans to ask what precautions could have allowed more people to avoid harm.

In India, the islands of Andaman and Nicobar and the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are the most affected. The police have said that there are 100 dead in Chennai city alone. Mild tremors were experienced in Chennai, Bangalore and Cochin cities. The Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh has expressed concern over the disaster and said that all directions were given to the different agencies including the Navy for quick relief work. The meteorological department has warned people in coastal areas in southern India to stay away as there are possibilities of more waves due to after-shocks for the next 3 to 4 days.

In addition to the large number of local residents, numerous tourists vacationing during the busy Christmas holiday travel season were among the victims. In a press conference on December 31, Swedish prime minister Göran Persson reported that the number of Swedes that are confirmed dead is 59 and the number of missing Swedes is 3 559. Most of these were on vacation in Thailand, primarily in Khao Lak and Phi Phi Island.

As of December 31, 2004, the death toll is estimated by the United Nations to be up to 150,000. However, water-borne diseases are expected to kill nearly twice as many people.

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

The hypocenter was measured at 3.298°N, 95.779°E, some 160 kilometres west of Sumatra, at a depth of 10 km underwater, within the "Ring of Fire" zone of frequent earthquakes.

The quake was felt as far away as Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Maledives Singapore and Thailand.

The earthquake was unusually large in geographical extent. 1,125 km (700 mi) of faultline slipped 15 m (50 ft) along the subduction zone where the India Plate dives under the Burma Plate. This formed a shock wave in the Indian Ocean, creating tsunamis that traveled at up to 800 km/h (500 mi/h).

Numerous aftershocks of between magnitude 5.7 and 6.1 were reported off the Andaman Islands in the following hours. Aftershocks off the Nicobar Islands were also reported, including ones of magnitude 7.3 , and 6.5 . (See USGS current earthquake information.)

Based on one seismic model, some of the smaller islands southwest of Sumatra have moved southwest up to 20 m (66 ft). The northern tip of Sumatra, which is on the Burma Plate as opposed to the southern regions on the Sunda Plate, may also have moved southwest up to 36 m (120 ft). Other models suggest that most of the movement would have been vertical rather than lateral. Further measurement is needed to determine the nature of the actual movement. The massive release of energy and shift in mass also caused the earth to wobble slightly on its axis.

One year ago to this day, over 30,000 Iranians were killed by an earthquake with a 6.6 magnitude. The Indian Ocean Earthquake came just three days after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in a completely uninhabited region off Macquarie Island near Antarctica.

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

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

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

Governments and humanitarian organisations around the world are scrambling to offer aid and technical help after the quake and tsunamis that killed thousands of people in southern Asia and northwest Africa and caused wide-spread devastation. The World Bank estimates the amount of aid needed at USD 5 billion. 

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

WARNING: Due the nature of Wikinews, it cannot guarantee the veracity of outside links and scams involving charities are a danger. Beware of organizations that have names similar to that of well-known aid agencies.

The following countries and organization are contributing towards the relief efforts (listed alphabetically):

* Australia: The Australian Government committed an initial AUD 10 million (USD 7.7 million) to the relief effort, to be distributed to international aid organisations. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says funding will be reviewed once details of needs become clearer. Subsequently funding was increased to AUD 35 million (USD 27 million), with more expected to be required later. Essential supplies were also immediately dispatched, to be delivered by the Royal Australian Air Force.
* Brazil: Brazilian government sent 10 tons of food and 8 tons of medicines to Bangkok, Thailand, and 50 tons of potable water and food to Sri Lanka.
* Canada: The Canadian government has pledged CAD 4 million (USD 3.3 million) as an immediate contribution toward the aid effort and will also be providing blankets, water purification devices, and generators through the Canadian International Development Agency. Subsequently the relief funding was increased by an additional CAD 36 million (USD 29.7 million). In addition to the already sent planeload of relief supplies sent to Sri Lanka another planeload will be dispatched to Indonesia. The Canadian government announced a reconnaisance mission for 12 members of the Disaster Assistance Response Team to assess the need for the team to be deployed.At the provincial level, the province of British Columbia pledged CAD 8 million (6.6 million USD) directly donated to the Red Cross. Ontario has pledged CAD 5 million (4.1 million USD) along with sending Dr. James Young-the outgoing provincial commissioner of emergency management. Dr. Young's expertise in DNA identification was used after the September 11, 2001 attacks and the September 2, 1998 Swissair 111 crash.
* Chile: The Chilean government will send six young physicians to Sri Lanka and has opened a special bank account for public donations.
* China: The Chinese government will send CNY 21.63 million (USD 2.6 million) to Southeast Asia.
* Czech Republic: The Czech government will give aid worth EUR 328,000 (USD 0.5 million), in various forms.
* Denmark: The Danish government will give aid worth EUR 1,35 million.
* European Union: The EU is provided immediate emergency aid of EUR 3 million (USD 4.1 million) for victims to meet "initial vital needs", with more substantial aid bringing the total to USD 44 million.
* Finland: EUR 575,000 (USD 0.8 million) and a field hospital will be sent from Finland to help the victims of the tsunamis.
* France: France has sent a plane with 100 rescue personnel, as well as 800 kg (1,750 lb) of medical supplies.
* Germany: The German government allocated EUR 1 million (USD 1.4 million) for immediate aid. According to information from the radio, units of the governmental technical relief organisation (THW) are going to be sent to Thailand and Sri Lanka for rescue purposes, together with drinking water purification equipment. (Raised to EUR 20 million) (7.1.2004: Raised to EUR 500 million)
* Greece: Greece will allocate EUR 300,000 (USD 0.4 million) to the Maldives and Sri Lanka, and two planes will carry to those countries over 6 tons of humanitarian materials.
* International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCS): In Geneva, the IFRCS appealed for CHF 7.5 million (about USD 6.6 million) for "immediate support" to an estimated 500,000 survivors.
* Ireland: The Irish government pledges EUR 1 million (USD 1.4 million) in response to the earthquake-caused disaster in South Asia.
* Israel: Israel has sent baby food and medicines worth some USD 100,000 to the affected countries. In addition, an Israeli medical team was dispatched to Sri Lanka. An offer of assistance to India in the form of a search and rescue team as well as food and medicines has been extended. 
* Japan: The Japanese government has allocated USD 500 million for relief efforts, the largest contribution by any single donor.
* Kuwait: The Kuwaiti government has donated at KWD 500,000 (USD 1.7 million) as humanitarian aid.
* Luxembourg has announced it will donate at least EUR 200,000 (USD 0.3 million) as humanitarian aid.
* Médecins Sans Frontières: MSF is dispatching 32 tons of relief supplies to Sumatra; medical and assessment teams have been sent to many of the affected areas.
* Mozambique: One of the poorest nations in the world has donated USD 100 000 to the relief efforts , saying that the "symbolic" amount was because the disaster reminded Mozambicans of their past troubles, and the help they received from the international community then.
* Netherlands: The Dutch government has reserved EUR 2 million (USD 2.7 million) for aid to the affected area. The Dutch Red Cross has dedicated EUR 100,000 (USD 0.1 million) for emergency aid.
* New Zealand: The New Zealand government announced it will donate NZD 500,000 (USD 0.4 million) to the Red Cross, and an airforce C-130 Hercules has been sent for evacuation and transport of relief supplies.
* Norway: The Norwegian government has allocated NOK 1100 million (USD 180 million) to be distributed to the UN, the Red Cross and other aid organisations.
* Pakistan: The government of Pakistan has announced a PKR 10 million (USD 0.2 million) relief package for the earthquake victims of Sri Lanka. This consists of goods such as tents, medicines, drinking water and food items. Additional aid has been promised.
* Singapore: The Singaporean government has pledged SGD 500,000 (USD 0.3 million) to the Singapore Red Cross Society to help them start an appeal for public donations. A Singapore Armed Forces medical team is on standby to fly to Indonesia to help. Singapore is also dispatching an emergency consular team to Phuket and sending SGD 2 million (USD 1.2 million)of aid to the countries affected.
* Spain: The Spanish government has allocated EUR 1 million (USD 1.4 million) to finance a first humanitarian shipment sent to the aid of the victims.
* Sweden: SEK 7 million (USD 1.1 million) are being taken from the Swedish International Development Agency, 5 million of which are channeled through the ICRC. The Swedish Salvation Army has donated SEK 1 million (USD 0.8 million). The government is also supplying tents and blankets to Sri Lanka. Further assistance to be supplied if so requested, primarily by the UN.
* Switzerland: The Swiss government has allocated CHF 1 million (USD 1.4 million). The Swiss have launched a national donation action Glückskette.
* Taiwan: The Taiwanese government has donated USD 0.25 million to Indonesia, India, Thaliand, and Sri Lanka. A team of experts has also been dispatched to Indonesia to assess damages in preparation for humanitarian aid efforts.
* Turkey: Hit in August and November 1999 by a series of earthquakes that killed over 20,000, Turkey has started collecting funds, hoping to reach at least EUR 170,000 (USD 0.2 million), which will be used in reconstruction projects.
* United Kingdom: The British government has increased it's donation to $96 million. GBP 400,000 were given through the EU to the Red Cross and GBP 50,000 were donated to WHO, to help prevent maladies after the ocean surges. In addition, planes carrying essential equipment have been dispatched to some of the affected areas.
* United States: The United States government has allocated USD 350 million for relief efforts and has dispatched disaster teams to aid the affected nations. Members of the Australian public, as well as celebrities and politicians have been fasting in recent weeks in empathy with a large contingent of Iranian asylum seekers. Meanwhile, the Iranian men are understood to be receiving medical treatment, some having broken their fast after more than two weeks of starvation.

Two Melburnians, Juliana Qian and Emily Smith, held a 24-hour fast, including a 12-hour public vigil at the city's central Flinders Street Station on Christmas Day. Seventeen-year-old Ms Qian said, "I want to show my support to the detainees, and to draw attention to their situation. Many Iranians have been detained in Australia for four or five years. There is much evidence to suggest these detainees would be persecuted if deported to Iran."

Senator Andrew Bartlett, of the Australian Democrats Party, fasted for five days earlier in the week, hoping to draw attention to the plight of asylum seekers in the nation's controversial immigration system, which is highly intolerant of what it calls "unauthorised" arrivals. Artist and convenor of Spare Rooms for Refugees, Kate Durham, comedian Corrine Grant, actor and vice-president of Actors for Refugees, Diana Greentree, writer Arnold Zable, and musician Kavisha Mazzella have also fasted. Other Australians continue fasting in a rolling programme of three days each, with the last of these planned to end on New Year's Eve with a vigil outside St Stephen's Cathedral in Brisbane.

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

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

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

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

Australia's Department of Immigration Multiculturalism and Indigenous Affairs is notorious for ignoring information provided in support of detainees, while upholding that similarly sourced information proves the detainees claims of asylum are ungrounded. One such case is the Bakhtyari family, being deported over Christmas. Verified documents indicating an Afghan origin for the family are disputed by the Department, while apparently forged documents are held by the department as sufficient to show that the family are natives of Pakistan, hence their current, and ongoing 'repatriation' to that country.

The Department has for a number of years ignored recommendations by the Australian Government's own Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to improve processing conditions for asylum seekers, particularly with respect to the issue of children in detention. Independent organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also have repeatedly condemned the Australian system.

Politicians in the Australian Federal Government express confidence in this system, such as Alexander Downer, Foreign Minister, on the Bakhtiyaris: "If you're found not to be a refugee and you've been falsely claiming to be a refugee you should go back home and they should go back to Pakistan where they came from." Nicobar Islands - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurred at 04:21 UTC in the Indian region near Bangladesh.

Seismologists at USGS have indicated that this earthquake is an aftershock of the 9.0 earthquake which had occurred just a few hours earlier, 305 km (190 miles) distant, in the Indian Ocean near Sumatra, Indonesia.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department issued a statement that the quake had struck Chittagong, a southern port that is the second largest city in Bangladesh.

The hypocenter was measured at 6.901°N, 92.952°E, some 130 kilometres south by southwest of Misha, Nicobar Islands, at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles). The government of Zambia has launched a new national agricultural policy, according to a report by the Times of Zambia. The newspaper reports that the policy was announced yesterday by the country's Minister of Agriculture & Co-Operatives, Mr. Mundia Sikatana.

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

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

The Zambian government has previously been criticised by some for its annual ban on fishing during December. It is unclear whether this policy, which was widely applauded by environmentalists and implemented to protect sensitive fish stocks, will be affected by the new agricultural policy. With nearly all votes counted, the opposition candidate in the Ukrainian presidential elections has claimed victory. Unofficial results show Viktor Yushchenko leading with 52% to the mainly pro-government candidate and current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich's 44% — a difference amounting to roughly 2.2 million votes.

This latest round of voting was to replace the results of the second run-off election held on November 21, 2004. After the November vote, many international observers criticized the vote as fradulent, and some regions saw voter turnout listed in excess of 100%, prompting the opposition — including Mr. Yushchenko — to assert that the results were invalid. Supporters of the opposition pursued legal channels, such as appealing to the country's parliament and its Supreme Court, as well as maintained a blocade of key government buildings in an effort to force a new election.

The new results were not, however, accepted by both sides. The government candidate, Mr. Yanukovich, vowed to challenge the outcome in the Supreme Court. "I will never recognize this defeat because the constitution and human rights were violated," he said at a press conference.

Unlike the November results which were nearly universally criticized by Western governments, the outcome of the re-run has been hailed as fair by officials in the United States and the European Union. The U.S. State Department issued public travel warnings, advising United States citizens to avoid travelling to areas affected by the recent Indian Ocean earthquake and the resulting tsunamis. The announcements cover Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and affected areas of Thailand. The warnings are set to expire on January 25, 2005, and urge citizens to postpone all non-essential travel to the regions.

The U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office also carries Travel Advice notices covering many of the countries hit by the tsunamis, and similarly urges citizens not to travel to the areas unless absolutely necessary. The toll from the recent earthquake and tsunami disaster that affected coasts of a dozen Asian and African nations has risen to nearly 60,000 people reported dead. The nations struck by the catastrophe are struggling to bury the bodies of the dead before disease adds to the already high casaulty figures.

Health experts, such as Dr. David Nabarro, head of crisis operations at the World Health Organization (WHO), are predicting that as many as an additional 60,000 people could perish if disease spreads due to lack of safe drinking water, overcrowding in camps, and potential leaks of deadly toxins from factories affected by the disaster. The WHO is attempting to focus its relief efforts on saving lives and preventing disease in this ongoing crisis. Serial killer Michael Ross appeared before a Connecticut court today, and told Judge Patrick Clifford that he wanted to die. If executed, Ross will be the first person put to death in Connecticut in over 40 years.

Ross admitted to killing eight women in Connecticut and New York in the 1980s, and to raping several of them.

The hearing considered whether Ross, who holds a degree in economics from Cornell University, was mentally competent to waive his appeals. Dr. Michael Norko, appointed by the court to examine Ross, testified that Ross is a sexual sadist and is prone to depression. Ross had attempted suicide three times in the past, Norko told the court, but he is not suicidal now. Norko further testifed that Ross is taking medication to control his psychiatric problems.

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

"This decision is his right to make," Judge Clifford said from the bench.

However, Ross' father and the Connecticut Public Defender's Office have filed motions in Rockville Superior Court claiming that Ross suffered from mental delusions at the time of his orignial trial, and that his previous attorneys did a poor job defending him. There is no word when the Rockville court will rule.

Ross is scheduled to die January 26, 2005. Faina Chiang (蔣方良; pinyin: Jiǎng Fāngliáng), the Russian-born former First Lady of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and wife of the late President Chiang Ching-kuo died on December 15, 2004 of pulmonary and cardiac failure in the Taipei Vetrans Hospitial. She was 88 years old, although using the Chinese system of counting birthdays she was said to be 90.

Her funeral was held on December 27, 2004 at the Taipei Vetrans Hospital with several prominent Taiwanese politicians in attendance including President Chen Shui-bian, Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan, and People's First Party Chairman James Soong.

Chiang's casket was draped with a Taiwanese Flag as well as a Kuomintang party flag.

Chiang's body was cremated and placed in her husband's temporary mausoleum in Taoyuan County. Current plans are to have Chiang Ching-kuo, and his father, Chiang Kai-shek's, remains moved from their temporary mausoleums to the Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery. Originally, plans were to keep the two former presidents in the mausoleums until they could be buried on the Chinese mainland after reunification. However, last year a request made by Chiang Fang-liang was granted to have the remains moved to the Taipei Cemetery, Chiang Fang-liang would also be buried there. According to research done by an anti-spam research company Sophos, the United States is the point of origin of over 42% of all spam. Trailing are South Korea with 13% and China with 8% of the world's spam. The security firm performed an audit of its honeypots to come up with the figures — a honeypot is a special system set up to attract spam or spammers in order to gauge spammer activity.

Such activity is not entirely unexpected. The United States accounts for slightly over 25% of all Internet usage, whereas South Korea and China have about 4% and 11% of the world's Internet users, respectively. Yet these percentages still point to the U.S. as being a disproportionate source for spam.

The Sophos team noted the inefficacy of the CAN-SPAM act in its report — the act has been frequently criticized in the technology media as not doing enough to stem the flow of unsolicited commercial and fradulent email, and the new numbers from the research company only serve to further that claim. Indeed, the security company MX Logic reported that while compliance with the CAN-SPAM act continues to grow, the growth is not enough to stem the increasing flow of spam. Analysts blame the increase in spam on spammers' increased use of networks of zombies — computers that have been hacked into in order to send the bulk email. Time Warner Cable is close to a deal with Sprint Corp. to offer mobile telephone service under the TimeWarner brand to the cabler's 11 million subscribers, according to a report in Wednesday's The Wall Street Journal.

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

The Journal reported that Time Warner would test market the new mobile service in Kansas City before the end of March.

Any such deal could strengthen Time Warner's plans to expand its entry into the telephony market. The company said it expects to have 200 thousand voice customers when it closes its 2004 books Friday. As of mid-December, the company said it was adding about 10 thousand new wired voice customers per week.

For voice customers Time Warner is competing with regional telephone monopolies Verizon, SBC and BellSouth, which among them control the two largest mobile networks in the United States: Verizon and Cingular. The death toll from the earthquake and tsunamis that has hit countries in Asia and Eastern Africa continues to rise, passing 80,000 people according to reports from several news agencies. A spokesman for the Red Cross speculated that the toll could increase to over 100,000 as some of the smaller islands in the Indian Ocean are checked, and a U.N. official said that the death toll might eventually approach 80,000 in Indonesia alone.

The immediate fatalities from the earthquake and resulting tsunamis are but a fraction of the total effect from the disaster. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 5 million people lack food, water or basic sanitation necessary for survival. Officials continue to struggle with burying the dead and delivering basic suvival provisions to the population in the coastal and island areas most hit by the disaster. Voters in Ohio, alleging evidence of voter fraud in the presidential election, subpoenaed several leading Republicans as part of a challenge of the election results. Ohio Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and White House Political Advisor Karl Rove were subpoenaed for depositions December 28th and 29th in a challenge supported by the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Blackwell has refused to appear, claiming in a court filing that he is not required to be interviewed since he is a high-ranking public official. The lawyer for the other three officials claims that his clients were not properly served the subpoenas.

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

In his court filing, Blackwell further called those asking questions about the vote engaging in 'frivolous conduct' and making too many requests of election officials around the state. Republican Blackwell, as Secretary of State, assigns all members, directors and deputy directors of the precinct boards of elections that run the elections in the state. Challengers to the voting process have questioned whether these boards were adequately run as bipartisan operations, suggesting that since the boards owe Blackwell their jobs, this could have established a pattern of problems that favored Bush at Kerry's expense. At least 11 people were killed Dec. 26 and 27 in neighborhood gang turf fights between drug dealers at shantytown "morro da Mineira" (Miner Hill) in the Catumbi neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The fight originated when Gilson Ramos da Silva, 21, a.k.a. "Gilson Aritana," a member of the ADA ("Amigos do Bairro") gang led other members into the "morro da Mineira" (Miner Hill) to sell drugs, Ricardo Teixeira Dias, a local police official said.

The region is controlled by rival gang Comando Vermelho (Red Command), which does not approve of other gangs selling drugs in the region. Comando Vermelho members started attacking the rival members of ADA to protect their turf.

On Dec. 26, one man was killed and five others hurt in a gang gunfight with police. There was panic and several residents from the neighborhood could not get into their houses and were forced to seek shelter elsewhere. That afternoon, a burned body was found at Presidente Vargas Ave. near "Sambódromo" plaza not far from "morro da Mineira".

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

The police believe there are more dead at nearby "morro do Zinco" (Zinc Hill) neighborhood. The morning of Dec. 27, Anderson Santos de Oliveira, 21, was killed by the police in a gunfight. The police said he was carrying a .38 calibre pistol, a 380 pistol and marijuana. By 4:00 P.M. Luciano da Costa Pinto, 22, had also been killed by police in a different incident where police recovered rifles and drugs. House Democrats called for an investigation into possible voting fraud and irregularities during the 2004 U.S. presidential election, according to a Dec. 23 letter from House Representative David Wu (D-OR).

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

"The integrity of our democracy is at stake. We need to give the American people confidence that each and every vote will be properly counted and that the democratic electoral process is respected," Wu said. "I also understand concerns about the conflict of interest of having an official in charge of running elections in a key state also heading a presidential campaign. I agree that Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell's dual role calls into question any election decision he made that favored Republicans."

Other Congressmen including John Conyers (D-MI), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Robert Wexler (D-FL) voiced similar concerns, and requested an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), citing specific cases in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, and California.

In December, Conyers, the Ranking Democrat on the House Committee on the Judiciary, issued a series of letters about voting irregularities to the media, campaign officials, and manufacturers of voting equipment. These letters seek to collect and preserve information regarding the conduct of the election.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office previously reported on voting irregularities in eariler presidential elections.

A September 14, 2004 GAO report on the 2000 presidential elections detailed changes the DOJ implemented to try to ensure voter access to polls, and the importance of monitoring election-day activities. The report warned that allegations in the 2000 election lacked sufficient specifics to enable the DOJ to perform and adequate investigation and recommended that more precise information be collected regarding voting for the 2004 presidential election. After two machine counts and a manual recount, Secretary of State Sam Reed declared Democrat Christine Gregoire the governor-elect of Washington State.

However, this result was contested by Republican Dino Rossi, who is asking for a new election.

This election was the closest in state history. In the first count, Dino Rossi won by 261 votes. Under state law, this is considered "too close to call" and a recount is required. After this first recount, Rossi's lead was shortened to 42 votes. Because this was even closer, Gregoire and other Democrats raised approximately $800,000 to hold a statewide manual recount. She won this by only 129 votes, out of a total of 2.8 million.

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

Rossi has threatened on several occasions to file a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court. He also has asked Gregoire to agree to a runoff election.

"This ain't golf," Gregoire's spokesman said. "No mulligans allowed here, folks."

Any runoff election would have to be approved by the Legislature, which is controlled by the Democrats. With a Friday dump truck car bombing that left a massive crater and many dead, Iraqi insurgents frontally assaulted U.S. troops in Mosul, Iraq. Initial reports showed 25 Iraqis and one U.S. soldier dead. (As of this writing, additional information on the bombing was expected.)

Attacking a soldier on patrol close to a U.S. outpost, the insurgents had two bomb vehicles. The first bomb attack was designed to draw out U.S. support troops while the second bomb vehicle in conjunction with mortars and rockets was intended to overrun the American outpost.

As reinforcements arrived, U.S. forces came under automatic weapon and rocket-propelled grenade fire, Staff Sgt. Don Dees, a military spokesman, said.

The Americans suffered approximately 15 U.S. casualties in addition to the dead before U.S. air strikes forced the insurgents to retreat, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings, U.S. military spokesman said.

Mosul is Iraq's third-largest city and has become a hotbed of insurgent activity in the past several months. The U.S. military has conceded it is not in control of some parts of Mosul and plans to send more troops for the upcoming election scheduled for Jan. 30.

This latest clash comes as the U.S. has begun a new push in the so-called "triangle of death" south of the capital, attempting to secure the region in the lead-up to the elections. Loki Torrent, a site that tracks links to BitTorrent files, was sued by the motion picture industry for copyright infringement on December 14, 2004, but has decided to mount a legal defense. The site operators have set up a legal defense fund in order to raise the $30,000 per month they estimate will be necessary to cover legal costs. The suit was filed in a U.S. District Court in Texas on behalf of Columbia Pictures – a major movie studio. The lawsuit is part of the MPAA campaign to crack down on Internet piracy.

The lawsuit did not initially mention the site's operator, Edward Webber — instead, the suit was filed against a set of people named "John Doe" to be identified at a later point.

Loki Torrent's popularity had increased dramatically in recent days after the prominent BitTorrent site SuprNova.org shut down in a preemptive move to avoid a lawsuit . According to Google's 2004 Year-End Google Zeitgeist report, Linux scored fifth on a list of most-searched technology terms, beating out all other operating systems. Linux was the No. 4 technology search term on Google in 2002.

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

"SCO" was the No. 1 company query for 2004 in Google's report. High-profile lawsuits by SCO against IBM and other companies for alleged copyright or patent infringement were filed and dominated Linux news throughout the year. Yesterday on Novastream, Sloncek announced officially that the Suprnova index for BitTorrent, a program used to download music, video, and program files, and responsible for approximately one third of all transfers over the internet, will have a successor. Suprnova was voluntarily shut down earlier in the year due to threats made by the MPAA regarding copyright violation.

The program to take the place of Suprnova, "Exeem", is a blending of 'the tracker', the BitTorrent client, and its 'decentralized indexing'. As the program is in a state of testing, its current form is only designed to run on Windows. Although currently undergoing a Beta Test, the program will be released some time in the near future. The program also contains a rating and commenting system that, although basic and primitive, seems to be comparable to that of Suprnova in its quality.

There are also unconfirmed rumours that Sloncek is receiving payment from a third party for participating in the Exeem team's efforts. This raises the question: is Exeem actually related with Suprnova and, in turn, can it be said to be its successor? With no new competition to speak of, last week's Hollywood fare is set to once again dominate North American Box office receipts over the New Year holiday.

Of the new films opening this weekend, Lions Gate's A Love Song for Bobby Long will have the widest release, playing in eight theatres in Los Angeles and New York. Other openers include ThinkFilm's The Assassination of Richard Nixon, starring Sean Penn and Sony Pictures Classics William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons, both of which will be playing in four venues in New York and Los Angeles.

To be considered in wide release, a film must open or play in at least 1,000 theatres throughout the U.S. and Canada. The lack of any new wide release competition Friday almost ensures that the last week's slate of films will benefit at the box office.

The most likely contender for top-money maker is Universal Studios' Meet the Fockers, the sequel to 200's Meet the Parents starring Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. That movie raked in $44.7 million over the Christmas weekend and a total of #108.5 million as of Dec. 29, according to Box Office Mojo.

Fockers is being shown in 3,524 venues over the New Year weekend, six more than last week, making it the second-widest released film for the weekend. Only the Jim Carrey family comedy Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events with 3,623 venues has a wider release.

The following films will be playing in at least 1,000 U.S. and Canada venues: NASA's hopes of launching a man into space on the shuttle again are one step closer today. The transportation of a new 15-story external fuel tank from the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans today to The Kennedy Space Centre.

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

There has been no date set as to when the space shuttle will be up and running again but what has to be in the front of NASA's mind is that Russia will start to charge for the use of their rockets to put American astronauts in space. Bangkok). Kenyan distance runners Robert Cheruyiot, 26, and Lydia Cheromei, 27, won the 80th annual International Race of São Silvestre (Saint Silvester) in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Cheruyiot won the men's race for the second time while Cheromei won the women's race for the third time.

The first race of São Silvestre occurred on Dec. 31, 1924. Since then, the race occurs every year always on the last day of the year. The 15 KM (9,321 miles) course is by the streets of the city of São Paulo and the start and the arrival occurs at Paulista Avenue, a famous street. The competition is part of the Official Calendar of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the Association of International Marathons and Road Races (AIMS).

The race name is a homage to Saint Silvester, a catholic saint who died in December 31, 335. Saint Silvester was pope during years 314 through 335. During his government the Christian religion became the official religion of the Roman Empire under the rule of Constantine the Great. This event was important for the Christians because they have been persecuted by the Roman Empire during 300 years and now they would have freedom to profess their religion without been in risk of been arrested or convicted to death by the government.

For the 2004 race, the number of participants was about 15 thousand, with 13 thousand men and 2 thousand women. The majority of athletes were from Brazil but others came from other countries including Argentina, Australia, Sweden, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Chile, Finland, Portugal, Luxemburg, Bolivia, Canada, South Korea, France, England, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.

The women's race started at 3 p.m.(local time) while the men's race started two hours later.

 Men

Place

Country

Name

Time(h:min:s)

1

Kenya

Robert Cheruyiot 

00:44:43 

2

Australia

Sisay Bezabeh

00:45:06

3

Kenya

Stephen Biwot
00:45:28

4

Kenya
Benson Barus

00:45:34

5

Brazil
Clodoaldo Gomes da Silva

00:45:41

 Women

Place

Country

Name

Time(h:min:s)

1

Kenya

Lydia Cheromei 

00:53:01

2

Brazil

Lucélia de Oliveira Peres

00:54:18

3

Brazil

Adriana Aparecida da Silva

00:54:20

4

Kenya

Peninah Cheruto Limakori

00:55:11

5

Brazil

Marily dos Santos

00:55:36 Nearly a week after tsunami waves scoured the coasts of multiple countries in southern Asia, the confirmed death count is over 120,000. Indonesia reports it is no longer counting bodies, but merely struggling to deal with the aftermath and prevent a massive outbreak of typhoid.

Near the epicenter of the earthquakes and tsunami, Indonesia's Aceh province alone may have as many as 80,000 death. Entire villages are gone, with no evidence left of their prior existence. Still, other countries are continuing to report the numbers of dead as best they can:
* Sri Lanka - approximately 28,500
* India - more than 7,700
* More than 300 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.

As many as 10,500 foreign nationals are missing in the region, most of them tourists. Sweden has 17 confirmed dead, but more than 2,500 are still missing.

* AP - "confirmed death toll passed 121,000, and 5 million people were homeless."
* BBC - "at least 124,000 ... The UN says the toll is nearing 150,000 and may never be known."
* NP&CP - "The death toll passed 150,000."
* United Nations - "UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said the final death toll could climb beyond 150,000. About 1 million people are homeless and humanitarian agencies estimate that 5 million people need relief." Republican members of the House of Representatives are proposing a bill that would reduce the standard of ethical conduct required of representatives. Currently, the House expects a high level of ethical conduct, beyond the minimum required by law. The proposal, backed by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), would reduce the expectation to only require the lowest level of conduct. With the new rules, representatives would only be admonished if they actually violate the law.

The current rules were used for the admonishment of Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). The committee found issue with the appearance that he had provided legislative favors with the Federal Aviation Administration for political donors in a Texas political dispute, and with improperly offering support for another Republican representative's son in exchange for the lawmaker's vote in a Medicare issue.

Democrats and watchdog groups point out that the loss of ethical rules would be a serious blow to the government. Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, added, "If House Republican leaders are allowed to prevail, they will have gutted the single most important ethics standard in the House and turned House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's multiple ethics transgressions into acceptable conduct for all House members."

The GOP has previously attempted to legislate rules to protect DeLay. In November 2004 the House Republicans proposed a rule change that would allow members indicted by state grand juries to retain their leadership posts, in reaction to a concern that DeLay would be indicted by a Texas grand jury. The jury had indicted three of DeLay's political associates. A number of House Republicans benefitted from an aggressive redistricting in Texas led by DeLay that led to the defeat of 5 democrat incumbents. The indictment rule had been adopted by the House Republicans in 1993 when they were trying to end four decades of Democrat control of the House. While complaints about the 'miserly' generosity of the Bush Administration have surfaced in recent days, donations and actions at the grassroots level have quietly illustrated the concern and sympathy felt by ordinary Americans.

On Monday of this week, Jan Egeland, the UN's chief of emergency relief, said that rich nations like the U.S. were being "stingy" by making small contributions. Egeland later recanted his statement, adding that America's contributions to Asia's tsunami relief was "one of the most generous pledges so far."

The Bush administration has pledged $350 million in aid for the relief effort. Critics have been quick to compare this to the $177 million spent every day in Iraq to conduct war in that country. In comparison, there was a $500 million pledge made recently by the government of Japan.

Independently of the government, individual Americans have been directly contributing money to aid organizations. Amazon.com placed a link for the American Red Cross, collecting more than $8 million from 100,000 people as of Friday, December 31st. 12,000 donors have donated over $1.2 million to the Red Cross through Yahoo.com.

Scores of International aid organizations are accepting donations for helping victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Many major companies including Apple Computer, Microsoft, Cisco, eBay, Google, and AOL are helping enable donations through the web. The future of the artsy Trio channel became increasingly grim Saturday as satellite TV giant DirecTV dropped the fledgling network from its national channel lineup.

When DirectTV programmers threw the off switch at 6 a.m. eastern standard time Jan. 1, Trio, an NBC Universal-owned cable television channel, lost two-thirds of its 20 million household subscribers. The channel's remaining 8 million subscribers may not give it enough audience to ensure its survival, according to some experts.

The network received critical acclaim for a quirky lineup that includes the series, Brilliant But Cancelled, which took American broadcast networks, including parent NBC, to task for cancelling quality programs.

Trio originally got its start in the 1980s as a Canadian cable channel owned by the CBC. Its original slate was described as "a general entertainment channel that features the most successful contemporary dramas, documentaries and films from Canada, the UK and Australia. For the last six years, TRIO has been the largest exporter of Canadian TV programs to the US with over 3,000 hours of content," according to CBC press releases.

The channel's Canadian roots were cut in 2000 when media mogul Barry Diller snapped up Trio and sister channel News World International from the CBC and partner Power Corp. for $155 million in cash. Diller saw the channel as a cheap consolation prize after he was outbid by NBC for the Bravo cable network earlier that year. Within months, Diller rebranded Trio, dumped the Canadian dramas and geared it more toward edgier pop culture programming.

Over the next couple of years, Trio changed hands twice. First to Vivendi Universal, then to NBC in a package deal that landed the American TV network a movie studio and the USA and SCI FI cable networks. Trio was seen as more of an afterthought at the time.

In a hint of what may be the fate of the channel, NBC Universal moved most of Trio's executive and programming staff over to Bravo, a now-sibling network, which is seen in 80 million U.S. homes. Some experts predict that Trio will eventually be folded with its more successful programming ported over to Bravo.

"Trio was a refreshing oasis on the dial, with a quirky pop-culture attitude that showed in its programming. Trio leaving is kind of like having a witty friend move out of town," Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, MSNBC television critic said in her weekly column. "It'll be missed."

NBC Universal has not commented publicly on the long-term future or specific plans for Trio channel besides to say it was committed to programming the network for current subscribers as the conglomerate re-evaluates its digital cable strategy. The National s of Australia have, as part of their standard
document release cycle, released thirty year old documents from the
Whitlam government.

The centre piece of the 1974 s are a series of documents from
the Australian Cabinet and the Treasury pertaining to the attempt to
obtain a $US4 billion loan by the Whitlam government from the Middle
East. The obtaining of these loans and the scandal generated became
collectively known as the "Loans Affair," and contributed
significantly towards the dismissal of the Whitlam government by Sir
John Kerr the following year.

The documents from Treasury, which include descriptions of both the
loan itself and the people involved in arranging them, are scathing.
The "Points that might be made" document of December 13, 1974 clearly
states that Treasury believed the distinct possibility that the loans
might be part of "a confidence trick of major proportions". Minutes
from another meeting five days later state the "incredulity" on the
part of the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
regarding the viability of the loan.

Those documents now available comprise the beginning of the Loans
Affair, from the initial offers to the end of 1974. The remainder of
the Loans Affair documents, as well as everything else from 1975 will
be released on January 1, 2006. Actor Jerry Orbach died in his home in Manhattan at age 69. Orbach was a staple of American cinema, stage and television, with his most recent role being in the NBC police drama "Law and Order."

Orbach is survived by his wife of 25 years, Elaine Cancilla, and his two sons Anthony and Christopher.

Orbach was born in the tough Bronx borough of New York City in 1935 to a family of entertainers. His father Leon Orbach was an vaudeville actor and his mother Emily Orbach was a radio singer and greeting card writer.

The family moved often to keep up with travelling Vaudeville acts, but eventually settled in Waukegan Illinois where Orbach played football at the local high school. After graduation, Orbach got a summer job at the Chevy Chase Country Club in Wheeling doing odd jobs ranging from stagecraft to small acting parts in plays.

He then studied drama at the University of Illinois before transferring to Northwestern where he studied the Stanislavsky Method of drama acting. In 1955, Orbach dropped out of college and moved to New York City where he got a job as an understudy in The Threepenny Opera.

Orbach continued to work in theater, eventually earning roles in broadway musicals, but by 1961 had grown dissatisfied with being typecast as a musical actor. He tried briefly to break into film without success, and eventually returned to broadway where he earned numerous accolades for his roles in such musicals as "Guys and Dolls" and "Chicago".

Orbach finally broke into television in the 1980s as a recurring character in shows such as the mystery-drama "Murder She Wrote" and the hit sitcom "Golden Girls".

He earned the lead role as the title character in his own short-lived series "The Law and Harry McGraw", a spinoff of "Murder She Wrote". Orbach also scored key roles in a few Hollywood films, including the action thriller "F/X", and the dance-musical hit "Dirty Dancing", but continued to find his mainstay in television crime dramas.

In 1990, he picked up a role in the new NBC crime drama "Law and Order" as the acerbic-witted Lennie Briscoe, a role which soon become a regular job. Orbach continued in this role in addition to movie roles and occasional musical appearances until his death this last week.

Orbach was diagnosed with Prostate cancer in Spring of 2004, a fact he kept private until November when he checked into New York's Memorial Sloan-Ketting Cancer Center for treatment. In spite of the aggressive nature of the treatment, he died on the evening of December 28. In an abrupt about-face, the world's wealthiest nations have begun pouring funding into the Earthquake/Tsunami damaged region. Promised funds have doubled in the past 24 hours, to nearly 2 Billion U.S. dollars (USD).

After the U.S. increased it's funding donation to 350 million USD, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced a half-billion dollar donation on Saturday, Jan. 1. China has promised 60.5 million USD, after Japan and the U.S., the United Kingdom and
Sweden for largest single-nation donation.
Norway increased it's funding donation to 180 million USD

Despite the encouraging promises, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Indonesia chief, Michael Elmquist, warned that logistics of securing the funds, purchasing supplies and shipping them to stricken regions will take time, possibly weeks. In the meantime, the confirmed death toll will continue to climb, as may deaths due to dehydration, disease, and starvation. Newly revealed documents from the UK government have revealed that Ugandan dictator Idi Amin offered his services as a mediator and peacebroker during the 1970s in Northern Ireland.

Amin, who is infamous for his brutal regime in Uganda, which was responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans, and the complete expulsion of the country's Asian community, wrote in a message to the British government: "I hold a strong view that we in Uganda, being a former colony of Britain, stand a good chance of mediating between the opposing sides in the crisis that is tearing Northern Ireland apart". Amin, presumably under the assumption that he could become an influential figure on the world stage, continued to say "This serious and regrettable development calls for Britain's best and sincere friends to come to her assistance."

According to the documents released by the British National s, Amin's offer was met with a mixture of bemusement and laughter, and a carefully worded reply was sent inviting Amin to mind his own business. In a covering note to the original message, the British High Commissioner in Kampala showed that while the offer showed Amin's "naïve view of world affairs", it was probably "a genuine and sincere effort to be helpful".

Amin was eventually toppled in 1979 by Ugandan dissidents, and the Tanzanian army. He died in 2003 in Saudi Arabia. The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), known for its radical anti-homosexual statements, has founded a website following the Asian Tsunami disaster targeting Sweden. It is the most recent in a string of websites formed by his followers, including ones against Canada, United States, and their original website, godhatesfags.com, campaigning against homosexuals.

The anti-Swede website — godhatessweden.com — proclaims "thank God for 5,000 dead Swedes" and indicates that the church members "pray for all 20,000 Swedes missing in the Tsunami's wake to be declared dead." The website also links to a recording of a recent sermon by Reverend Phelps and a flyer containing the church's official position. The flyer is a caricature of a devil with small signs declaring that Sweden is a "Homo-fascist state" and a "damned land of ... Sodomites".

The WBC's outcries against Sweden seem to stem from the arrest of Pastor Ake Green by Swedish authorities for describing homosexuals as "a horrible cancerous tumour in the body of society".

The Westboro Baptist Church, founded in 1955 by Fred Phelps, is known for its continuous series of protests and for picketing the funerals of homosexuals, w:AIDS victims, and gay rights activists. Other than the Asian Tsunami disaster, the group has, in the past, declared the September 11th attacks on the United States and the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster are messages from God warning of His wrath to come against homosexuals, whom he refers to as 'fags' on account of the fact that, like a faggot of wood, they "fuel God's wrath".

In the FAQ of their main website, GodHatesFags.com, Rev. Phelps expresses his followers' opinions of the Tsunami disaster:

"The tsunami was an adumbration of the wrath of God, a harbinger of things to come: that Great Day of Judgment... those Asian countries weren’t the only ones affected by the tsunami. Do you realize that among the dead and missing are 3,500 Swedes and over 3,000 Americans? Sweden, who recently jailed a Gospel preacher for a month because he preached Bible verses and sentiments about the abomination that is the homosexual lifestyle from his own pulpit to his own congregation. America, who is awash in diseased fag feces & semen, and is an apostate land of the sodomite damned. And you wonder if this is the wrath of God?" The United Nations (UN) emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland has said that he is increasingly optimistic about the relief efforts under way in tsunami-stricken countries. However, he cautions that there are still major problems getting aid to the Indonesian province of Aceh. The BBC's Rachel Harvey, stationed in provincial capital Banda Aceh, reports that the area has been completely cut off for a week. He also said that logistical bottle necks that hampered speedy delivery of aid were improving, with new coordination centers set up in Aceh, near the epicenter of the earthquake, and Jakarta. Regional officials warn that despite improvements, some places may not receive aid for up to two weeks.

United States helicopters, based on a US aircraft carrier stationed off the coast of western Aceh, have begun dropping food and supplies into isolated parts of Aceh province. About 12 Seahawk helicopters are involved in the operation. "We are relying on the helicopter system because that is the only way we can reach the most remote areas," said Michael Elmquist, head of the UN disaster relief operation in Indonesia. According to the World Food Programme, some helicopters are unable to touch down because mobs of people run towards them for help. Supplies are often thrown out of the helicopters to the crowd below. The 30-Stock index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) of India today closed at a new All-time High of 6,679.20, gaining 76.51 points.

Earlier, the index closed at an All-time high of 6602.69 points at the end of Last-week's trading on Friday.

Also, the Delhi-based National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty also breached the 2,100-mark for the first time in its trading history and closed at 2,115, registering a gain of 34.50 points over the last week's close. Republicans and lobbyists close to President George W. Bush have reported that the White House will propose changing the formula for establishing initial Social Security benefit levels in order to cut guaranteed expenditures on future retirees, according to today's Washington Post. The Social Security Administration would no longer use the increase in wages over a worker’s lifetime to calculate retirees’ first-year benefits but would use inflation rates instead. The new “price indexing” formula will reduce individual benefits and overall Social Security outlays because the inflation rate typically is much lower than the rise in wages. The full impact of the change will be felt in the middle of the century.

The Bush Administration proposal, which will be offered to Congress in February or March 2005, is part of an overall Social Security reform package that also would create “personal investment accounts” into which individual taxpayers could divert part of their payroll taxes. The White House believes that the shortfall in benefits created by the adoption of price indexing would be made up by capital gains from the stocks and bonds held by individual taxpayers in their personal investment accounts.

The move is akin to the private sector's migration from defined benefit retirement plans to defined contribution benefit plans such as 401(k)s as almost half of a worker’s benefits will not be guaranteed by the year 2075. President Bush will support the move to price indexing for calculating initial benefits by pointing out that it was the approach recommended by his 2001 Commission to Strengthen Social Security.

Benefits currently are calculated by averaging a worker’s earnings in their 35 highest-paid years and adjusting earnings to factor in cost of living standards at the worker’s retirement age. Under the Bush proposal, rather than adjusting benefits on the basis of earnings growth, the calculation would be based on the increase in the consumer price index over those years.

The implementation of "price indexing" would cut future Social Security costs by trillions of dollars. However, the cuts in guaranteed benefits for middle-class and some high-income workers would be substantial: 9.9% for workers retiring in 2022, over 25% for workers retiring in 2042, and 46% for workers retiring in 2075.

Opponents of the price-indexing proposal point out that inflation-based calculations of benefits, by linking benefits to prices but not wage levels, would cut retirees out from future increases in living standards since it is wages and not prices that determine standards of living. While American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Policy Director John Rother concedes that many of the arguments of opponents are valid, price indexing is inevitable and must be viewed in the context of President Bush’s total reform package.

Rother points out that Social Security benefits, which currently equal 42 percent of the earnings of an average worker retiring at age 65, would be reduced to 20% of pre-retirement earnings for future retirees, thus potentially freezing retirees into today’s standard of living. However, Rother says that price indexing has to be linked to Bush’s private investment accounts as income from the accounts give retirees the chance to make up the shortfalls. Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, has asked U.S. President George W. Bush to cancel the inauguration parties that are planned in his honor and redirect the cost to aid for Tsunami victims.

"It’s up to President Bush to set an example," Cuban said in his web blog. "Could there be anything more confusing and shocking than to read that our country was offering $35m in aid to the areas affected by the tsunamis, but that the cost of inauguration parties would be about $40m?"

"Does anyone else think that this is wrong?" he said.

The U.S. administration has since raised its aid pledge to $350 million, and sent a contingent of up to 1,200 Marines along with a carrier group to provide assistance to the affected areas.

But many reader comments posted to Cuban's blog agree with him and say that the United States is still not doing enough to help. Other bloggers have accused Cuban of politicizing the Tsunami disaster relief efforts.

Rex Hammock, publisher of Rexblog.com, wrote that Cuban's statement is unfairly political and takes focus away from the victims.

"Why not call for the cancellation of the NBA season and take all the dollars advertisers have committed for broadcasting it and send those funds to tsunami relief?" Hammock said. "What, the advertisers won't do that? Have you asked?"

* "Do the Right Thing - Cancel Inauguration Parties" the mark Cuban weblog, December 31, 2004.
* Hamlock's Post Criticizing Cuban rexblog.com January 3, 2004.
* Reprint of Hamlock's Post BuzzMachine, January 4, 2004.
* U.S. Boosts Tsunami Aid Tenfold to $350M AP report on Yahoo, December 31, 2004.
* U.S. Marines arrive in Sri Lanka CNN, January 4, 2004. Various sources have indicated that as of today no significant international aid has arrived in the island of Nias -- a small volcanic island off the coast (North Sumatra province, Indonesia) -- a full ten days after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred. These observations were noted by former Indonesian central parliament member Firman Jaya Daeli, activists from Howu-howu (a Dutch NGO), and Surf Aid International.

Most international aid in Indonesia has been focused on the province of Naggroe Aceh Darussalam (Aceh), as it is where the biggest number of dead has been reported.

There has also been other reports from local media that the island of Simeulue is suffering similar fate.

Although the number of dead in these two islands is relatively small compared to other areas, the number of people left homeless is far from insignificant. In Simeulue of the 15 000 households 7 500 have permanently lost their homes. The number of destroyed houses in Nias is estimated at 4 500. Infrastructure damage, leading to slow distribution of food aid, has lead to the very real possibility of widespread starvation.

Early reports of the situation in Nais suggested the islands were "submerged" and "obliterated" , however these stories were later suggested to have been greatly exaggerated , fortunately most of the islands estimated 600,000 inhabitants were spared loss of life. The estimated death toll is over 100. Eleven members of a Taiwanese medical team arrived on Nias on December 31 most of whom relocated to Aceh due to more pressing need.

The island is popular with surfers who have mounted a considerable grassroots campaign to provide aid to the island (see links below).

Communication to and from the isolated island proves to be difficult.

*NOTE: Wikinews cannot endorse or verify charitable efforts to aid victims of the tsunami and earthquake* Two unidentified young women were found bound and strangled along the road between Villanueva and the village of Santiago in Honduras. A message threatening the same fate to the followers of Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, the presidential candidate representing the National Party, was discovered with the women's bodies.

Lobo, who is the head of Congress, advocates the return of the death penalty in Honduras. Lobo's support for the death penalty and strong anti-crime views have provoked hostility and violence from Honduran street gangs, known as maras (ants). The two slain women are only the latest in a series of politically motivated violence. A number of people have been discovered cut into pieces with messages against Pepe Lobo, and against the nationalist government of Ricardo Maduro. On the evening of December 23rd, 28 people were killed on a bus near San Pedro Sula.

The government has responded to the recent violence by establishing a strong military presence in San Pedro Sula and the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Rodrigo Rato offered special relief funds for the countries victim of the tsunami disaster. The money is, however, in the form of a loan. The IMF has been present in the area on various occasions.

The IMF offered a one billion U.S. dollar loan. The money would be given as Emergency Natural Disaster Assistance facility, and would be repaid in full and with interests within 3¼ to 5 years.

The money could help the area tremendously, but since it is a loan as opposed to an outright donation, it may not be as helpful. The loan, some fear, may not lead to economic stability in the long run. Despite the possible long term effects, the governments of the tsunami torn nations may simply have no choice but to accept the offer. The Australian Government has said in response to the recent tsunami tragedy that it may take Sri Lankans as humanitarian refugees. Sri Lankans already in the Australian community, however, are being overlooked, according to Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition. The government issued hundreds of Sri Lankans their deportation orders on Christmas Eve, and similar conditions affect people from Aceh in Indonesia, near the epicenter of the quake.

The Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) said it has had a special hotline running since December 30 in response to the tsunami disaster.

"People who usually live in an area that has been directly affected by the tsunamis and may wish to temporarily extend their stay in Australia should contact the Department on the hotline on 1300 735 683," a Department spokesperson said. Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was officially placed under house arrest a day after the country's Supreme Court upheld his indictment of one count of murder and nine counts of kidnapping.

Court officials say the arrest order was delivered to Gen. Pinochet's home near the capital, Santiago, Wednesday. The 89-year-old retired general has been at his home recovering from a stroke he suffered in late December.

A government commission, the Rettig Commission, listed 2,095 deaths and 1,102 disappearances during his 17-year rule. In 2004 the Valech Report that was issued after interviewing an estimated 35,000 people who claimed to have been abused by the regime; 28,000 were regarded legitimate.

The crimes were allegedly committed as part of Operation Condor, a campaign of assassination and terrorization meant to suppress left-wing opposition to Pinochet's regime. The Chilean-led program soon spread to other military regimes throughout Latin America, and may have had at least tacit complicity by then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The Pinochet dictatorship ruled Chile from 1973 until 1990, gaining power after a military coup overthrew the democratically-elected socialist President Salvador Allende. Researchers from the Argentinian Garrahan Hospital, the CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Investigations Council) , the University of Texas, and the Wilford Hall Medical Center discovered that quantities of a specific immunological gene in humans (CCL3L1) may have an effect on the contraction and development of HIV and AIDS.

According to the investigation, individuals with fewer copies of the gene are more prone to contract the virus in case of direct contact. Each additional copy of the gene reduced the chance of infection by 5-10%, according to a press release from the study's leader, Dr. Sunil Ahuja of the University of Texas.

The study is based upon the analysis of blood samples from 4308 subjects, including 800 children at Garrahan Hospital, located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The gene may act upon "blocking substances" that are inside cells and have an important role in preventing infections, including the one brought on by HIV. Those cases which presented less quantities of this gene had a higher index of HIV+ infections, while the rest appeared to be more resistant.

The research was detailed in a paper published on January 6, 2005, through Science Magazine's online service, Science Express.

* Key HIV gene discovered (in Spanish).
* The Influence of CCL3L1 Gene-Containing Segmental Duplications on HIV-1/AIDS Susceptibility Paper citation on PubMed, January 6, 2005.
* Number of copies of immune-response gene linked to HIV/AIDS susceptibility Press release from laboratory of study's first author, January 7, 2005. After two weekends of box office domination, Universal Pictures' Meet the Fockers will be challenged for the top spot by horror film White Noise, also from Universal, which opens in wide release Friday.

To be considered in wide release, a film must open or play in at least 1,000 theatres throughout the U.S. and Canada. With Noise being the only new wide release movie for the weekend, it looks to take advantage of movie goers looking from a change from holiday themed film fare.

Noise is a come-back attempt for Michael Keaton, who hasn't had a hit movie since 1992's Batman Returns. But according to one critic, this film may not be a comeback hit for Keaton.

"White Noise never gives skeptics a chance to enjoy the film. I also suspect even believers will be bored," Jack Garner, film critic for Gannet News Service said. Garner's not alone in panning the film. According to web site RottenTomatoes.com, 87 percent of film critics in its survey have given the film a bad review.

"The nominal thriller White Noise is worthy neither of Michael Keaton's talents nor even a desperate horror fan's attention," Manohla Dargis, film critic for the New York Times, said.

But not all reviews were bad. Hollywood Reporter critic, Kirk Honeycutt said, "Even though logic takes a holiday in White Noise, Geoffrey Sax, a British television director making his theatrical debut, lavishes enough craft on the paranormal thriller to send more than a few chills down the spine."

The movie faces stiff competition as five other films have a wider release, playing in more theatres and reaching a larger potential audience. Universal's Meet the Fockers, the sequel to 2000's Meet the Parents is playing in about 1,000 more theatres than Noise and could dominate the box office for a third weekend.

'Fockers', starring Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, has made $186.5 million since its release Dec. 22, according to Box Office Mojo.

The following films will be playing in at least 1,000 U.S. and Canada venues: Calculations based on data from the Chandra orbiting telescope show the explosion in Galaxy cluster MS 0735 is the largest known anywhere in the universe. The explosion is thought to have been fueled by a supermassive blackhole consuming over 300 million stars over hundreds of thousands of years. MS 075 is 2.6 billion light years from Earth. U.S. citizens donating in 2005 to help tsunami victims may write off their donations on their 2004 tax returns, thanks to a bill quickly passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate on a voice vote, and signed into law by president George W. Bush.

Without the new law, contributors would have waited until 2006 and their 2005 tax returns to be able to write off their charitable donations. The law is intended to promote donating towards the tsunami relief effort.

CBS News reports Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy is estimating approximately 322 million U.S. dollars in goods and cash have been donated by private U.S. citizens and corporations, in addition to the 350 million that was promised by the government.

An AP/ISOS poll has found three in ten U.S. citizens have donated to Tsunami Aid organizations. A launch on December 21, 2004 by Boeing with a new "Delta IV Heavy" rocket from Cape Canaveral failed to place a 'dummy' satellite into its intended orbit, but the launch was considered successful by Air Force officials.

The dummy satellite, the purpose of which was to monitor the Delta IV launch, as well as two experimental nanosatellites, provided by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to take digital photos of cloud formations and to test the effectiveness of materials in spacecraft, were lost.

Boeing's Vice President for Expendable Launch Systems, Dan Collins, said that the rocket malfunction was caused by a shorter first stage burn then was expected. This was compensated for during flight, however the fuel lost in the process limited final stages of the burn and was responsible for the payload not achieving orbit

A Boeing spokesman, Robert Villanueva, agreed that many flight objectives were achieved, but did not call the launch a success. "We do have an outstanding issue we need to work on before our first operational launch next year," Villanueva said. 

Boeing was paid at least $140 million by the U.S. Air Force to place a 'dummy' satellite into geosynchronous orbit, 22,300 miles from Earth, according to the FAA. The launch was a demonstration for the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.

Collins also reported, "We now have enough information and confidence in the Delta IV Heavy to move forward with preparations for the upcoming Defense Support Program launch in 2005. The mission has met all its major objectives. The US Air Force - was very, very happy." 

The 23-story rocket, a heavy-lift variant of the Delta 4 family, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Dec. 21 at 4:50 p.m. (2150 GMT). The launch was delayed three times in December due to weather problems and technical glitches.

The Delta IV Heavy is scheduled to carry the final Defense Support Program missile launch detection satellite to orbit this August. A National Reconnaissance Office classified payload is set to be aboard the second operational launch scheduled for December 2005. A launch on December 21, 2004 by Boeing with a new "Delta IV Heavy" rocket from Cape Canaveral failed to place a 'dummy' satellite into geosynchronous orbit, but the launch was considered successful by Air Force officials.

The dummy satellite, the purpose of which was to monitor the Delta IV launch, as well as two experimental nanosatellites, provided by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to take digital photos of cloud formations and to test the effectiveness of materials in spacecraft, were lost.

Boeing's Vice President for Expendable Launch Systems, Dan Collins, said that the rocket malfunction was caused by a shorter first stage burn than was expected. This was compensated for during flight, however the fuel lost in the process limited final stages of the burn and was responsible for the payload not achieving orbit.

A Boeing spokesman, Robert Villanueva, agreed that many flight objectives were achieved, but did not call the launch a success. “We do have an outstanding issue we need to work on before our first operational launch next year,” Villanueva said. 

Boeing was paid at least $140 million by the U.S. Air Force to place a 'dummy' satellite into geosynchronous orbit, 22,300 miles from Earth, according to the FAA. The launch was a demonstration for the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.

Collins also reported, "We now have enough information and confidence in the Delta IV Heavy to move forward with preparations for the upcoming Defense Support Program launch in 2005. The mission has met all its major objectives. The US Air Force - was very, very happy." 

The 23-story rocket, a heavy-lift variant of the Delta 4 family, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Dec. 21 at 4:50 p.m. (2150 GMT). The launch was delayed three times in December due to weather problems and technical glitches.

The Delta IV Heavy is scheduled to carry the final Defense Support Program missile launch detection satellite to orbit this August. A National Reconnaissance Office classified payload is set to be aboard the second operational launch scheduled for December 2005. The USS San Francisco ran aground, or hit bottom, while underwater approximately 350 miles (563 kilometers) south of the South Pacific island of Guam today at about noon local time (2 a.m. UTC).

It is unknown the full extent of the damage and injuries, but at least one person has died and several lesser injuries are known. The submarine is on the surface now and is on its way to a port in Guam.

The Los Angeles class submarine had no reports of damage to the reactor plant, which is operating normally.

Military and Coast Guard aircraft are enroute to monitor and assist in the situation. The Cassini space probe, currently in orbit around the planet Saturn, has returned extraordinary pictures from the Saturnian satellite
Iapetus.

It has long been known to astronomers that Iapetus's surface is divided into two hemispheres, one dark, one light. Now a narrow ridge of massive proportions, 20 km high and 1,300 km long, has been found around the equator of the moon. The height rivals Olympus Mons on Mars-- but Mars is five times bigger than Iapetus.

The origin of this feature is currently unknown. Cassini will next fly by Iapetus in September 2007. The images returned from that pass will have over 100 times greater resolution than the current ones, and scientists hope they will help unravel the mystery.

Iapetus, Saturn's third largest moon, has a diameter of about 1,436 km (892 miles). Jean-Dominque Cassini discovered the moon in 1672; it was also Cassini who determined the color difference on Iapetus.

The Cassini-Huygens mission, named after Giovanni Domenico Cassini (Jean-Dominque Cassini), is a collaborative project with the European Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency, and NASA. Rabies is a disease that has no cure and nearly everyone it infects is dead just two weeks after the symptoms show. And yet, last week a teenage girl named Jeanna Giese was released from a hospital having been successfuly treated. She became the first known person to recover from the disease without vaccination.

On September 12, 2004, Jeanna — a 15 year old from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin— was bitten by a bat while attending church. By the time she saw a doctor about fatigue and numbness, it was October 18, and the bat incident was not brought up until several days later. Usually when there is a possibility of rabies, doctors will vaccinate patients: the vaccine has a chance to act before the symptoms appear. In Jeanna's case it was too late to try to vaccinate, and her doctors at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin devised a new treatment. Jeanna was put into a drug-induced coma for a week, and doctors began an intensive treatment to prop up her nervous system until her natural immunity recovered enough to fight the disease.

By surviving and recovering, Jeanna became the only person known in medicine to overcome rabies without a vaccine. She is not yet fully recovered: the effects of the coma are still apparent, and she has difficulty with movement. Yet the doctors believe that she is getting well much faster than they expected, and feel that Jeanna will be able to return to her high school studies, needing only physical and occupational therapy.

The novel treatment is hailed by doctors as promising, but needs analysis and verification on another human. Jeanna's is the sixth case of human recovery from a rabies infection, but the other five people were vaccinated against rabies either before infection, or before the symptoms appeared. Early on Saturday morning a severe storm swept northern England and parts of Wales bringing destruction and widespread disruption. Gusts of up to 128mph were recorded on high ground at 7am UTC.

Carlisle, Cumbria, saw its worst flooding for thirty years and was completely cut off by fallen trees and flood water. Three people died and more than 3,000 people were evacuted from their homes. Elsewhere, one man was swept away and drowned in a swollen river and another is missing.

A village in the mountainous region of Snowdonia saw 225.4 mm of rain in the 72 hours leading up to 6am UTC Saturday. The monthly average rainfall for the region is 270 mm. Many rivers have burst their banks, and although warnings were issued, there has been much damage to buildings in low-lying areas.

Off the coast of Scotland, a P&O passenger ferry was forced aground stranding the 100 passengers and crew for 24 hours until the ship could be re-floated at high tide. No-one was injured. In the Sudan, a peace treaty has been signed that many hope will end the almost 20 year long civil war.

Rebel leader Dr. John Garang and Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha signed the agreement with foreign leaders such as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and thousands of members of the public witnessing the event at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya. The deal will see Sudan's rich oil reserves being split fairly north–south.

The war was between the Muslim north and the Christian south, and over the last two decades has resulted in the death of 1.5 m people. However, this agreement does not solve the separate, more recent and on-going conflict in Darfur. It is hoped this agreement may pave away to a similar treaty to end that conflict. Palestinians are going to the polls in order to elect a new leader after the death of Yasser Arafat last year. Hundreds of international monitors are over-seeing the elections.

There are six candidates:
* Mahmoud Abbas (Fatah)
* Mustafa Barghouti
* Tayser Khalid (DFLP)
* Bassam al-Salhi (leftist)
* Sayyed Baraka Abdul Karim Shubayr
* Abdul Halim Ashqar

Mahmoud Abbas, who was the interim leader, is expected by many to win. He is a moderate and many hope he will be able to establish peace with Israel, who refused to deal with Yassar Arafat because of his support for anti-Israel militants who target civilians. Abbas doesn't support armed conflict, and is calling for peace talks.

Polls opened at 5 a.m. local, and were scheduled to close at 5 p.m., but a two hour extension was made due to the large turnout.

Voting is said to be going well in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank but there have been reports of difficulties in Jerusalem (where ex-US President Jimmy Carter is observing). Over 500 Palestinians have been turned away by the Israelis running the polling station. Carter is said to be 'unhappy'.

Israel eased some travel restrictions in Gaza and the West Bank, but some of the 500 international election observers reported new checkpoints in some areas. The entry points to Egypt, which have been closed for several months by Israel, remain closed with up to 21,000 Palestinians trapped on the other side, unable to vote in today's election.

The final results of the 2005 Palestinian presidential election are expected on Monday, January 10, 2005. The January 8 submarine accident has left one sailor dead, the U.S. Navy has said. The Los Angeles class nuclear submarine, the USS San Francisco ran aground about 260km south of the island of Guam. The sailor, whose name cannot be released while relatives are being informed, died onboard the submarine after failed attempts at treatment. Of the crew of 137, Twenty-three other crew members are being treated for broken bones, bruises, and lacerations. Polls have closed in the occupied territories with many exit polls showing that of the seven candidates for Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas has a large lead. Voting ended at 1900 UTC, two hours later than planned due to earlier voting difficulties. While the large influx of late voting added to a heavy turnout means that official totals may be delayed until Monday, the primary results are anything but close.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research's exit poll indicates that Abbas has won 66.3% of the vote, while the next closest candidate polled 19.7%. None of the other candidate gained more than 3.8% of the vote.

Abbas supporters have already begun celebrating, according to correspondents, waving flags and carrying posters of Abbas through the streets. They hope that by winning by a large mandate Abbas will have a strong platform to pursue his policies of negotiation with Israel.

The voting went peacefully for the most part, the most noticeable exception being problems with voter registration and the turning away of hundreds of voters from a large Israeli-run polling station in East Jerusalem. A spacecraft designed to chase a comet and crash onto its surface is scheduled for a launch on January 12, 2005 and 1:48 p.m. EST. In early July the probe, named Deep Impact, will approach Comet Tempel 1 to take a number of measurements and photographs. The probe will then split in two, with one part — containing an 820-pound copper weight — propelling itself towards the path of the comet. Twenty-four hours after separation the comet will crash into the slower-moving impactor, creating a crater 100 meters wide.

Astronomers know little of the nuclei of comets, and this mission was designed to determine the make-up of comets' cores. The event will be watched by many instruments: there are two cameras on the part of the probe that is not getting destroyed, a camera on the impactor will broadcast almost until the crash, and telescopes around Earth will also be aimed at the point of the impact. Scientists hope that by studying the depth of the crater and the material ejected from the comet in the crash they will get a better idea of the core's composition.

The probe is named Deep Impact after a Hollywood movie of the same title. In the movie a comet is bombarded with warheads in order to steer it off a collision course with Earth. Unlike the movie, however, the goal of this mission is not to destroy the comet. Indeed, probe's size makes it very unlikely that the comet will suffer more than a crater: the comet is 3.7 miles wide while the probe is about the size of a washing machine.

The probe will be launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Around seventy new species of microbes have been discovered in a highly concentrated salt basin of the Mediterranean Sea, so salty that almost half of the liquid is magnesium chloride. Researchers, led by Paul van der Wielen at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, found abundant colonies of halophile microbes in ancient salty pockets that are devoid of oxygen.

It has been suggested that pools of a similar liquid might be able to exist on Mars, providing a possible niche for simple life to exist there. Sunday Express, a tabloid newspaper from the UK reported an anonymous source claiming to be an insider to merger talks between Wells Fargo Bank and Barclays Bank.

The rumoured merger would be a radical break in the kinds of mergers Wells Fargo has done and has said it will continue to do (it is assumed that Wells with the higher market capitalization would be the buyer).

Wells Fargo has previously shown no desire to engage in retail banking outside the United States, and has only expanded internationally in its Consumer Finance business and with certain business services.

Wells Fargo currently has a market value of 100 billion, while Barclays is worth 70 billion. The wire services such as Reuters immediately wrote articles about the rumour. Barclays refused to comment on market speculation (it is standard for all corporations to consistently refuse to comment on all merger speculation).

No reporters have so far been able to reach Wells Fargo for comment. It is claimed that talks have been ongoing since October, although they are said to have stalled and then resumed.

There is however the possibility that Wells Fargo and Barclays could be contemplating a business line sale, instead of a full on merger. One possibility is Barclays selling its "Barclays Global Investor" division back to Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo (under old management prior to the 1998 merger of Wells Fargo and Norwest Bank) previously sold its Asset Management (mutual fund) business to Barclays in 1995. Renamed Barclays Global Investors, this business remains headquartered in San Francisco, and still has some connections to Wells Fargo's new mutual fund business.

Wells Fargo has a long term goal of deriving around 25% of its revenue from investments and insurance; currently it derives around 15 percent of its revenue from this. The purchase of Barclays Global Investor would significantly move Wells Fargo toward achieving this goal.

Another possibility is Barclays buying the private label (or store branded) credit cards of Wells Fargo Financial. In November, Barclays acquired Juniper, a fast growing player in the US private label credit card business. Friends of the son of the Brazilian President, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, have published photos of themselves partying on vacation in Brasilia. The news caused arguments and protests amongst many Brazilians, with allegations that the government were paying the expenses.

The group of teenagers is shown cavorting at the official residences of Granja do Torto and Palácio do Alvorada, both in Brasilia; near a Brazilian Air Force airplane; travelling by motor boat in Paranoá lake; and with Brazilian soccer player Pelé.

At first, the photos appeared in the photoblogs www.fotolog.net/tata_lulu, www.fotolog.net/feijao_fodao and www.fotolog.net/gringo_mi. But since the publication of the news by the local newspapers Folha de São Paulo and Estado de São Paulo, the photoblogs were deleted or the photos removed. Some of the photos however, still are available at some user and newspaper sites on the Internet.

Since the incident, several people have created Orkut communities which comment, joke, and protest about what has happened. One of these communities, named "Férias na Alvorada - EU QUERO!" (Vacations at Alvorada - I WANT IT!"), had 450 members as of January 7th.

The Brazilian government declined to comment on the pictures. After winning the election of January 9, 2005 by a large margin, new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas offered peace to Israel. Israel reportedly welcomed the result and asked Mr Abbas to "clamp down" on Palestinian militants.

Abbas said he wants to meet Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon soon. US President George W. Bush has indicated he will invite Abbas to the United States for talks, something he never did with Abbas's predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat.

The EU monitoring team present during the elections commented on the uniqueness of democratic elections in territory under military occupation. Leaders, including the U.S. president and European Commission president, have praised the election process.

Reports indicate some problems surfaced during the voting.

According to observers, some Palestinians not on the register were allowed to vote while others who believed they were eligible were turned away. Observers also noted registered names were missing from the Jerusalem roll, leading to voters being turned away. Polling was prolonged for two hours due to an influx of late voters.

Preliminary voting results:

Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen): 62.3%

Mustafa Barghouti: 19.8% The primary suspect in the murder of student Sarah Gleeson apparently set himself on fire, then threw himself from a seventh floor window of the Corus Hotel early on Saturday morning, January 8.

Police indicated they were seeking to question the suspect, David Atkinson, prior to his death. Atkinson was a Lance-Corporal in the British Army. He had been present in Cambridge on New Year's Eve, but failed to report for duty to his barracks in Waterbeach on January 4.

Sarah Gleeson disappeared in Cambridge on New Year's Eve, and her body was discovered on January 8, shortly after Atkinson's apparent suicide. Investigators are working to determine more details about the circumstances and cause of both deaths.

Atkinson had been charged with kidnap and assault in a separate case involving a Polish woman, although the Ministry of Defence stated that he had been cleared of those charges in 1998. The members of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (Movimento Sem Terra, or MST) have decided they will not leave their camp, called Carlos Lamarca, an invaded area of Casa Grande farm. The farm is located at Esmeralda City, a metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Since the judge Dr. Cláudio José Coelho's deadline time giving to them abandoning the area expired yesterday, the arrival of the police force could occur at any time.

Helio do Carmo, a member of MST said, "At this moment, the important thing is staying at the camp and resist." Help is being provided by other MST camps in the region.

Belo Horizonte, a city of 2 million inhabitants, is the capital of Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil. The Brazilian government news agency Radiobrás (ABr) website has completed a move to free software. As of January 9th, the agency's website is in compliance with the Brazilian government's program to use free software throughout the public sector.

Free software is software which, once obtained, can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed. It is often made available online without charge or offline for the cost of distribution; free software is not limited to being given away, but can be "free as in free speech" and sold for profit. Some of the most well-known examples of free software are the Linux operating system, the Mozilla web browser and the OpenOffice office suite.

About 25 people worked on this change. The change has taken about a year and a half, since the first changes of some workstations and servers of Radiobrás.

The switch to free software is being implemented by the National Institute of Technology of Information (ITI), inspired by similar decisions made in another countries. A reduction in service costs is expected. A 25-page briefing paper released by the Human Rights Watch reports torture, mass arrests and increasing persecution of Montagnard Christians in Vietnam's Central Highlands. According to Human Rights Watch there is more extensive use of torture against activists, individuals and religious leaders who have been expelled or returned from Cambodia.

The practice of self-criticism sessions, where Montagnard villagers are forced by officials to renounce Christianity and every political or religious activities in public is common. Human Rights Watch received complaints about these practices at provincies of Dak Lak, Kon Tum, Dak Nong and Gia Lai during 2004.

According to the report, in December, the month of Christmas, police force were engaged in rounding up and arresting dozens of Montagnard Christians and detaining them at district and provincial police stations and prisons throughout the region. The police arrested 129 people between December 12 and 24 in Gia Lai province, one of five provinces in the Central Highlands.

On April 10, 2004, a 25-year-old man was arrested by the police of Dak Nong province. During the interrogation the police officers extracted one of his toe nails, beat him with a rubber baton, broke his front teeth by beating him repeatedly and they intimidated him with a AK-47 rifle. The police officers threatened him by putting a pile of electrical wire in his front but they didn't shock him. Regularly they soak people in water and shock them until they get unconscious.

A man who described himself as a activist with the Dega church movement described his arrest and torture by police in Dark Doa district in March 2003:I was on my way to another village with my little boy to attend a wedding when they arrested me. They took me to the district police station, where they blindfolded me. They sat me in a chair and forced me to hold my hands up in the air for almost seven hours. Policemen on either side of me twisted pens between my fingers and beat my feet with a wooden stick. At the same time they jabbed me in the ribs with their hands. The worst part was that they forced my three-year-old son to sit on my lap the entire time, even though he was crying uncontrollably.

Dak Nong, a church elder from Cu Jut district said authorities have recorded members of his village church committee delivering bibles to officials. Nong said that the video was used later in television in a false report: when it was shown on television the announcer said we were voluntarily giving up the bibles. In fact, we were forced. Guatemala has nominated a Nobel Peace Prize winner, indigenous rights worker Rigoberta Menchú, 46, to become the next Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The post became available after the previous Secretary General, Miguel Ángel Rodriguez, served for only 24 days of his term of office, before returning home to Costa Rica to face corruption charges.

Luigi R. Einaudi, the former Assistant Secretary General, is serving as Acting Secretary General until the OAS decides who will serve for the remainder of the current term of office.

Before Menchú was nominated, the Central American states had decided that the candidate should be from Central America. But the Rodriguez scandal has made it difficult for the Central American states to find another candidate they could all endorse.

Chile and Mexico have proposed their own candidate for the job.

President Oscar Berger of Guatemala agrees that Menchú should be the Central American candidate. Menchú has said that if the Central American nations are in agreement, she will happily stand as their candidate.

An indigenous Guatemalan, Menchú won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, and was also prominent in her opposition to the previous FRG government which Berger defeated.

Menchú works for the current government as Good Will Ambassador for the 1996 peace accord.

(in Spanish)
* Organization of American States Public relations site for OAS
* Acting Secretary General Biography of Luigi R. Einaudi Australian Attorney General, Philip Ruddock, has announced that the US is not charging Australian Mamdouh Habib and plans to release him from Guantanamo Bay, after three years of detention. Mr Habib, accused of aiding al Qaeda by the US, was unlikely to be charged over the accusation upon returning to Australia.

Recently enacted Australian laws could not be applied retroactively, according to Mr Ruddock, quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday. "Those terrorism offences are not retrospective and therefore cannot apply to Mr Habib's alleged activities and associations prior to his capture," he said.

Australian ABC Radio programme AM reported last week of fresh allegations that Egyptian born Australian, Mr Habib was inappropriately photographed in the presence of an Australian Government official, and describing bizarre and intricate tortures it is claimed he was subjected to, which he says caused him to make admissions he now regrets.

Mr Habib's US lawyer Joe Margulies, says in a News Ltd article, that Habib received electric shocks and was beaten, kicked and subjected to water torture while imprisoned in Pakistan and Egypt, and was further tortured in the presence of US and Australian officials at Guantanamo Bay.

According to Philip Ruddock, "It remains the strong view of the United States that, based on information available to it Mr Habib had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks on or before the 11th of September, 2001. Mr Habib has acknowledged he spent time in Afghanistan, and others there at the time claimed he trained with al-Qaeda.

"We have requested the United States authorities to inform Mr Habib of their decision not to prosecute him and of the agreement to repatriate him to Australia."

David Hicks, now the only Australian detained at Guantanamo Bay, will face trial by a military commission in March on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy, according to a second Sydney Morning Herald article. After months of secrecy and lawsuits intended to suppress reporting on unannounced products by independent news outlets, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer, began his keynote address at 17:11 UTC this morning, before an enthusiastic audience.

The keynote, held at Moscone Center in San Francisco as part of the annual Macworld Expo, began with a recap of Apple's retail progress over the past year, media coverage, and a demo of the new Spotlight search technology in the upcoming Mac OS X Tiger, which was announced at the previous 2004 event.

Jobs then made a number of product announcements as he continued his demonstrations:

* Mail is revamped to include high-speed Spotlight search support.
* QuickTime 7, a new release with H.264 codec support for future DVD formats, will be included with Tiger.
* Dashboard will provide miniaturized applications, or "widgets", for controlling iTunes, performing currency conversion, obtaining stock quotes, looking at the weather, and more. Developers will be able to create new widgets using the developer APIs provided by Apple.
* iChat, Apple's A/V conferencing tool, will provide support for 10 simultaneous participants over an audio-only feed, and four simultaneous participants over a video feed.

* iLife '05 is a major upgrade with major new versions of three of its included applications:
** iPhoto 5 now supports MPEG-4 and RAW photo format (for increased control over color fidelity and filtering).
** iMovie HD now supports video in the High-Definition (HD) format.
** iDVD 5 now supports both DVD-R and DVD+R.
** GarageBand 2 upgraded to record up to 8 tracks of audio simultaneously, with "real-time music notation", a new "loop authoring tool", "vocal transformation filters" and other features from Apple's higher-end Logic audio tool.

* Final Cut Express HD to ship in February.

* iWork '05 suite:
** Keynote 2 has new features for animation and self-running kiosks.
** Pages is a new word processor with PDF support and Apple designed templates.

*Mac mini is a new $499 "headless", small form-factor Macintosh with no monitor, no keyboard, nor a mouse. Dimensions were given as "6.5 inches wide and 2 inches tall". 1.25GHz G4 CPU, 256MB RAM, 40GB hard disk, FireWire, USB, modem and Ethernet. Upgraded unit with 1.42GHz G4 CPU and 80GB disk for $599. Scheduled to ship Jan. 22.

Jobs then made his final announcement, in his trademark "One More Thing" style:
*iPod shuffle is a $99, miniature version of the iPod with 512MB of flash memory. $149 for the 1GB version. Shipping today.

Jobs then exited as music artist John Mayer began his live entertainment act. U.S. President George W. Bush nominated Federal Judge Michael Chertoff as the next Secretary of Homeland Security, replacing Secretary Tom Ridge who plans to step down Feb. 1.

Judge Chertoff has been approved by the Senate on three previous occasions and is currently a U.S. Appeals Court judge in Philadelphia. He is considered a "safe" candidate, likely to pass Senate scrutiny, a key characteristic after the White House's previous candidate, former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, withdrew after personal information was made public.

At the time of the September 11 attacks, Judge Chertoff was in the Justice Department and became involved as one of the architects of the Patriot act.

If confirmed Chertoff vowed his primary focus as Secretary to be, "promoting our homeland security and, as important, to preserving our fundamental liberties." Another confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease") was reported today to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The infected cow was found in the province of Alberta, where two previous cases of BSE have been reported in the past year. The cow itself was born in March of 1998, mere months after a ban placed by the CFIA to stop the use of any feed which might contain any "specified risk material"-- material that is known to carry the BSE agent. The cow's origin is still unknown.

The CFIA is now in control of the carcass and makes clear that no part of the cow has entered the food supply.

A team of experts from the United States have been sent to re-evaluate the situation and to make recommendations about reopening the U.S. border. The border was closed to beef exports after the first incident of BSE was reported in Canada. The closure continues to cause major problems for Canadian beef farmers who depended on the United States beef market. As winds in the UK reach 124 mph, a Spanish fishing trawler is missing off the coast of Scotland and three people have died in northern Britain.

The UK Coastguard received an emergency beacon signal via satellite at 2330 UTC last night from a boat in the North Atlantic, 180 miles west of Scotland. No voice radio traffic had been received since the ship's owners talked to the captain at 2030, when the crew reported that they were in difficulties and were losing power. There are 19 crew members on board, five Spansish and fourteen Portuguese. An RAF Nimrod search aircraft is due on-scene at dawn to search for the vessel.

Two lorries have been blown over. In Scotland, the lorry fell onto a car, killing the driver. In Northern Ireland, the lorry was blown off a bridge into the sea, killing the driver of the lorry. A third person died in Scotland when a van was blown into the path of an on-coming lorry.

Across Scotland, 60,000 people are without power, many roads are blocked by fallen trees, trains are not running and ferries are restricted to port. The Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in northern England has suffered superficial damage. CBS News dismissed four employees Tuesday, including three executives, in the aftermath of an investigation into a faulty news story about President George W. Bush. Dan Rather, who reported the story, is not included in these dismissals.

The discharged employees were: Betsy West, senior vice president and overseer of CBS News primetime programs, Josh Howard, 60 Minutes Wednesday executive producer, Mary Murphy, senior broadcast producer and Mary Mapes, program producer.

On Sept. 8, 2004 CBS presented in 60 Minutes Wednesday program, a story about President George W. Bush Texas Air National Guard service during the Vietnam War. The news questioned Bush's commitment to service, saying he refused an order to appear for a physical exam and that Bush family tried to favour him. The news relied on four documents apparently written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian (already dead), Bush's Texas Air National Guard commanders in the early 1970s.

Critics said the documents were fake. After standing its story for about 12 days CBS admitted they could not confirm the authenticity of the documents and asked former attorney General Dick Thornburgh and former Associated Press President Louis Boccardi to start an independent investigation about it.

The independent panel was not able to make any conclusions about the authenticity of the documents and found that political bias was not a factor, but it did criticize the producers for failing to follow basic journalistic principles when they made no attempt to verify their source's claims.

CBS President Leslie Moonves said about the matter: We deeply regret the disservice this flawed 60 Minutes Wednesday report did to the American public, which has a right to count on CBS News for fairness and accuracy. Nine people have died in bush-fires in the region of the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. The fire has spread over 40,000 hectares of scrub, bushland and farmland so far and is still burning out of control. Hundreds of firemen have been fighting the fire, but conditions have been difficult because of strong winds and temperatures soaring well over 40 degrees Celsius. Of the nine who have died, eight were attempting to escape the advancing fire in their cars. Four children were among the dead. Locals of some rural towns fled to the ocean to escape the fires. Thousands of sheep and cattle have also been killed in the fires.

Separate fires have also been burning around Mount Osmond and Cleland National Park in the Adelaide hills. No fatalities have been recorded in this region. Fires also burn in country Victoria.

Bush-fires are annual occurrences in Australia, but these fires have been the worst in terms of deaths since the Ash Wednesday fires that killed 28 people in South Australia. Two years ago, over 400 houses were burnt down in a bush fire in the Australian capital city, Canberra. Huygens probe descent to Titan. (illustration by NASA)
The Huygens Probe will enter the
atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon,
Titan, on January 14 at approximately 9 a.m.
UTC.

The 318 kg probe will hit the Titan atmosphere at 6 kilometers per second. For the next 2.5 hours, Huygens will slow its descent and begin data transmission from on-board scientific packages to the Cassini Orbiter for relay to Earth. It will touch down on the Titan surface at approximately 11:30 a.m. UTC. The probe will continue data transmission for three to 30 minutes, providing it survives the descent and landing.

NASA launched Cassini-Huygens, the largest interplanetary space craft ever built,
on October 15, 1997. The craft arrived at Saturn orbit in July of 2004. It is the fourth craft to visit Saturn and the first to orbit the planet.

On December 25, 2004, the Cassini Orbiter released the Huygens Probe. The probe then began a 20-day trip to Titan.

Experiments on board the Huygens Probe are designed to examine chemical reactions in the atmosphere, the source of Titan's abundant methane gas, the existence of oceans, and the presence
of complex organic compounds.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The probe was named after Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Titan in 1655.

The Cassini orbiter was named for Jean-Dominique Cassini, who discovered other moons of Saturn and the gap between Saturn's rings known as the
Cassini Division. The United States Government reported the largest trade deficit in its history today, totalling $60.3 billion for the month of November.

The Commerce Department reported a rise of 7.7% from the previous month, in an announcement that had taken economists and analysts by surprise. The reading had been expected to fall to $54 billion, following a softening in oil prices.

The trade deficit through November totaled $561.3 billion, far above the previous annual record of $496.5 billion set in 2003, and put the country on track to record a trade imbalance topping $610 billion when the December figures are added. This afternoon the RAF launched an operation to rescue nineteen sailors from a Spanish trawler in difficulties in a North Atlantic storm.

Radio contact with the FV Cibeles was lost yesterday evening at 2030 UTC when the crew reported to the ship's owners that they were in trouble. Last night, UK Coastguard picked up a satellite emergency beacon signal as winds reached speeds of over 70 mph.

This morning a RAF Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft located the ship adrift 180 miles off the Scottish Western Isles. A nearby tanker, the Aegean Spirit, diverted with the intention of taking the trawler in tow and arrived at 1500 UTC.

However, the tanker was unable to take the trawler on tow, and with no other vessels capable of towing the ship nearby, the Coastguard Rescue Seeking helicopter "Mike Uniform" was launched from Stornoway to extract the crew. The tanker remained on scene to offer some protection from the weather, currently reported as gale force winds and rough seas. "IBM hereby commits not to assert any of the 500 U.S. patents listed below, as well as all counterparts of these patents issued in other countries, against the development, use or distribution of Open Source Software."

So begins the pledge IBM has made to "any individual, community, or company" writing or using software defined as "open source" by the Open Source Initiative (OSI).

The patents include software for text recognition and database management.

"True innovation leadership is about more than just the numbers of patents granted. It's about innovating to benefit customers, partners and society", said Dr. John E. Kelly, IBM senior vice president, Technology and Intellectual Property. "Our pledge today is the beginning of a new era in how IBM will manage intellectual property."

"This is not a one-time event", said Dr. Kelly. "While IBM will continue to demonstrate leadership in patent output, through measures such as today's pledge, we will increasingly use patents to encourage and protect global innovation and interoperability through open standards and we urge others to do so as well."

Lawrence Lessig, law professor at Stanford Law School and free software proponent commented: "This is exciting. It is IBM making good on its commitment to encourage a different kind of software development and recognizing the burden that patents can impose."

Not all are confident of IBM's motives, though.

Florian Mueller, campaign manager of anti-patent website,
 NoSoftwarePatents.com, accused IBM of hypocrisy because of lobbying in the European Union to push through the
Computer Implemented Inventions Directive.

"IBM is just being hypocritical because they want to appease the open source community and make themselves popular," said Mueller.

"In Europe, IBM is a driving force behind the extension of the scope of patentability with respect to software. If IBM wants to assume the role of a post-Christmas benefactor, they'd better stop their aggressive patent lobbying in the EU and their shameless squeezing of small and medium-sized companies with its patent portfolio." Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said that on-going violence in Iraq may hamper the forthcoming elections for a new national government, due to be held on January 30.

"There are some pockets that will not participate in the election, but they are not large," Allawi said.

Fifteen people died in violence across Iraq today. A bomb blast in Tikrit killed six police officers and wounded a dozen. South of Baghdad, a bomb destroyed a minibus and killed seven civilians onboard. The bomb apparently was aimed at a US military convoy. Another bomb killed two people in Samarra. Ahead of next month's publication of the Iraq Survey Group's final report, US intelligence officials have announced that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is over.

The 1,700 members of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) will be transferred to counter-insurgency tasks. Actor Amrish Puri, who was most known for his role as "Mogambo" in the movie "Mr. India" died of on Wednesday at the age of 72. Hospital sources say that his death was due to a blood clot in his brain after a brain haemorrhage.

A veteran of sorts, Amrish worked in over 221 movies in his life time, most of which were in Bollywood (Mumbai, India). In his initial attempt to get into the movies in 1954, he was rejected during a screen-test for a hero's role and only started acting at the age of 40 — nearly twenty years later. He went on to become the most popular "villain" on the silver screen. Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was fined US$500,000 and given a four-year suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to unwittingly helping finance a coup plot.

Thatcher's plea-bargain terms include cooperating with investigators, despite having left Cape Town on Thursday to return to London.

The charges brought against him relate to the financing of a helicopter that he claimed was to have been used as an air ambulance. In his plea bargain, he admitted that he had realised the intended mercenary use of the helicopter before the conclusion of the deal. On December 14, Colombian officers arrested Rodrigo Granda, the chief of international relations for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - FARC. The Venezuelan government said Granda was arrested inside Venezuela's borders, so the arrest was illegal and Granda was actually kidnapped. The Colombian government said that Venezuelans detained Granda inside Venezuela borders because of a reward offered for his capture by the Colombian government. They said he was moved to the region near the border of Venezuela, but inside Colombian territory, where officers finally arrested him.

The FARC is considered a terrorist group by the government of Colombia and by the United States , a Colombian ally in the fight against FARC.

The FARC is a Marxist revolutionary group with about 12,000 members. The group originated from the Colombian Communist Party of the 1960s. The FARC's main stated objective is the creation of a Communist government in Colombia. Colombian authorities routinely search their members.

During the Cold War, the movement received some help from the former Soviet Union. In recent years, the majority of its funding has come from kidnapping, extortion, hijacking, and illegal trade in cocaine. The FARC attacks Colombian political and military installations and what the group considers to be strategic targets.

The National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, or MIPT, an organization based in Oklahoma, US, has associated FARC with 446 incidents resulting in 955 injuries and 429 fatalities since 1968. On September 19, 2004, the FARC killed Luis Eduardo Duque Varon, Antonio Jose Duque Varon, and Alfonso Lopez Nivia, a move supposedly motivated by the victims' involvement with the Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

There are evidences that the FARC has liaisons with Latin-American criminals, as for example the Brazilian drug-dealer Fernandinho Beira-Mar arrested by Colombian army in Colombia near the border of Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia. Beira-Mar confessed his liaisons with the guerrilla to authorities. According to the COBRA (alias for Colombia-Brazil) operation report of Brazilian police the FARC maintains drug factories in the Amazon, near the board of Colombia. The manufactered drugs would be dispatched to Colombia, United States and Brazil.

The FARC has advocates among some people and organizations in Latin America. Some of the group's principal sympathizers are located in Venezuela and Brazil. According to them the FARC is victim of a calumny campaign organized by their enemies, mainly the US.
FARC Commander Manuel Marulanda Vélez and others are part of the Marxist and revolutionary magazine America Libre. The Brazilian Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo, known as Frei Betto, a celebrity in Brazil PT and a personal friend of Lula, was former director of the magazine. Raul Reyes, a FARC commander, described the liaisons with President Lula in an interview to Folha de São Paulo newspaper in August 24 2003 and said he met Lula for the first time in San Salvador during the Foro de São Paulo. Olivio Dutra, Minister of Cities of Lula, received FARC leaders in 2001 when he was the Rio Grande do Sul governor. In March 20, 2002, in Ribeirão Preto was open a pro-FARC comitee by the Sports Secretary Leopoldo Paulino (PSB) in the government of the mayor Antônio Palocci Filho (PT). Presently Palocci is the Economy Minister of Lula government. Also the FARC is a member of the Foro de São Paulo since 1990, organization guided by PT and Lula. Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva don't recognize the FARC as a terrorist movement and say they don't have any illegal relationship with the organization.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez already admitted he encontered FARC leaders between 1998-2002. According to him the meetings were a request of Colombian President Andrés Pastrana who wanted to negotiate with the rebels.
Venezuelan president has been repeatedly accused covering FARC. The Colombian Senator Enrique Gómez, member of the outer subjects commission of the Congress said in a interview to the Colombian Caracol Radio: "a conspiracy between the FARC and President Chávez has always existed" ( audio). Colombian Senador Jimmy Chamorro has the same opinion:"there is no doubt about the narrow relation of Chávez and the FARC, and thus it is demonstrated with the case of the guerrilla Rodrigo Granda" ( audio).
The US newspaper Washington Post also accused Chavez of giving protection and suport to the FARC rebels.
The Venezuelan union leader of CTV (Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela - Confederations of Workers of Venezuela) who lives in Costa Rica(he requested political asylum) Carlos Ortega said about Chavez in 2004:"In Venezuela Chavez doesn't rule, who rules is Fidel Castro, the narc-guerilla mainly the FARC; in Venezuela who governs is the international terrorism."
The Venezuelan deputy for the opposition Julio Montoya said that more than 500 members of FARC have become Venezuelan citizens irregularly and that they have Venezuelan identities. Chavez denies the allegations about his government covering the FARC guerrilla.

Since the arrest of Granda, Chavez is protesting and accusing Colombian authorities of entering illegally in Venezuela and kidnap. Chavez said in a interview to the journalist Eleazar Diaz Rangel (newspaper Últimas Noticias) that he has proofs that Rodrigo Granda, FARC counselor, was captured illegally in Caracas and moved to Cúcuta, where the Colombian authorities said the arrestment was done ( audio).
According to him the Colombian authorities are lying when they said they arrested Granda inside Colombia ( audio). The Vice-President of Venezuela protested against the Granda arrestment and said that if Colombia authorities wanted Granda, they should have requested his extradition by legall ways ( audio).

According to the Colombian Minister of Defense, Jorge Alberto Uribe, the Colombian government paid a reward for the capture of Roberto Granda. Venezuelans detained Granda inside Venezuela borders because of a reward offered for his capture and they moved Granda to the region near the border of Venezuela, inside Colombian territory, where Colombian officers finally arrested him. Venezuelan deputy Luis Tascón said that the reward was of US $1.5 million. The Colombian government did not reveal the amount of the reward.

Because of the Granda case the President Hugo Chavez said that the Venezuelan ambassador should leave Bogotá in Colombia and that the trade agreements between Venezuela and Colombia should be paralised. Chavez demmands that the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe do a public international retraction excusing for the invasion of the Venezuelan territory and the kidnapping of Granda.

Uribe proposed the creation of a special comissition, so the severe crisis can be resolved. He emphasize Colombia did not invaded the Venezuelan territory. The US governemnt supports Colombia in this crisis and demmands Chavez to give a clear declaration about his position related to the FARC. Mexican foreign minister Luis Ernesto Derbez says he is confident that he will become the next Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General, and will be in the post within 4 months. He claims to have 17 of the 18 votes needed in order to have the support of a majority within the 34 member states of the OAS.

The post became available after the previous Secretary General, Miguel Ángel Rodriguez, served only 24 days of his term of office, before returning home to Costa Rica to face corruption charges.

The other candidates for the post are ex El Salvadorean president Francisco Flores, Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú and Chilean Interior Minister José Miguel Insulza.
Meanwhile Francisco Flores is in the Dominican Republic on the beginning of a tour of Caribbean countries drumming up support for his own candidacy. He is being accompanied by El Salvador's deputy foreign minister Margarita Escobar in a clear sign of the importance El Salvador puts on getting their candidate into the job. Honduran armed forces spokesman Rafael Moreno Coello announced the deployment of 8,000 troops to ensure the peace in the upcoming internal party elections on Feb. 20. The elections will decide who will be nominated as presidential candidates in the two major political parties, the Liberal Party and the National Party. Anyone with the right to vote in Honduras can vote in either election. The Honduran constitution defines the elections, which the Supreme Electoral Tribunal administers.

The troops, who come from all three wings of the Honduran armed forces, are responsible for electoral materials, such as ballot boxes, before, during, and after the election. They will be deployed in all regions of the country. The operation will cost 14 million Lempiras (US$750,000). Some media sources are reporting that Israel is facing a diplomatic crisis over a number of "Harpy" unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) purchased by the People's Republic of China in the 1990s and returned to Israel for upgrades.

China and the United States are major trading partners with Israel, but discussions to resolve the incident in the Israeli Knesset were muted by a security blackout and delayed by the exit of four Knesset members in protest. Prince Harry, third in line to be the monarch of the United Kingdom, has been photographed dressed as a Nazi.

Harry, aged 20, was attending a fancy dress party last weekend when a fellow party-goer photographed him wearing a swastika armband and Nazi insignia on the lapels of his shirt. The photographs were published today by The Sun, a British tabloid.

After the picture was published, Clarence House (the official residence of Prince Harry) published the following statement: "Prince Harry has apologised for any offence or embarrassment he has caused. He realizes it was a poor choice of costume." Prince Harry himself has made no comments. Three Palestinian militants attacked the Karni crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. The men, each from different Palestinian militant movements (Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committees, and the military wing of Hamas), used a 200 pound bomb to blast through an iron door that separates the Israeli and Palestinian sides at the checkpoint. They proceeded to throw grenades and fire their assault weapons. All three attackers were shot dead by Israeli soldiers. Early reports indictated three Israelis killed, the final death toll was six Israelis and the three Palestinian attackers.

The attack took place at about 11pm local time.

As a result of the attack, Israel has cut off all links with the newly-elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Spencer Dryden, the drummer of the legendary American rock band Jefferson Airplane, passed away on Tuesday, Jan. 11. He was 66. Dryden suffered from stomach cancer and heart disease.

Spencer Dryden was a member of Jefferson Airplane during the band's heyday. He replaced original drummer Skip Spence and played with Jefferson Airplane at the legendary Woodstock and Altamont rock festivals.

Dryden left the band in 1970 to play with New Riders of The Purple Sage, a country rock band formed by members of the Grateful Dead.

He was married three times and is survived by sons Jeffrey, Jes and Jackson Dryden. North American movie box offices were dominated by Universal pictures last weekend as two of its films, a comedy, Meet the Fockers, and a horror flick, White Noise, together raked in a combined $52.6 million, more than half the $98.3 all films made over the Jan. 7 weekend, according to film tracking firm Box Office Mojo.

But Universal's dominance of the North American box office receipts is in danger as 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner Brothers and Sony all have films debuting in wide release Friday.

After a two-week drought of new releases with Noise the only debut, the Jan. 14 weekend is relatively crowded as three new films bow and one Oscar-buzz movie expands into wide release.

* Elektra (PG-13) 1:37 Among the new entries is the Jennifer Garner star vehicle Elektra a semi-sequel to 2003's comic-book based Daredevil where Garner reprise a role of anti-hero. Elektra bows in 3,204 theatres.

* Coach Carter (PG-13) 2:14: Paramount pictures releases the 134-minute metaphor heavy Coach Carter, a production of MTV Pictures, featuring Samuel L. Jackson in an inspirational inner-city high school sports movie. Coach Carter will debut in 2,524 U.S. and Canadian movie houses.

* Racing Stripes (PG) 1:24: Warner Bros. also enters the debut fray with its live-action talking animal family movie, Racing Stripes, featuring the voices from such a diverse cast as Snoop Dogg, Mandy Moore and Dustin Hoffman. Racing Stripes starts its run with 3,185 venues.

*House of Flying Daggers (PG-13) 1:59: Sony Pictures Classics is expanding its wire fu Chinese war epic, House of Flying Daggers. The film has made it to several critics best-of-the-year lists and is considered a front runner for Academy Award nominations in several technical categories.

The following films will be playing in at least 1,000 U.S. and Canada venues: El Salvador officially presented ex-president Francisco Flores as its official candidate for the post of Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). The previous Secretary General, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, vacated the post after serving only 24 days of his term of office before returning home to Costa Rica to face corruption charges.

The Salvadoran government claims already to have the support of three other Central-American countries and the Dominican Republic for their candidate. This may not be true, however, because Guatemala is still deciding whether to officially nominate Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú as an alternative candidate. It is certain that Honduras is refusing to support Flores because of his refusal to accept the decision of the International Court of Justice in favour of Honduras over a territorial dispute between the two nations when he was president.

Flores has criticised Mexico for proposing Luis Ernesto Derbez as a candidate, claiming that in the previous election Mexico had agreed, as had all the OAS nations, that the chosen candidate should be from Central America, and that they have gone back on their word by now proposing their own candidate.

Honduras has similarly criticised Flores, saying that Central America had previously decided to back a consensus candidate, something that Flores is not. Media giant Viacom has delayed the launch of its LGBT-themed LOGO channel by more than four months, according to reports. Originally scheduled to launch Feb. 17, the new channel's debut was delayed until a planned June 30 sign on.

Part of Viacom's MTV Networks, LOGO has secured carriage on Time Warner cable in Manhattan, RCN and Atlantic Broadband. It is in final negotiations with Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, which serves the San Francisco Bay Area.

The channel's management said it will take the extra time to beef up its programming slate and sign on more carriers. LOGO already has secured the rights to such programming as Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Angels in America and films such as Far From Heaven, Philadelphia and The Birdcage.

Original programming includes plans for a string of reality-based series and documentaries with titles such as The Relationship Show, My Fabulous Gay Wedding, and Cruise, which take place about a gay-themed ocean cruise ship. More than 800 homes have been evacuated in the area located below the Prado Dam in the city of Corona, approximately 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

Evacuations began at 5 a.m., with police ordering residents to leave for their own safety. The evacuations also impacted the rush hour commute due a significant amount of people leaving via the already clogged Riverside (91) Freeway.

The record rainfall from the recent storms that pounded southern California has left the earthen dam at its maximum capacity. A small seepage that appeared at the base of the dam raised fears of a possible failure.

Officials vary on their assessments of the problem. A spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, however, who constructed and maintain the dam, insisted that the problem is trivial and people should be able to return to their homes as early as this evening.

The Prado Dam was constructed in 1941 as a flood control dam for Orange County. It controls the watershed of the Santa Ana River, the largest in Southern California. On Jan. 13, People's Republic of China Communications Minister Zhang Chunxian announced a major plan to enlarge the country's freeway system and link all of China's major cities. The project would cost about US$242 billion and take about 25 years to complete, according to CNN News. A certain portion of the plans, however, drew scoffs from both the Taiwanese government and the international press—plans including the construction of a freeway to the island of Taiwan, over 100 miles away from the Chinese mainland.

The freeway would have to overcome great odds. The length of the freeway, whether a bridge or a tunnel, would have to be much longer than any other in existence. The longest bridge in the world is the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, USA, which is 23 miles long. Interestingly enough, the second longest bridge will be the Hangzhou Bay Bridge in China; it will span 22.3 miles when completed in 2008. The longest tunnel in the world is the Seikan Tunnel, connecting the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido at 33.4 miles.

Besides distance, the bridge would also have to withstand the frequent typhoons and earthquakes that plague the Taiwan Strait. And, according to the Central News Agency (CNA), Taiwan's government funded news service, building a freeway across the strait would cause problems with the area's "Black Tides" and "marine trench".

The biggest obstacles to building the bridge, however, may not be with nature, but rather with politics. The Beijing and Taipei governments do not maintain any official ties. Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and breaks off political ties with any country that maintains political ties with Taipei. The PRC has even threatened to attack Taiwan if the island declares formal independence.

Currently it is not possible to travel directly from Taiwan to mainland China or vice versa; Taiwanese flights to and from mainland China are detoured through a third-party airport, usually Hong Kong, before continuing on. In spite of this, the announcement came at a time when representatives from Taiwan and mainland China are discussing possible direct flights—at least for the Chinese New Year.

Taiwanese leaders dismissed the announcement as propaganda. It was undoubtably seen by a few Taiwanese as an attempt on the People's Republic of China's part to annex the island. The Drygalski Ice Tongue on Antarctica's coastline may be bitten off this week by a huge iceberg which is on a collision course with the floating glacier tongue.

Antarctic scientists, at the nearby McMurdo Research Station, are watching the movement of iceberg B15A, a remnant of the Ross Ice Shelf, which partially broke apart five years ago.

The 100-mile-long, 1,200 square mile iceberg is affecting wildlife in the area – particularly that of penguins, which are in their breeding season. Biologists fear that if the berg hits the ice tongue and sticks to it, the resulting dam will make it impossible for adult penguins to reach their hunting ground without abandoning their newborn chicks.

If iceberg B15A doesn't stick to the Drygalski Ice Tongue, scientists are considering other possible outcomes:

* The two massive ice bodies could collide explosively, then bounce away from each other, like a giant pinball-type bumper.

* The Drygalski Ice Tongue could break off from the Antarctic coast to form another huge iceberg.

Iceberg B15A's speed is subject to the local tides, which may guide the berg to hit more than once, according to researcher Robert Bindshadler, who works at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

"It's a clash of the titans, a radical and uncommon event," said Bindshadler. Huygens, the European built Titan exploration probe, ended its seven-year voyage today when it landed on the surface of the second largest moon in the solar system at 11:38 a.m. UTC. The probe, which the European Space Agency (ESA) began developing 17 years ago, has worked well with only minor system failures.

"This is a great achievement for Europe and its US partners in
this ambitious international endeavor to explore the
Saturnian system", said Jean-Jacques Dordain, the Director General of the ESA 

The first confirmation that Huygens had successfully entered Titan's thick atmosphere was at 10:25 a.m. UTC when the Green Bank radio telescope in the United States directly received the faint carrier signal of its beacon. Due to the immense distance, the radio transmission took 67 minutes to arrive.

Huygens broadcast data to its Cassini mothership (the US probe which carried Huygens to Titan) throughout its descent and then from the surface. After Cassini dropped below the horizon of Titan (cutting the radio link), Cassini turned towards Earth to begin transmitting its recording of the Huygens data to the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

So far, ESA has released least three pictures—two from the probe's descent through the atmosphere under parachutes and then a picture near the surface. The Huygens probe took a total of over 300 black and white photographs during its brief mission.

"The Huygens scientists are all delighted. This was worth the long
wait," says Dr Jean-Pierre Lebreton, ESA Huygens Mission Manager.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is conducted by an alliance between NASA,
the ESA, and ASI, the Italian space agency. The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. A United States Army court martial found Army Spc. Charles Graner guilty of abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. The jury sentenced Graner to ten years in prison.

Graner, 36, was described as the ringleader during his four-day trial before a military jury. He was accused of assaulting prisoners for fun.

He pleaded innocent to the five charges brought against him, but the ten person jury took five hours to find him guilty.

During the trial, video and photographs taken inside the prison in November 2003 were presented to the court. The photographs were made public in early 2004 bringing the world's attention to the abuses going on in the prison.

It is alleged that senior US defence officials knew of the abuse, including the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld. Garner's defense maintained that he was acting under orders to 'soften up' detainees before interrogation. The Northern European country of Finland was named among the world's most healthy, according to an investigation by the London-based newspaper, The Guardian. According to health experts, Finland joins Canada as having the distinction of being home to the lowest percentage of "couch potato" citizens among developed nations.

Pekka Puska, Director of Finland's National Institute of Public Health claimed that in the 1970s, the country held the world record for heart disease. "Finnish men used to say that vegetables were for rabbits and not for men," he said, "and the staple foods were bread and butter, fatty meat and full-fat milk!"

When the Finnish government found out the figures in the 1970s, it began a campaign to make a healthier nation. The number of males dying of heart problems has, over the past 35 years, decreased by 65 percent, and lung cancer deaths have also dropped dramatically.

Other nations are now considering using similar tactics as the Finnish government to make their own countries more healthy, but some say it is yet another example of a "nanny state." Just seven days after the election of the new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered his military today to perform a new crackdown on Palestinian militants in resonse to another set of attacks on Israelis.

Now Sharon has told his military to "take any action needed without restriction". Sharon said: "Despite the change in Palestinian leadership, we have yet to see them taking any action against terror."

This follows Thursday's killing of six Israelis in an attack on a Gaza Strip crossing point. As a result, the Israeli government cut all communications with Abbas.

Yesterday Palestinians fired rockets into Israeli territory, injuring two people.
In response, Israeli troops mounted raids into the Gaza Strip, killing eight Palestinian terrorists.

Mahmoud Abbas was elected on a platform of curbing the activities of the terrorists and pursuing peace with Israel. A delegation of Brazilian deputies and senators met the new president of the Palestine Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, on Monday, January 10. Abbas recognized the preferential treatment offered by Brazil to the Palestinians and promised reciprocity. Carlos Abicalil (PT) , member of the delegation, said that the decision of the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to establish, in July 2004, an office of representation in Ramallah contributed to the closening of relations between the governments of Brazil and the Palestinian.

He praised the choice of Abbas, remembering that the election of the parliament, in July, can be a still more decisive step: "From the point of view of the major political representation of the parliament, there is still an incognito, since diverse political positions which didn't participate in the presidential election, with proper candidates, as is the case with Hamas - who have an armed and very organized arm - will participate in the legislative elections. Evidently, in the composition of the parliament, there will be more or less radical positions around the situation of Gaza and Jerusalem ". Jeff Tweiten, a 27-year-old graphic artist, is encamped in front of the Cinerama Theatre, on a blue sofa, in the northwest city of Seattle, Washington. Tweiten plans to wait 139 days for the premiere of "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," which opens May 19, 2005.

He has received help from a community of friends and local business people who have supplied changes of clothes, coffee, food, and a nearby restroom.

City authorities have chosen not to enforce vagrancy laws that would force Tweiten to move between the hours of 7AM and 9PM local time.

Tweiten also camped out for the previous two episodes of the Star Wars movies, "Episode I" and "Episode II". Japan plans to deploy 55,000 troops, along with planes, warships, and submarines, in the event of a Chinese invasion of a remote southern island chain.

This new policy contrasts sharply with public comments by Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, who as recently as December claimed that Japan did not view China as a threat.

Japan Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono pointed to an incursion into the area by a Chinese nuclear submarine last November, which has raised the profile of the political dispute over administrative rights for the islands. China has also increased its marine surveillance of the area in recent months.

The release of such detailed plans by the Japan Defense Agency sends a strong message to China—that Japan plans to protect its claimed administrative rights over the area at all costs. Many Japanese believe "that their government should take an even tougher stance toward China", according to Ho Szu-shen, an associate professor in the Department of Japanese at Fu-jen Catholic University.

The Chinese government has not yet commented publicly about the release of the Japanese defense plans for the islands. However, in December, the state-run People's Daily newspaper editorialized that Japan's multi-year Defense Forces Reorganization Plan attempts to "play up Chinese military threats." China is also unhappy with Japan's plans to build a missile defense system in cooperation with the United States.

Sovereignty of the island is disputed between Japan and China. Both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China claims soveregnty on the island.

Despite Japan's claims of sovereignty over the islands, China has begun to claim some of the region's valuable oil and natural gas deposits to help alleviate the shortages for China's growing economy. China recently allowed leased oil drilling to commence within the area that Japan has declared as an "Economic Exclusion Zone". Japan has lodged diplomatic protests to ask China to discontinue these projects, but China does not recognize Japan's claims, arguing that Chinese territorial rights end at the edge of the Asian continental shelf underneath the East China Sea.

On March 24, 2004, seven Chinese activists were arrested by Japanese authorities when they landed on the islands with the intent to stay for three days. At the time, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodged a protest with the PRC. The activists were deported by Japan after the PRC demanded their return.

The name of the island chain is disputed. The Japanese refer to the islands as "Sento Shosho" or "Senkaku Retto," the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (Taiwan) call the island the same name. In PRC's pinyin system, the names spells "Diaoyu Dao" and in ROC's system "Tiao Yu Tai." Zhao Ziyang, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party who was purged for sympathizing with the student protestors in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 died on Monday in Beijing after 15 years of house arrest. He was 85.

Zhao was a reformer within the communist party who acted against corruption, and created programs of economic and agricultural reform that allowed parts of China to recover from the failure and famine of the Great Leap Forward. He disbanded communes and allowed farmers to tend their own land; he also introduced the plan to create special economic hubs in coastal areas — a system that is the current model for China.

In the 1980s, Zhao's success gained him a variety of top posts within the Poliburo of the Communist Party, including in 1987 the post of General Secretary — highest rank within the party. He was seen by outsiders as a potential successor to the de facto Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, though on one occasion Zhao had denied that he would be fit for the role.

Zhao's rule came to an end in 1989, as he sided with the student protesters advocating democracy in the Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Zhao's position was not held by others within the core of the Politburo, and he was stripped of his post.

On May 19, 1989, Zhao arrived at Tiananmen Square and spoke to the protesters. In tears, he apologized for "coming too late" and asked them to abandon their protest.

Shortly afterward, Zhao was placed under house arrest despite never being charged. Two weeks later on June 4, the army was sent into the square to disband the protestors, leading to hundreds of deaths.

He never again made a public appearance and was confined to a courtyard house not far from Tiananmen Square. From there, Mr. Zhao ventured outside only rarely and under heavy escort to play golf at nearby courses.

Even in death, the government continues to fear that his name might ignite discontent among impoverished farmers, intellectuals, the unemployed and others who want to see sweeping political reforms.

Security at Tiananmen Square was visibly tightened in the days leading to Zhao Ziyang's death, as reports emerged that he had slipped into a coma.

Official announcement of his passing Monday came via a short dispatch by the state news agency, which briefly said that he had died at a Beijing hospital after suffering longtime lung and heart ailments. The report referred to the deceased leader as "Comrade Zhao" and made no mention of his former titles.

He had been in a coma since Friday after suffering multiple strokes, a source close to his family said.

He is survived by his second wife, Liang Boqi, four sons, and a daughter. Pulitzer-Prize winner Seymour Hersh reported that covert operations to identify as many as 36 or more nuclear, chemical and missile potential targets in Iran have been carried out by U.S. Special Forces. By defining these as military missions, the Bush administration hopes to evade legal restrictions imposed on the CIA's covert activities overseas.

There are satellite photographs showing disputed nuclear facilities near Natanz and Arak. The International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) inspected these sites in early 2002 without finding conclusive evidence of military use, though traces of highly enriched material were found.

The covert missions have been ongoing for nearly a year, and have taken place in as many as ten Middle Eastern and South Asian nations. In return for his country's assistance, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is said to have received assurances that the US government will not demand for questioning Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistani nuclear scientist and creator of their nuclear bomb.

The Pentagon has strongly criticised the report, though without explicitly denying the existence of covert operations in Iran. According to the Pentagon spokesman "Mr. Hersh's article is so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed."

He went on to state: "Mr. Hersh's source(s) feed him with rumor, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist, and statements by officials that were never made." NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander program now has an official web site.

The mission of the robotic craft, scheduled to launch August 2007, is to explore the northern polar region of Mars (about 70° N latitude) in May 2008 and to expose the upper few feet of surface material using a robotic arm to find the ice that was discovered by the
Odyssey mission in 2002.

The Phoenix lander is the first in NASA's new line of smaller "Scout" missions in the agency's Mars Exploration Program. A 66 year-old woman in Bucharest has given birth to a girl and is believed to be the oldest woman ever to give birth.

She had been receiving fertility treatment for nine years before conceiving twins. She had not been able to conceive naturally before.

The baby was delivered early by Caesarean section after the other fetus died in the womb. At birth, the child weighed 1.4kg. The government of Colombia released an official notice in response to Venezuela's
claims. Recently Venezuela said Colombian authorities illegally invaded Venezuelan
territory and kidnapped FARC adviser Rodrigo Granda (also known as Ricardo Gonzalez). Colombia said that Colombian forces captured Granda inside Colombian territory. Colombia also accused Venezuela of harboring terrorists.

At first, Venezuela accused Colombia of invading Venezuelan territory and capturing Granda. Later, Venezuela said that Colombia may have bribed Venezuelan public officers.

The Venezuelan government's protests are a request of the FARC. The FARC demands that the Venezuelan government assures the safety and freedom of their members inside Venezuelan territory.

The complete Colombian declaration follows:

HOUSE OF NARIÑO COMMUNIQUÉ

 audio: voice of the Press Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia Ricardo Gallant(in Spanish) 

1. The right of the people to be free of terrorists needs the efficient and
resolute cooperation of all democratic governments.

2. Colombia pays rewards to informants who allow the capture of terrorists. It
does not bribe. Venezuela must present proves supporting the alleged bribe to
government officials.

3. We cannot be cynically deceived by the FARC which presents the capture of
kidnappers like kidnapping.

4. Colombia will present proves to the Venezuelan Government regarding the
protection provided by officials of that country to Mr. Granda. The safe haven
provided to terrorists violates the sovereignty of Colombia, an offended
country, for it increases the risk of terror against its citizens.

5. Colombia does not accept that representatives of terrorist organizations be
admitted in a political event sponsored by official Venezuelan institutions.
Political opposition is one thing another very different one is terrorism.

6. With surprise it is read in the Foreign Affairs Office in Venezuela
communiqué, the intention of involving 4 Colombian police officers in the Granda
case. The Venezuelan authorities timely new that it concerned another
antinarcotics operation. They were investigated and released.

7. Colombia has used the diplomatic and official channels. What is demanded is
that such channels operate in an efficient manner. Once again, information will
be delivered to that Government concerning the presence of Colombian terrorists
on Venezuelan soil. The name of 7 high ranking terrorist leaders and the
location of various camps will be included

8. The will of the Colombian Government to work in harmony with the Government
of Venezuela is reiterated and according to the procedure defined by the Offices
of Foreign Affairs.

9. Terrorism cannot harm the unity of our nations.

January 16, 2005

House of Nariño Waukesha County, Wisconsin, Martin Luther King Day. The Waukesha Freeman, a newspaper with roots in the Abolitionist Movement before the American Civil War, announced that the Wisconsin Department of Transportation has deemed a house at Highway 164 and Lisbon Road of no historical value, and has authorized its demolition sometime this spring.

A historian in the town of Sussex, Wisconsin, where the house is located, noted that residents had a verbal tradition that it was a location in the Underground Railroad, a route for slaves to Canada, before the American Civil War.

Sue Baker, of the Waukesha County Historical Society, which has a museum of county history in the old Court House, noted that Waukesha County had strong abolitionist leanings.

Ironically, Waukesha County, due to its high house prices, compared to Milwaukee County, has relatively few African-American residents, and statistically, the Milwaukee metropolitan area is one of the most segregated in the United States. A 38 year-old man has been arrested by the Customs and Excise Department of Hong Kong, for illegally distributing three copyrighted movies via BitTorrent file-sharing technology. This is the world's first criminal arrest of its kind.

The unemployed male was arrested last Thursday for uploading "torrents" to a local message board. The torrents allowed people to download three movies from computers at his home in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong. However, the suspect was not immediately charged, and investigations are still underway, according to the Hong Kong Government. The law in Hong Kong allows for a sentence of up to four years in prison, and a US$6,400 fine per violation — defined as a single unauthorized copy of a protected work.

BitTorrent is an ultra-fast file-sharing technology which allows users (or "peers") to share files of any size via the unused upload bandwidth of other peers, even though their downloads are still in progress. The technology was developed by Bram Cohen three years ago.

In the past several weeks, major BitTorrent websites in the United States have closed down due to, or in order to avoid civil charges initiated recently by the MPAA. According to the former operator of one of these sites, Suprnova.org, software developers have already worked out a solution and are beta-testing a new peer-to-peer program called eXeem. The software will bring together the strengths of Kazaa (another peer-to-peer program) and BitTorrent. Romania's president Traian Băsescu has pledged to send an extra 100 infantry troops to Iraq to assist the United Nations peacekeepers in the area and to ensure security in the upcoming legislative elections, set to take place on January 30, 2005.

The country, a US ally and a member of NATO since 2004, already has 730 troops in Iraq, being the 8th largest force in the coalition of the willing. The additional deployment will make Romania's force the 7th largest in Iraq, raising its number to 830 troops.

These announcements come amid the global trend of military withdrawal from Iraq. Spain pulled its troops out in early 2004 following a change of government, while Romania's neighbours Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria, also staunch US allies, are planning a reduction in the number of troops in the coming year.

This news also comes at a time when the USA is planning to move its European troops from bases in Germany to more eastern locations. The most likely candidates are Romania and Bulgaria, which are in strategic positions close to the Middle East. Following hospitalisation for pancreatitis and ongoing speculation about his leadership, Mark Latham has resigned from his roles as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and also the Federal Member for Werriwa. He cited as reasons the media harassment, and a desire to put his family and health first.

Mr Latham became leader of the ALP just over a year ago, on 2 December, 2003, leading the party during the October 2004 federal election. He was hospitalised in the run-up to that election, also for treatment of pancreatitis. Following the defeat of his party, his leadership increasingly came under question.

He fell ill a second time almost simultaneously with last year's Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. His failure to issue a statement on the tsunami drew criticism from the media and calls for his resignation from within his own party, even after it was revealed that he had been incapacitated at the time.

Mr Latham's resignation sidesteps the possibility of a leadership challenge by other members of the party and leaves no clear successor. Romania's president Traian Băsescu has accepted an invitation by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, to engage in his first bilateral visit to the UK.

Băsescu was elected president of Romania in December 12, 2004, in the country's most hotly-contested election since the downfall of the Communist Party in 1989.

The president met with Quinton Quayle, the UK's ambassador in Bucharest, Romania, where he received Mr Blair's invitation. In London, Băsescu will discuss the strong cooperation between the UK and Romania in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the British support that Romania receives in its fight against corruption and its preparation for EU accession. Romania is expected to join the European Union in 2007.

Băsescu is also expected to discuss regional security in the Black Sea area, an important issue of his presidency, as well as to meet British businessmen interested in investing in Romania. The United Kingdom has been one of the largest foreign investors in Romania and continues to invest significantly in the country, which is attractive due to its low labour costs, which are lower than those in the new Central European member states. Foreign investment is expected to increase significantly this year due to Romania's new fiscal policy, which introduced a flat tax rate of 16%, the lowest among EU member states and candidates.

After winning the presidential elections, Băsescu was criticised by many for his outspoken support for his plan to create a Bucharest-London-New York axis, a partnership between Romania, the UK and the USA. Băsescu later backed down on his claims, though he said that the UK and the US remain of great interest to Romania for reasons of security. Romania remains a staunch supporter of the US- and UK-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. A new report by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) documents 129 cases where media workers have been killed because of their work during 2004. They expect the number to increase as more information reaches them. This could make 2004 the deadliest year ever.

49 casualties (close to 40%) occurred in Iraq, making it by far the deadliest country for journalists. At least 20 of those appeared to be cases where journalists were directly targeted because of their profession.

Another country that deserved special attention was the Philippines, where 13 journalists appear to have been assassinated in separate incidents because of their reporting. None of the murderers have been apprehended by the police.

In Nepal, two journalists were killed by security forces and one by the rebels. Another journalist was killed by a land mine. Through a telethon, Romanians have raised 15 billion lei, or the equivalent of 395,000 euro for victims of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 that claimed more than 175,000 victims.

The ten-hour telethon was organised on Sunday, January 16, by the television station Realitatea TV, and was the first time an event of this kind had been staged in the country. Nicoleta Drăguşin, a spokeswoman for the network, claims that, "it was a big success... 15 billion lei is a lot of money for a private television station to raise."

Dozens of Romanian celebrities took part in the telethon, including goalkeeper Bogdan Stelea, fashion designers Catinca Roman and Mihai Albu, former Foreign Affairs Minister Mircea Geoană and the soprano Mariana Nicolesco. Newly-elected president Traian Băsescu and prime minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu also took part. In between the live showings of celebrities picking up calls from Romanians who had called to donate, there were shown images and footage from the global catastrophe and its aftermath.

Two Romanian tourists have been declared missing in the tsunami. The 395,000 euro raised by the telethon supplement that 150,000 euro worth of aid pledged by the Romanian government in the form of tents, water and drugs to tsunami-stricken areas of South Asia. In a ceremony attended by several European political leaders and 5,000 VIP guests, Airbus unveiled plans for the A380, a twin-deck aircraft that can carry up to 840 people in all-economy class (550 for a Boeing 747), or 555 people in typical three mixed classes layout.

The new aircraft will take the world's-largest title away from rival Boeing's 747. Boeing's upcoming new design, the 7e7, does not attempt to compete directly with the A380 but instead is aimed at a more efficient and comfortable flight at 200-250 seats.

Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard stated that he expected sales of the aircraft to exceed the 250 required for the project to break even. To date, 149 confirmed orders for the aircraft have been received. Airbus has hopes that sales will exceed 700. The company is currently in talks with China regarding possible sales there.

The first test flight of the aircraft may take place as early as March, and the first commercial flight is expected to take off in mid-2006 from Singapore's Changi Airport.

British and American airline Virgin Atlantic has purchased six of these aeroplanes and intend to fit them with gyms and bars as well as seats. The Syrian Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa, aged 66, who was abducted by unidentified gunmen yesterday afternoon, was released earlier today and is now back in his home.

According to Father Dwraid Brbar of the Mosul diocese, the abductors probably took the wrong person. They were not aware that he was an archbishop. "Initially they asked for a ransom, but when they realised that they had taken a member of the Catholic Church they released him without demanding money".

Casmoussa was born in Iraq and has been archbishop of the Syrian Catholic rite in Mosul since 1999. A British minister in the Department for International Development says that a second tsunami could hit South-East Asia within the next 50 years.

Gareth Thomas warned world leaders at a natural disasters conference in the Japanese city of Kobe. The conference was called to discuss the feasibility of an early warning system for tsunamis to be set up in the Indian Ocean.

He told a BBC radio program earlier today that such a system would cost £20 to £30 million pounds. There is a similar system in the Pacific Ocean, and Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister, said that Japan would provide technical support for the system. "The system needs to be rapidly developed," he told the conference.

The World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, being held only 10 years after the earthquake that destroyed the city, began with a silent tribute to those who lost their lives in the tsunami.

The United Nations Emergency Co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, said, "I hope that nations will make a strong commitment to establishing a system in the Indian Ocean that will help vulnerable populations within the next ten years."

He also added that the system would remove danger: disasters will still happen, but forewarned is forearmed. Chile's Interior Minister José Miguel Insulza said that he is convinced that he has enough support to become the next Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), and that he sees himself as a consensus candidate.

Speaking in Brasilia, Brazil, he claimed to have the support of Venezuela after meeting President Hugo Chavez last Friday. He already has the support of Argentina and Brazil. He is the more left-wing of the three officially declared candidates, the other two being El Salvador's Francisco Flores and Mexico's Luis Ernesto Derbez, so it comes as no surprise that he has the support of other South American left-wing governments.

It remains to be seen whether he can gain consensus of the member states. It is Francisco Flores who has the important support of the USA, though some see this as a disadvantage. Five of the last remaining northern white rhinos in the wild will be airlifted from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Kenya in coming weeks. This is a desperate move to save the population from extinction.

In 2003, about 30 rhinos lived in Garamba National Park. Since then, heavily-armed poaching gangs have slaughtered around 20 of these animals. Kes Hillman Smith of the Rhino Project at International Rhino Foundation (IRF) now believes there are fewer than 10 animals left in the park.

Sometime before the rainy season begins in February, the rhinos will be flown by military transport plane or helicopter to a private reserve in central Kenya.

Outside of the Garamba National Park, there are also 10 northern white rhinos in captivity. However, it is very difficult to breed them in captivity.

Trade in rhino horn has been banned internationally since 1977, but it is worth more than $1200 (USD) per kilogram on the black market.  Thursday night (January, 13), São Paulo police officers arrested four men in a supermarket in São Caetano do Sul. According to the police the men are suspect of kidnapping Marina da Silva Souza, aged 44, mother of the celebrity Brazilian soccer player of Santos Football Club Robinho. A well-known Swedish doctor and researcher at Gothenburg University has been prosecuted, together with the Vice-Chancellor and the President of the University Council, for failing to hand over sensitive data on patients to outside critics.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman, an official appointed by the Parliament, decided to press charges against Professor Christopher Gillberg, MD, Professor Gunnar Svedberg, (Vice-Chancellor) and Arne Wittlöv (President), for failing to comply with a court order from February 2003.

The court had ordered Gillberg and his colleagues to hand over sensitive data on patients and their relatives to two critics of their research: Eva Kärfve, a sociologist, and Leif Elinder, a pediatrician. The basis for the court's decision was the section of the Swedish constitution relating to freedom of the press. Since the university was a public body, it was obliged to turn over any documents to any citizen upon request unless the document was protected by a specific paragraph in the Secrecy Law.

The university argued that the material should be protected by a paragraph referring to the confidentiality of information about patients. The courts decided, however, that they could hand over the data (about 70 shelf feet of documents) if they specified a proviso that would preserve confidentiality. The university was thus ordered to first write a proviso (set of conditions) for Kärfve and Elinder and then hand over the data.

Gillberg and the other members of the research group refused to comply. They referred to the promise they had given to the participants in their studies that all the data would be kept completely confidential. They also argued that the data was particularly sensitive since the research concerned psychological and psychiatric disorders among children, and that it was impossible to anonymize the data beyond possible identification. When they had pursued all legal avenues without success, someone apparently destroyed the documents in May 2004.

The Gillberg group received considerable support from other medical researchers and from their university. They felt that important clinical research could be jeopardized unless complete confidentiality could be promised to the patients.

Eva Kärfve stated that she was happy with the prosecution and that it would "strengthen the protection of research in Sweden." Marxist intellectuals released a letter supporting both the arrested FARC leader Ricardo Gonzalez (also known as Rodrigo Granda) and the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Granda is the alleged adviser of the FARC.

Colombian authorities arrested Granda on Dec. 13, 2004. The FARC is accused of terrorism by the governments of the USA and Colombia. Their members are regularly searched by Colombian authorities. Worldwide, police agencies have an interest in FARC members because of their involvement in international drug trafficking.

The arrest of Granda has caused disagreement. The FARC accuses Colombian authorities of capturing Granda inside Venezuelan territory. Venezuelan President Chavez claims Colombia invaded Venezuelan territory and possibly bribed Venezuelan officers. Colombia says the arrest occurred inside Colombian territory and that Granda was moved to Colombia by Venezuelans. Colombia admitted the payment of a reward for Granda, but rebutted accusations of bribery.

Recently, the Colombian government released an official notice accusing Venezuela of accepting representatives of terrorist organizations in political events sponsored by official Venezuelan institutions.

Open letter from international intellectuals, to the international public opinion

The kidnapping of Rodrigo Granda, carried out in Venezuelan territory presumably by agents of the Colombian police, is an attempt to create difficulties between both countries in order to debilitate the Bolivarian movement. An additional effect is to reduce the international prestige of the conduct of President Hugo Chávez creating doubts about a possible Venezuelan implication in said kidnapping. All intended to cause a possible armed intervention of the United States as a result of the conflict.

In view of this stratagem, the undersigned, artists, writers, intellectuals of Our America and the world declare our unrestricted support to the process of social change initiated in Venezuela and declare our adhesion and solidarity to the Bolivarian movement and the diaphanous conduct of its leader President Hugo Chávez Frías.

Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua)

Alfonso Sastre (Spain)

Atilio Borón (Argentina)

Emir Sader (Brazil,professor)

Lisandro Otero (Cuba)

Theotonio Dos Santos (Brazil)

Fernando Morais (Brazil, writer, journalist)

Georges Labica (France)

Saul Landau (USA)

Hernando Calvo Ospina (Colombia, writer, journalist)

Pascual Serrano (Spain)

Domenico Losurdo (Italy)

Gilberto Lopez y Rivas

Ramon Chao (Spain, musician, writer, journalist)

James D. Cockcroft

Santiago Alba Rico

Alex Cox

Stella Calloni (Argentina, writer, journalist)

Carlo Frabetti (Italy, journalist, writer)

Carlos Fazio (Mexico, journalist, writer)

Miguel D'Escoto (Nicaragua, priest)

Miguel Urbano (Portugal, journalist)

Juan Brom

Luis Hernández Navarro (Mexico, journalist)

Andrés Sorel (Spanish, writer)

John Gerassi (USA, Professor)

Marcos Roitman Rosenmann (Spain, Professor)

David L. Raby

Manuel Cabieses (Chile, journalist)

Eva Forest

Rev. Raúl Suárez(Cuba)

Francisco Jarauta

Eva Sastre Forest

General Vasco Gonçalves

Héctor Díaz-Polanco

Manuel Talens (Spanish, writer)

Alejandro Moreano (Equador, journalist)

Pablo Armando Fernández (Cuba,writer)

Keith Ellis

Dick Emanuelsson (Colombia, journalist)

Carlos Fernández Liria (Venezuela, writer)

Horacio A. López

Angeles Maestro

Víctor Ríos

Danielle Bleitrach

Alcira Argumedo

Quintin Cabrera

Mark Rosenzweig

Arturo Corchera

Cuauhtémoc Amezcua Dromundo

Tubal Páez

Irene Amador

Roger Grevoul

Julie Ruben

Anamaría Díaz

Carlos Alberto de Almeida

Alberto Lecchi

Rosa Miriam Elizalde

François Duteil

Humberto Tumini

Carlos Tena

Elizabeth Martinez

Juan Carlos Monedero

Solange R. Echeverria

Vicente Romano

Jane de la Selva

César Fernández

Norma Núñez Montoto

Marcela Cornejo Z.

Laurindo Leal Filho

Nayar López Castellanos

Julio C. Gambina

Octavio Mercado González

Olivia Vidal López

Miguel Ángel Buenrostro

Juan Carlos Volnovich

Berta Joubert-Ceci

Jorge Ceballos

Isaac Rudnik

Hildebrando Pèrez Grande

Manuel Ortega Hegg

Hélio Doyle

Dr. Rubén Cantú Chapa

Corina Mestre

Manuel Sa Marques

Oscar-René Vargas

Henri Alleg

Roberto Mastroianni

Daniel Chavarría

Elías Letelier-Ruz

Pedro Pablo Rodríguez

Beatriz Rajland

Victor Casaus

Luciana Castellina

Jorge Raúl Rodríguez

Adalberto Santana

Rolando Rodríguez

Lourdes González

Rita Terranova

Alicia Castellanos

Rolando González Patricio

Paulina Fernandez

Vicente Feliú

Rafael Cuevas Molina

Carlos A. Lozano Guillén

Raúl Villegas Dávalos

Sergio Guerra

Enrique Ubieta

Fernando López D´Alejandro

Ana Daglio

Oscar González

Jorge Timossi

Carlos Oliva

Ana María Vera Smith

Salvador López Arnal

José Dos Santos

Humberto Arenal

Iris Galindo

Jaime Mühlrad Zimmermann

Pedro de la Hoz

Maritza Capote

Enrique Cirules

Carlos Alzugaray Treto

Toty Flores, Argentina.

Daniel Rodríguez

Alberto Faya

Marilyn Bobes

Miguel Alvarez

Carlos Roberto

Alberto Luis Tabares

Daniel De Santis Mesa

Manuel Henríquez Lagarde

María Toledano

Manuel Fernández-Cuesta

Rafael Hernández

Manuel López Oliva

Santiago Pujol

Aurelio Alonso Tejada

Alberto Guerra Naranjo

Felix Contreras

Magaly Sánchez Ochoa

Marina Norma Rodriguez Lopez

Lino Arturo Neira Betancourt

José Luis Fariñas

Juana García Abás

Virtudes Feliú

Gioia Minuti Romania's National Institute for Statistics has announced a record growth of 8.3% in gross domestic product for the year of 2004, the highest growth since the fall of communism in 1989. This growth is surprising, seeing as most analysts predicted that GDP would grow by only 5-6% in 2004. Growth was driven mainly by domestic consumption, as well as by increased foreign investment and a good agricultural yield. The growth of 8.3% was also one of the highest in Europe, exceeding by far that of Romania's neighbours Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland.

Despite the introduction of a new 16% flat tax for personal income and company profit, which will boost foreign investment, economic growth is expected to ease in 2005 to around 5.5%. However, on the back of projected economic reforms, growth is expected to break the 8% barrier again in 2006.

Romania, for a long time lagging behind its neighbours in terms of economic growth and per-capita GDP, has posted strong growth since 2001. However, while having one of the highest standards of living in southeastern Europe, Romania continued to lag behind Central Europe in terms of per-capita GDP, which is now about half that of Romania's neighbour Hungary and around one-third of the European Union average.

While some analysts predict that the current high rate of growth is due to a long time of GDP decline in the 1990s, others say that Romania is entering a cycle of boom which will continue for many years to come. Many of the new EU member states, as well as candidate countries such as Romania, have recorded solid growth in the last few years and are aspiring to emulate Ireland, whose Celtic Tiger era of growth resulted in it transforming itself from one of the poorest countries in Western Europe to one of the wealthiest. The new 16% flat tax rate, as well as Romania's relatively low wages, are expected to boost foreign investment, which drove Ireland's economic boom and is also expected to play a major part in Romania's economic transformation.

The HVB Group mentioned in its recent report about the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe that, by 2010, Romania will be a highly attractive destination for foreign investors and will continue growing economically at a solid rate. Romania's 2007 entry into the European Union is expected to further improve its reputation in the business world. However, although having a liberal fiscal policy, Romania must work in cutting red tape and discouraging corruption, which remain obstacles to further growth.

Romania's inflationary statistics also suggested a positive trend, with prices growing by 9.8% between year-end 2003 and year-end 2004. While this is still one of the highest rates of inflation in the region, it compared favourably to the 22.5% inflation recorded in 2002 and the 14.5% recorded in 2003.

The Tăriceanu government's inflationary target in 2005 is 7%, even though many international analysts, including the HVB Group, suspect this will be hard to reach due to the predicted widening of the budget deficit in 2005. The budget deficit is expected to increase because of the new tax system, which will lead to lower revenues for the government. Romania has long been criticised for its high rate of inflation and has been pressured by the International Monetary Fund to reduce its budget deficit. Bucharest, the capital of Romania, will become the first southeastern European city to host CowParade.

Between June 1 and the end of August this year, the city will be flooded by herds of decorated cow sculptures, exhibited at well-known landmarks, such as The Palace of the Parliament, Europe's largest building, as well as on the streets and outside metro stations. Over 3000 local and international artists will participate in the event, decorating more than 100 life-sized fibreglass cows. The decorated cows will feature Romanian and Bucharestean themes, as well as issues related to international city life.

After the event ends, all the cows will be auctioned off, with the proceeds donated to the Special Olympics Romania, a charity helping athletes with mental disabilities. The Bucharest CowParade is organised by Event Horizon, a Romanian marketing consultancy.

CowParade, which was first held in Zurich in 1998, has been held in 22 cities in 5 continents and is today the world's largest public art event.

Bucharest was chosen from over 500 other candidate cities and has waited for the event for a couple of years. The new local government in Bucharest wants to relaunch the city's image as a creative and colourful metropolis and have therefore enthusiastically supported the exhibition. The high-profile event is expected to boost the image of Bucharest worldwide, especially in the artistic scene. Mr Odair de Inácio Góis, aged 52, died Tuesday night at 8:30 at the Central Hospital of São Bernardo do Campo, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.

According to the doctors, he had a heart attack. Inácio was the paternal half-brother of the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The funeral will be held at Paulicéia Cemitery in São Bernado do Campo. President Lula had between 17 and 25 siblings (including half-brothers and half-sisters). A video provided by the American Enterprise Institute intends to show tortures committed by the soldiers of Saddam Hussein during his rule.

The film shows extremely graphic scenes and it is NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN. It depicts Iraqi soldiers singing and praising Saddam, beating prisoners and cutting prisoners' fingers and hands off.

During Saddam Hussein's regime, about a quarter of a million Iraqis were executed. Many individual Iraqis of all faiths and ethnicities were tortured and killed for real or perceived opposition to Iraq's government. Torture during Saddam's regime was characterized by: medical experiments, crucifixions, genital amputations, hot iron marking, tongue fixing with a nail, teeth extraction with pincers, public beheadings, etc.

The four minute video (27.4 MiB) can be downloaded from the AEI website.

This video was released in June 2004. Most of the American and international media didn't show it until now, despite the fact that channels of mass communication regularly released Abu Ghraib's torture photos. Over two million Muslims have today gathered in the Saudi capital of Meccah for the annual pilgrimage, or hajj. The climbing of the 18 km west of mecca Mount Arafat is the high point of the visit.

The Saudi government, however, is taking no chances and has arranged for over 50,000 security officials to deter would-be terrorists and to prevent stampedes.

More than 20,000 buses will be carrying pilgrims to where the prophet Muhammad supposedly gave his last sermon. The pilgrims gather in the Namera mosque, where they stand for a whole day, dressed in their white garments, to repent their sins.

All able-bodied Muslims are expected to complete the ceremony at least once in their lives. Washington state legislator Tracy Eide (D, Federal Way) wants to pass a bill making it illegal to drive a motor vehicle and have a cell phone in your hand. There are exceptions, such as reporting an accident or in an emergency, but under her bill drivers would be required to use a "hands-free" device with their cell phone or face a penalty of $100.

Several studies have found a link between cell phone use and accidents. A New England Journal of Medicine reported study found that driving while using a cell phone creates distractions similar to driving with a blood alcohol reading of 0.08%. According to the Washington State Department of Transportation, approximately 700 accidents involving drivers using cell phones occurred in 2004.

"Where's your other hand? There's got to be two hands on the wheel. Signaling, people aren't signaling any more. You start thinking about the big picture, it gets kind of scary out there and people, it's the equivalent of driving while you're intoxicated," said Tracy Eide.

Cell phone companies are opposed to the bill, saying people can still use the radio and put make-up on while driving. "Certainly when my kids were little, haven't we all been guilty of turning around and going 'hey, knock it off.' Well, you're taking your eyes off the road," said a governmental affairs representative for Sprint.

New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia already ban holding a cell phone while driving; a "hands-free" cell phone is legal. Other states, such as Maryland, are considering other bans such as targeting youthful drivers on provisional licenses. depreciation and amortization for the fourth quarter of 2004 was $327 million, an 84 percent increase compared to $178 million for the same period of 2003 Researchers in Britain have claimed that genetically modified crops can benefit wildlife.

The scientists at Broom's Barn research station discovered that with modified crop management systems genetically modified herbicide-tolerant sugar beet could help wildlife. They timed the spring application of herbicide to maximise both crop yields and the benefits of leaving weeds in the field. Insects could feed on the weeds, and birds could feed on the insects, as well as the seeds from the weeds. The second summer spray of herbicide was eliminated, reducing costs and the amount of chemicals used.

It is hoped that these cost benefits and the high crop yields will lead to farmer's acceptance of these approaches if the beet is authorised for widespread planting.

The study, Management Of GM Herbicide-tolerant Sugar Beet For Spring And Autumn Environmental Benefit, was funded in 2001 and 2002 by a consortium of GM industry interests, the Association of Biotechnology Companies (ABC). The United States inaugurated George W. Bush for a second term as president today. In his speech to the American people, Bush highlighted the need to bring freedom to world, using the word "freedom" some 19 times and "tyranny" 5 times.

"America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies," said Bush.

Security has been very tight in the nation's capital, despite the lack of any specific threats. The costs of security have fallen to the District of Columbia, a departure from past inaugurations. The money will come out of the District's Homeland Security Fund.

A three-day celebration costing around US$40-50 million has been organized for the President. It is set to be the most expensive inauguration celebration in U.S. history.

The inaugration week is the only time that companies can wine and dine politicians. For instance, the Secretary of Transportation, Norm Mineta, was entertained by General Motors, a company over which he has considerable regulatory power.

* Bush inaugurated for second term
* Bush's Inaugural Speech Three British soldiers are being court martialled by a military court in Osnabruck, Germany. They are accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners at a humanitarian aid camp called the Bread Basket outside of Basra, in May 2003.

The court has been shown 22 photographs showing the alleged abuse. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has expressed his disgust at the images but also his hopes that the allegations will not taint the image of the British Army.

Two soldiers are denying all charges while a third has admitted one charge, but denied another. One soldier's defence lawyer has stated that the soldiers were following orders, having been told to "work the prisoners hard."

The trial is expected to last three to four weeks. This morning about 500 policemen occupied the Morro da Rocinha, a favela in Rio de Janeiro. The action is a part of a police operation against drug dealers.

Police say they recovered 11 previously stolen motorcycles, a grenade, a fusil, a walkie-talkie and fireworks (the criminals usually use fireworks to warn fellows about the arrival of police). Three men suspected of drug dealing were arrested: Fernando Pereira Lima (aged 22) Alessandro Martins (aged 27) and a boy (aged 17 - Brazilian laws forbid the release of names of teenagers younger than 18 in reporting legal cases). The teenager allegedly shot the grenade against the policemen, but was himself hurt. He is stable after treatment at the Miguel Couto hospital.

The drug dealers from Morro da Rocinha are in a war against drug dealers from the neighboring Vidigal favela. Local populations of both Morro da Rocinha and Vidigal are endangered by the criminals, and have demanded urgent actions by the authorities. Metrorex, the operator of the Bucharest Metro in Romania's capital, has signed a US$144 million contract with Bombardier for the delivery of 20 additional six-car metro trains for the network. This marks the second phase of the Bucharest Metro's modernisation, the first being the order of 108 state-of-the-art trainsets from Bombadier in 1999. The first series of trainsets were put into operation in 2002 and currently operate on Line 2 of the metro. The second order, signed on January 18, 2005, will ensure that, by 2006, the Bombadier trainsets will service all four lines of the network, transforming the Bucharest Metro into one of the most modern systems in Europe.

The parts for the cars will be produced in Germany and Sweden, with the final assembly taking place in Craiova, Romania.

Since 1999, the Bucharest Metro, which is the largest urban rail system in southeastern Europe, has embarked on a comprehensive modernisation campaign. Marius Lapadat, the general director of Metrorex, claims that "residents and visitors... are impressed with these new state-of-the-art trains", referring to the 108 Bombadier trainsets already running on Line 2 of the network.

This second order is expected to further consolidate the Metro's image as a modern and convenient way of travelling, especially since line extensions are being constructed presently. Lapadat also stated that, "The metro provides a modern feel to Bucharest which is important for our economic future." In early 2003, Metrorex ordered new traffic control and interlocking systems worth US$14 million from Bombardier.

The modernisation programme for the Bucharest Metro, including the order for new trainsets, is funded equally by Metrorex and the European Investment Bank, each contributing 50% to the entire sum. Diplomats at the Trade Representation of the Russian embassy have for a number of years operated at least 8 brothels in the Finnish capital.
The police investigation, which has just been completed, revealed that the diplomats were planning to expand their operation. They even planned to open a large hotel.

About 100 Russian prostitutes worked at the brothels, and the diplomats are known to have pocketed more than $200,000. The police have not been able to interrogate the diplomats because of their diplomatic immunity. They left Finland soon after the police investigation began last spring. Several prominent Romanian artists and celebrities will gather at the Radio Hall in Bucharest on Sunday, January 23, to raise money for the victims of the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004. In an event titled Romanian Artists in Support of Asia, organised by The Reporter Foundation of Romania, artists will auction off their works, as well as personal objects, with all proceeds being donated to the relief efforts for the tsunami victims.

Media celebrities such as the soprano Felicia Filip and singers Angela Similea and Dida Dragan will also be participating, as well as Maia Morgenstern, known internationally for her role in the film The Passion of the Christ. All ambassadors accredited in Bucharest, as well as political personalities, have been invited to participate.

Romanian Artists in Support of Asia is the second major public event organised in Romania to support the victims of the recent Indian Ocean disaster. On Sunday, January 16, the Romanian public raised the equivalent of 395,000 euro in a telethon, while the Romanian Government pledged 150,000 euro for the relief effort.

The artistic event is also part of a campaign by the Bucharest City Hall that seeks to relaunch the image of the Romanian capital as a creative and colourful metropolis. The city will be the first in southeastern Europe to host CowParade, the world's largest public art event, between June and August this year. Condoleezza Rice could become the first female African-American Secretary of State, after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gave the go ahead yesterday. Full approval from the Senate is necessary before Rice can take the job.

Democrats have refused to waive the one-day delay between nomination and a Senate vote in order to analyse thoroughly Dr. Rice's testimony to the Foreign Relations Committee. The Senate vote is expected to take place next week.

Several Democratic senators posed tough challenges to Rice during the hearings.

"I'm worried about your lack of candor, and I'm giving you a chance to set the record straight," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva travelled to the Colombian city of Leticia, in the triborder region, where he met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. They discussed the crisis between Colombia and Venezuela.

The crisis began after the arrest of the FARC leader Rodrigo Granda, also known as Ricardo Gonzalez. Venezuela argued that Granda's arrest is illegal and that Colombia invaded Venezuelan territory in the course of the arrest. Colombia, in turn, claimed the arrest occurred inside Colombian territory and accused Venezuela of harboring terrorists.

Lula and Uribe did not say very much publicly, opting instead to have a reserved conversation to discuss the matter. Lula proposed a bilateral solution between Colombia and Venezuela, suggesting himself as a peacemaker between the two countries.

Later, Lula talked by phone with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations Celso Amorim will coordinate the eventual Brazilian efforts to help solve the crisis.

Yesterday, after a meeting with Peruvian Minister of Foreign Relations Manuel Rodríguez, the Colombian Minister of Foreign Relations, Carolina Barco, said in a interview with Radio Caracol that Colombian chancellery is engaging in a dialogue in the best terms with the Venezuelan chancellery and that there exists the best spirit to solve the problems.

Brazil has a seemingly good relationship with Colombia. In March 2003, Lula met Uribe and they discussed the concerns of both countries. They also discussed the FARC. Brazil did not want to name the FARC as a terrorist group. Amorim explained that it is not part of Brazilian policy to classify political groups as terrorists. Brazil, however voted for a
Organization of American States motion condemning an alleged terrorist FARC attack in Colombia , .

Chavez and Lula have a close relationship. President Lula repeatedly defended Chavez. Both men have been said to manifest support and empathy for the Cuban President Fidel Castro, though Lula has distanced himself publicly from the Cuban leader.

In an interview with the Washington Post not long after his election, Lula said, "In relation to Cuba, let's not confuse the passion that my generation has for the Cuban revolution and what it represented then with any approval of the Cuban regime today. I defend religious freedom, cultural freedom, freedom for trade unions and political freedom." However, Lula tried to expel the New York Times journalist Larry Rohter because of writings deemed libelous , . Also Lula tried to create a council formed by sympathizers and members of his party to control the press , .

The FARC is a member of the Foro de São Paulo organization led by Lula.
Lula and others members of his party already have received FARC leaders many times , , , . Lula supports the FARC position against the influence of the United States in Latin America. According to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, in a interview on the Brazilian television channel Record, Lula said FARC should become like the Workers' Party and should participate in Colombian elections. He denied the supposed Workers' Party relationship with the FARC and said the term axis of evil used to describe the relationship between Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba was a bad joke .

According to Lula, Brazil wants to establish good relationships with all countries, including the United States. However, he leads the Foro de São Paulo, an organization whose members the US government sees as enemies. These members include: National Liberation Army, the FARC, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, Sandinista National Liberation Front, Tupamaros, and the Communist Party of Cuba. A Swedish pastor, whose sermon against homosexuality led to a hate-crime conviction, presented his appeal to the court yesterday.
The district court had previously found him guilty of "aiming to disregard homosexuals as a group" and sentenced him to one month's imprisonment.

Åke Green, 63, denies that he intended to agitate against homosexuals. "I've only enlightened people about what the Bible has to say," he said.
The legal defence has focused on freedom of religion. Green's lawyer, Percy Bratt, has argued that fundamental human rights are at stake and that Green must be allowed to interpret the Bible without interference from secular authorities. The prosecutor, Kjell Yngvesson, argues that Green crossed the line when he went from merely quoting the bible to "gathering everything from the Bible that condemns homosexuality" and added his own opinions.

In his sermon, which was also distributed in writing, Green argued that homosexuality wasn't "an inborn desire" but "people in the hands of evil powers." The district court referred to four specific issues in its finding:

1) Green had argued that the global AIDS epidemic wouldn't have occurred without homosexuality.
2) He made a connection between sex with animals and homosexuality. (By citing passages from the Bible where both activities are condemned in sequence and arguing that when people "abandon God", some will indulge in this sin as well.)
3) He made a conncection between pedophilia and homosexuality.(By arguing that a permissive attitude towards homosexuality would "open the gate to forbidden areas and let Sin take root in consciousness." Thus also leading to other sins like pedophilia or bestiality.)
4) He used the phrase "freely I leave purity and accept impurity" with reference to (among other sins) homosexuality. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found a basketball-sized iron meteorite near heat shield debris at Meridiani Planum, Opportunity's landing location on Mars.

It is the first meteorite of any type ever identified on another planet.

"This is a huge surprise, though maybe it shouldn't have been," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity and its twin, Spirit.

Opportunity and Spirit successfully completed their primary three-month missions on Mars in April 2004. NASA has extended their missions twice because the rovers have remained in good enough condition to continue exploring Mars longer than anticipated. They have found geological evidence of past wet environmental conditions that might have been hospitable to life. The Mars Rover Opportunity’s latest discovery has sparked a debate. Recently, NASA’s rover found an iron and nickel object that the Cornell University researchers on the project believe to be a meteorite.

The surface of the meteorite was found to be remarkably free of corrosion. Researchers are as yet unsure whether this means it arrived recently or that it has possibly been sandblasted thoroughly. The UN has proposed the formation of the International Early Warning Programme (IEWP), with the suggestion that it would have greatly limited the impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis.

The system would analyse data from all over the world and rapidly transmit warnings. It would also feature a population training element, to make sure people know what to do upon hearing warnings or to teach them to recognize danger signs.

“This new programme will help bring safety, security and peace of mind,” stated the Director of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), Sálvano Briceno, at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in Kobe, Japan.

The system, first proposed two years ago, has been given new impetus by the recent disaster in the Indian Ocean. It will warn against many types of natural disaster including wildfires, floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.

The Program will see many existing UN programs working together, including the World Food Program, the World Meteological Program, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). One third of the people the World Food Program helps are the victims of natural disasters.

The system will be built around better, more open flow of regional data and the formulation of local warning plans. Virginia Mayo, an actress famous for her movie roles of the 1940s and 1950s, died Monday, January 17, 2005 in a nursing home in Thousand Oaks, California, of pneumonia and heart failure. Following its "ground-breaking" success, China is now preparing to send two taikonauts to space in the autumn of this year. The two Chinese spacemen will be delivered to space through its self-designed Shenzhou VI spaceship, and will orbit the Earth for up to five days.

"The spaceship's re-entry module, orbital capsule and propulsion module are being equipped, and preparation work for the launch is in full swing", said Sun Laiyan, Director of China's National Space Administration.

China's first manned space mission happened in October 2003, in which the Shenzhou V spaceship circled the Earth fourteen times and landed safely by parachute on the northern plains of China. The success of the misson aroused strong patriotic feeling across the country, portraying Yang Liwei — China's first astronaut ever — as a great national hero.

Within the next few years, China also plans to land on the Moon. Kim Beazley, Labor backbencher and former party leader, may have to face challengers in his bid to fill the vacuum left by the resignation of previous labor leader Mark Latham. Both Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd and Shadow Health minister Julia Gillard have been actively trying to shore up support for bids at the leadership.

Beazley is the only person to have declared his candidacy so far, while both Gillard and Rudd have both refused to commit to running or not running. After returning from his tour of tsunami devastated South East Asia Rudd said that, "Once I've had a shave, what I'd like to do is hit the phones and talk to colleagues".

Frontbencher Laurie Ferguson who is backing Ms Gillard told ABC radio that, "From what I gather around the place, I think there's a number of people urging her to run. Quite frankly I think Gillard is the most impressive person. I think she'll fire people. It's a new look for the party. It's a woman. It's different. We're not talking about someone who's just a trendy commodity. She's actually intelligent, articulate and strong-minded."

Regarding the leadership challenge opposition treasury spokesman Wayne Swan said:
"There are a whole host of problems the Labor Party has to confront, not just the leadership. We do have to confront matters of policy, the development of our economic policy, the structure of the party - these are all important issues and they have to be on the table. But to resolve any of these issues we have to have the maximum degree of unity and that is why the leader that is elected should be elected with a very strong mandate." Anti-gay groups accuse a music video, with over 100 children's TV heroes such as SpongeBob SquarePants, of being a vehicle for pro-gay propaganda.

The video's makers say the music video - a re-recording of the Sister Sledge hit "We Are Family" - is to promote tolerance and diversity to America's children.

Dr. James C. Dobson, co-founder of the pro-Family Christian Ministry Focus on the Family, singled out SpongeBob at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress in the run-up to G.W. Bush's inauguration on 2005 Jan 18, according to The New York Times.

Dobson told the guests that the cartoon sponge had been enlisted in a "pro-homosexual video" that was going to be mailed to thousands of elementary schools promoting a "tolerance pledge" that included a reference to "sexual identity."

The video's creator, Nile Rodgers, who wrote the disco hit "We Are Family," told The New York Times that Dobson's objection stems from a misunderstanding. Rodgers said he founded the We Are Family Foundation after the 9/11 attacks to create a music video to teach children about multiculturalism. The video has appeared on television networks, and nothing in it or its accompanying materials refers to sexual identity. The pledge, borrowed from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is not mentioned on the video and is available only on the group's Web site.

Rodgers suggested that Dobson and the American Family Association might have been confused because of an unrelated Web site belonging to another group called "We Are Family," which supports gay youth. Romania's electricity production and distribution company, plans to introduce a new system which will allow its consumers to pay their power bills via the Short Message Service, or SMS. Currently, electricity bills can be paid directly at banks using cash or credit cards, or via automatic teller machines (ATMs). Additionally, since 2004, customers have been able to pay their bills at Agip gas stations.

In Romania, which reached more than 10 million mobile phone subscribers at the end of 2004, SMS remains a very popular and affordable method of quick communication. Recently, there has been a push to launch SMS/mobile telephony as a method of payment or business, hence establishing an m-commerce network. The move by Electrica for bill-payment via SMS is one of the first such initiatives. The Romanian band Sarmalele Reci have decided to join the bandwagon of aid toward the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami by holding a concert in Bucharest on Sunday, January 23. The concert will be held at the Palace Hall. The band will donate all of the proceeds from the concert to the tsunami relief effort.

Soloist Zoli Andras said that, "This is a good exercise for the Western man who lives in a society with a much higher living standard than in many regions of Asia." The aim of the band in this concert is "to take people out of their daily selfishness and make them think a little about their fellows in Asia who were struck by fate."

In the month of January, Romanians have organised a wide series of events, many of them featuring celebrities, to raise funds for the victims of the tsunami. A telethon was organised last Sunday, January 16, and, on the same Sunday as the Sarmalele Reci concert, Romanian artists will auction off their works to raise money for the disaster victims.

The concert is part of a campaign by Televiziunea Română, the Romanian national broadcaster, to involve the Romanian public in the fundraising effort. After 34 years as president of Bob Jones University, Bob Jones III announced yesterday that he will retire on May 7. He will be replaced by his son, Stephen Jones.

Jones, 65, will continue as Chairman of the Board and Chancellor. The Christian university was established by his grandfather, the evangelist Bob Jones Sr., in 1927. It has been the subject of much controversy because of its racial policies and anti-Catholicism.

When George W. Bush made a speech at the non-accredited college during his 2000 presidential campaign, many critics questioned his judgment, asking why he would support a college with an official ban on interracial dating. The ban was subsequently dropped.

Jones is an ardent supporter of Bush. In his letter congratulating the president on his reelection, Jones wrote, "Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them." The Romanian President, Traian Băsescu yesterday said that Romania is perceived as a "mafia country" and asked prosecutors to take immediate steps to eliminate the high-level corruption in the country.

Basescu told the prosecutors at the High Court of Cassation and Justice that they should resign if they can't do what it takes to ensure that Romania does not become a mafia-like country. Less urgent problems like prostitution will have to wait, he said.

Cases of high-level corruption, such as the Camaru brothers' bribing of police and politicians must be given top priority, the president claims.

Romania's new president, elected in December 2004, has pledged to cut down on corruption. He has appointed a new centrist government of young intellectuals, including a justice minister, Monica Macovei, who is not a member of any political party. In order for Romania to join the European Union in 2007, it has been told that it must work comprehensively to lower corruption, which is currently a major problem on the road to accession. Seeking to "bring together a select group of thoughtful bloggers and journalists", at Harvard today opened a two-day, by-invitation only, Blogging, Journalism and Credibility: Battleground and Common Ground conference.

Held at the Kennedy School of Government, the conference was an initiative of the American Library Association's, Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

"One of the problems blogs," said Dan Gillmor of Grassroots Media Inc., "is that any random website can look as good as any other website. We're going to be working this through for a long time. We're going to have to tell people, be skeptical."

Addressing the question of credibility, both in mainstream media and in the new media self-publishing "blogosphere", is one of the goals of the conference. The rapid transformation of the blogging media, its acceptance and repudiation as a form of journalism, is also a topic slated for discussion.

Corporate media has flirted with, disputed, and been directly affected by, bloggers. Future possible interactions between the new, blogging media, and mainstream media, provide topics for discussion.

Attendees and speakers included both established and new media names, academics and professionals, and amateurs. Topics covered ranged from jargon and terminology, through business models, and on to more esoteric subjects like "podcasting" and "vlogging".

UPDATE: The conference wound up with a session covering issues identified during the conference and an open session of free-ranging discussion.
Original reporting Images from the Huygens probe show that liquid methane flows through and into Titan's rivers, channels, lakes, springs, and other as-yet-undiscovered bodies of liquid. Titan is Saturn's largest moon, and the moon the Cassini-Huygens probe is inspecting.

The image (right) sent back from Titan via Huygens shows the terrain carved by the liquid methane. Deltas and rivers may be flowing with the substance.

The methane rain causes erosion to the planet's land surface, carving out features like rivers in which the liquid methane and possibly other fluids flow. Unrest concerning the Belizian government's new taxes, which began on Jan. 20, 2005, continued as people burned government offices and union workers went on strike, closing ports and shutting down water services.

The unrest has been a reaction to the new budget for 2005-6, passed on January 13th, that introduced big tax raises. The largest individual rise was a new 100% sales tax on Rum. The unusual introduction of the new budget two months before the end of the financial year has been justified by the government as being required to increase funding for Education services. Opposition campaigners have claimed that the government is trying to unfairly collect two months of additional taxes.

During the afternoon, protesters campaigned outside the Belizian National Assembly, with rocks being thrown at riot police. Later, following the expiration of the protest permit, protesters and police exchanged cherry bombs and tear gas. The Belize Defense Force was called in to disperse the crowd, after which sporadic gunfire was heard until the crowd later dispersed.

This is only the third time that this kind of unrest has hit Belize. The first time was in the 50s, and the second time was during the 80s when there was a proposal drafted to give part of the country to Guatemala.

Teachers Strike Continues
the teachers strike enters its 6 day and the water, power and phone unions vow to go on strike in support.

The strike widens: postal workers, customs officers, immigration officers, even doctors (they will treat emergency cases) have joined the strike as the pressure mounts on the government to repeal
recent tax hikes and to reform their ways.

Original reporting On Jan. 17, the NASA-led Swift satellite mission detected and imaged its first gamma-ray burst, one of the most powerful explosions to occur in the universe.

The burst was in the midst of exploding as Swift, designed to autonomously repoint
itself, turned and focused in less than 200 seconds on the event. The satellite was
fast enough to capture an image with its X-Ray Telescope (XRT), while gamma rays were
still being detected with the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT).

"This is the first time an X-ray telescope has imaged a gamma-ray burst while it
was bursting," said Dr. Neil Gehrels, Swift's principal investigator at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. "Most bursts are gone in about ten
seconds, and few last upwards of a minute. Previous X-ray images have captured
the burst afterglow, not the burst itself."

"This is the one that didn't get away," said Prof. John Nousek, Swift's mission
operations director at Penn State University, in State College, PA. "And this is
what Swift was built to do: to detect these fleeting gamma-ray bursts and focus
its telescopes on them autonomously within about a minute. The most exciting
thing is this mission is just revving up."

Swift has three main instruments. The BAT detects bursts and initiates the
autonomous slewing to bring the XRT and the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT)
within focus of the burst. In December, the BAT started detecting bursts,
including a remarkable triple detection on Dec. 19. Today's announcement
marks the first BAT detection autonomously followed by XRT detection,
demonstrating the satellite is swiftly slewing as planned. The UVOT is still
being tested, and it was not collecting data when the burst was detected. Scientists
expect Swift to be fully operational by Feb. 1.

"We are frantically analyzing the XRT data to understand the X-ray emission seen
during the initial explosion and the very early afterglow," said Dr. David
Burrows, the XRT lead at Penn State. "This is a whole new ballgame. No one has
ever imaged X-rays during the transition of a gamma-ray burst from the brilliant
flash to the fading embers."

The origin of gamma-ray bursts remains a mystery. At least some appear to
originate in massive star explosions. Others might be the result of merging black
holes or neutron stars. Any of these scenarios likely will result in the
formation of a new black hole.

The Swift satellite's two-year mission will be to:
*Determine the origin of gamma-ray bursts.
*Classify gamma-ray bursts and search for new types.
*Determine how the explosion develops.
*Use gamma-ray bursts to study the early universe.
*Perform the first sensitive hard X-ray survey of the sky.

Swift, still in its checkout phase, is an international collaboration launched on
Nov. 20, 2004. It is a NASA mission in partnership with the Italian Space Agency and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, United Kingdom. Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, a Polish writer, journalist, legendary resistance fighter and an envoy between the commanders of the Home Army and the Polish government in exile, nicknamed Courier from Warsaw, the head of the Polish section of Radio Free Europe for a quarter of a century and an advisor to the US presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter died Thursday evening, January 20 in a hospital in his native Warsaw, Poland.

Jan Nowak-Jeziorański fought in the Polish Army during the Polish September Campaign in 1939 as an artillery NCO. He was taken prisoner of war by the Germans in Volhynia but managed to escape and returned to Warsaw. He quickly joined the Polish resistance and in 1940 became the main organiser of the Akcja N, a secret organisation preparing German-language newspapers and other propaganda material pretending to be official German publications, in order to wage psychological warfare against German troops.

He also served as an envoy between the commanders of the Home Army and the Polish government in exile and other allied governments. During one of such missions in July 1944, he arrived in Warsaw only a few days before the Warsaw Uprising broke out. During the Uprising he took an active part in the fights against the Germans and also organised the Polish radio that maintained contact with the Allied countries through daily broadcasts in Polish and English. Shortly before the capitulation of the Polish capital, he was ordered by the Polish commander-in-chief Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski to leave the city and find his way to London. He managed to evade being captured and reached Great Britain, bringing with him large quantities of documents and photos. For his bravery and his travels through the German-occupied Europe he was awarded with the Virtuti Militari, the highest Polish military medal. He also gained a nick-name Courier from Warsaw (Kurier z Warszawy), which he later used as a title of his memoirs.

After the war, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański stayed in the West, initially in London and then in Munich and Washington. Between 1948 and 1976 he was one of the most notable personalities of the Polish division of the BBC radio agency. In 1952 he also became the head of the Polish section of the Munich-based Radio Free Europe. Through his daily radio broadcasts he remained one of the most popular radio personalities, both in communist-held Poland and among the Polish diaspora in the West. After giving up his posts in 1976, he became one of the most prominent members of the Polish American Congress and headed the organisation between 1979 and 1996. He also worked as an advisor to the American National Security Agency. Through his contacts with many notable politicians in the USA, he was one of the proponents of Poland's membership in NATO (achieved in 1999).

In the 1990s, he started his cooperation with the Polish Radio and wrote a series of broadcasts titled "Polska z oddali" (Poland from Distance). Since 1990 he was also present in the Polish Television as an author of monthly programmes. In July 2002 he returned to Warsaw for good. He was an active supporter of Poland's entry into the European Union. Most of his books, published abroad as well as those published in Poland after 1989, were best-sellers and gained him even more popularity.

For his writings, he was awarded with some of the most prestigious Polish literary awards, including the Kisiel Award (1999), Ksawery Pruszyński Memorial Prize of the Polish Pen-Club (2001) and the Superwiktor award for tv personalities. In 2003 he was also awarded with the Człowiek Pojednania prize by the Polish Council of Christians and Jews for his part in the Polish-Jewish dialogue. Finally, he was made the doctor honoris causa of many Polish universities, including the Warsaw University, Jagiellonian University and his alma mater, the University in Poznań.

He died in Warsaw at the age of 91 on the evening of Thursday, 20 January 2005. He subscribed all of his s to the Ossolineum Institute. In the reports of his death all major Polish daily newspapers referred to him as the Polish hero and one of the last moral authorities. At the beginning of the calendar year 2005, the United Kingdom Freedom of Information Act went into effect. The act of parliament should allow all citizens of the United Kingdom the freedom to investigate their own records or any data gathered by the government which might affect their lives. However, many within the government have stated that the act will not allow data of importance to national security to be accessed.

The act follows well-received acts in other countries. See Freedom of Information Act on Wikipedia for more background on the history. According to the New York Times, in an ambush occurring Jan. 19 in northern Iraq, outside of Baiji, a British man and an Iraqi security guard were killed and a Brazilian contractor was kidnapped. Both of the men who died in the attack were working for Janusian Security Risk Management of London. The Brazilian man, an engineer, was working for Norberto Odebrecht, South America's largest construction company. His identity was not revealed by the company.

The Army of Ansar al Sunna has taken credit for the ambush, posting this statement online:
"The lions of the faith of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) were able to ambush and kidnap two agents - a Briton and a Swede - working for the intelligence agency of the infidel forces in Beiji and God's law was enforced by killing them."

The Army of Ansar al Sunna plans to release further details about the attack.

The Norberto Odebrecht S.A. removed its employees from Iraq. On Friday, the newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ordered thousands of armed Palestinian security officials into positions in the northern Gaza strip to prevent terrorist strikes on Israel.

It is part of a plan that will include bolstering the security presence along the Gaza-Israel border, over the next few weeks. The plan ultimately will post three thousand troops in northern Gaza. It is the first time Palestinian forces have been used to protect the border from terrorist attacks since the resurgence of the Intifada in 2000.

Israel immediately responded to the move, with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon restoring dialogue with Abbas and continuing Israeli-Palestinian co-operation on intelligence and security.

Leaders of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad are also in talks with Abbas, although are publicly denying any agreement. TeliaSonera Sweden has announced today that it is increasing the speed of data traffic through its GSM mobile network due to the introduction of EDGE technology. This will require an investment of approximately €110 million, over a four-year period. The new technology will enable transmission speeds of up to 210/105 kpbs.

The company also intends to increase the coverage of its GSM network from 70% to 90% of Sweden's land area. While Sweden has a high mobile penetration rate and a high rate of coverage in terms of population, land area coverage was previously only 70% due to the country's relatively low population density as well as its northern highland areas.

TeliaSonera is the largest communications company in Northern Europe, formed as a result of a merger between Sweden's Telia and Finland's Sonera. It is owned 45.3% by the Swedish state. The Spanish government, in collaboration with the Spanish General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE), has developed a new Internet law that will hold Internet Service Providers responsible for the web content provided through their services. This law is intended to prevent the piracy of copyrighted material, but it may force ISPs to censor web content in order to deflect possible legal issues.

The Spanish Internet User Association has claimed that such law will break the Spanish Constitution and several European directives that discharge an ISP's responsibility. Security measures are being increased in Iraq to protect voters in the upcoming election. Iraq's Interim government has pledged to protect voters in the upcoming election on January 30. The Interior Security Minister, Falah al-Naqib, announced some security measures that will be taken, including:

*A curfew will be instituted in many cities from 8:00pm to 6:00am local time.

*The Airport will be closed for three days starting on the day before the vote.

*The country will be sealed off from the outside world by closing all borders.

*Private vehicles will not be allowed near polling stations.

*January 29, 30, and 31 would be declared a public holiday, and Iraqis would be barred from carrying weapons during that time.

The Iraqi government has also told hospitals and emergency centers to staff extra people, indicating they expect an increase in civilian casualties. The interior minister also indicated that there was no garuntee that these measures would be 100% effective. Since the terror threat tipping mayhem in Massachusetts, the governer and other officials have seemed to take it half seriously, and half not. Now the case is still being explored. A few days after the threats, terror suspects were identified in photos last night. The United States Attorney Michael Sullivan spoke during a news conference at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston on the 20th concerning these terror suspects. JP Morgan Chase issued an apology on Thursday for the actions of two of its predecessor banks that accepted slaves as collateral on loans.

Citizens Bank and Canal Bank in Louisiana, which were ultimately acquired by JP Morgan, accepted approximately 13,000 slaves as collateral and took ownership of approximately 1250 between 1831 and 1865, according to a memo to employees from CEO and Chairman William Harrison and President James Dimon.

The memo was in response to a Chicago ordinance, which requires disclosure of slave ownership.

"We apologize to the American public, and particularly to African-Americans, for the role that Citizens Bank and Canal Bank played during that period," said the company on its website. "Although we cannot change the past, we are committed to learning from and emerging stronger because of it." 

JP Morgan was involved in a class action suit in 2002 which sought reparations for slavery from it and 17 other companies. The case was dismissed last year.

The bank will establish a $5 million, need-based scholarship for African-American students in Louisiana.

JP Morgan stock fell 1.6 percent on Thursday to $37.25. Colombia and Venezuela continue to clash over the circumstances of the announced arrest of Rodrigo Granda, alleged leader of the FARC.
Colombia released a list of terrorists harbored by Venezuela and a recording of a conversation between alleged members of the FARC. Venezuela said it will request the extradition of terrorists in Colombia. In Caracas a march was scheduled by thousands of activists supporting the President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and protesting against the USA. President Chavez appeared on television to accuse the USA of being behind the Colombian accusations. The head of the Colombian Police was traveling in a helicopter when it came under attack by forces of the FARC.

Colombia is supported by the USA in opposing the FARC who are believed to be involved in international drug trade. Venezuela is allegedly supported by the Foro de São Paulo as member states, along with Brazil, Cuba and the FARC.

According to the Colombian Radio Caracol, La Fiscalía General de la Nación (Attorney General) of Colombia revealed proofs of FARC activities in Venezuela (January 21). The evidence includes the recording of a telephone conversation between two presumed guerrillas, and a list with the names of seven members from FARC and one individual from Ejército de Liberación Nacional (the National Liberation Army, or ELN) who Colombia claims are continuously in Venezuelan territory. ( audio)

The names of the alleged terrorists, and the crimes Colombia accuses them of, are:
;From FARC 
:# Aldo Manuel Moscote Fragoso, alias Lucas Iguarán. 4 pending processes by the crimes of rebelín and terrorism.
:# Emilio del Carmen Ropero Suárez, alias Rubén Zamora. He has 10 pending processes by the crimes of kidnapping extorsivo and terrorism.
:# Germán Briceño Suárez, alias Gran Noble. 11 pending processes, required by the crimes of homicide, terrorism, extorsivo drug trafficking, kidnapping and empowering of airship.
:# Jesús Elimio Carvajalino, alias Andrés Paris. 9 pending processes by the crimes of rebellion, terrorism, kidnapping, homicide and traffic of arms.
:# Luciano Marín Arango, alias Iván Márquez. 133 pending processes. Crimes:kidnapping and extorsion, terrorism, homicide, illicit recruitment.
:# Luis Edgar Debia Silva, alias Raul Kings. 178 pending processes: violation and violent sexual act, terrorism, rebellion, destruction of protected goods, kidnapping, illicit recruitment, described theft, empowering of airship and drug trafficking.
:# Seusis Hernández, alias Juan Santrich. It has a pending process by the crimes of concert to break the law, rebellion and illicit recruitment.

;From ELN 
:#Nicolás Rodríguez Bautistas, alias Gabino. 17 pending processes by the crimes of kidnapping and extorsion, forced disappearance, rebellion, theft, homicide and tortures.

This list was sent to the government of Venezuela.

The Colombian Caracol Radio also obtained the recording of the telephone call in which, according to the Colombian authorities, alias Juan Santrich, presumed member of the General Staff of the FARC, talks with alias Jorge Tivieras. Both men speak in key on the preparation of a political forum that was carried out in the Venezuelan capital in the first days of December. About a hundred guerrillas were at this event, according to the interpretation of the Colombian authorities. This information would be sent to Ivan Marquez, of the secretaryship of the FARC. In the same conversation it is spoken of the attendance of an indigenous delegation. During the event apparently propaganda would have been distributed and a declaration against president of Colombia Álvaro Uribe was prepared, although the interlocutors do not mention him by name.

The recording can be heard here.

The Colombian newspaper El Pais reported in a January 23 news release the helicopters in which the head of the Colombian Police general Jorge Castro and other government officials traveled were attacked by ground forces loyal to the FARC when it flew over a zone of illegal farms in the center-west of the country. No injuries or damage were reported.

After officially receiving from Colombia the list of guerrillas from the FARC and the ELN the Government of Venezuela announced by the Venezuelan minister of the Interior, Jesse Chacón that will request to Colombia the capture and extradition of several ex-military and political leaders in Colombia. They are accused of terrorism by Venezuela. Also Chacón announced that his government will study the documentation presented by Colombia.

The Venezuelan Minister advanced some names in the list he will send: Felipe Rodríguez (retired general of the National Guard) alias "El Cuervo" accused of the attack against the consulate of Colombia in Caracas and the industralist Pedro Carmona, who self-proclaimed president of Venezuela after the coup of April of 2002 in Venezuela.
The Venezuelan Vice-President José Vicente Rangel said the list of terrorists sent by Colombia to Venezuela was frustrating. According to him the list should be completed with the names of Colombian drug-dealers and paramilitary forces who usually enters Venezuelan territory.

The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly Mature Nicholas denounced a multimillionaire campaign against Hugo Chávez. He explained the campaign would be being supported by a sector of the Government of the United States from the halting of the guerrilla Rodrigo Granda: "This campaign has a planning component and execution on the part of the CIA".

"They are going to use it in an international show to indicate it like a species of witness who will contribute testimony in against of Venezuela, our democracy to justify and to give veracity to the denunciations that the government (of Alvaro) Uribe has removed from last hour".

Mature added that they had information on a new scandal that will be promoted as of the next week from the testimonies that a person of name "Sonia" (protected by USA laws and tied to drug trafficking crimes) will give.

A march of thousands of supporters to President Hugo Chávez was schedulled to January 23 in Caracas, Venezuela. The activivists demand respect to the sovereignty of Venezuela, support the Venezuelan governor in the crisis with Colombia and protest against the USA.

According to Venezuelan newspaper El Universal in national chain of radio and television Chávez said that the case of the kidnapping of Rodrigo Granda "is a new attack of North American imperialism".
He accused the "imperialistic government of the USA " "in a hurry run to defend this upsetting and this vulgarity, in addition to the government of Colombia". He described the Secretary of State of the USA, Condoleezza Rice, as "illiterate" to not know what it is happening in Venezuela. He said that the United States is "the force more negative than can have for this world". 

There is some uncertainty about the date of some events. 

2004 - December
* 13: FARC-EP member Rodrigo Granda is arrested by Colombian authorities.
* 15: The Colombian National Police director Jorge Daniel Castro says Granda was arrested in Cúcuta, Colombia.
* 16: Sources of the Cúcuta police say Granda was arrested in a city hotel.
* 17: Another source of the Cúcuta police says Granda was arrested in a street of the Norte de Santander capital, Colombia.
* 30: The FARC say Granda was kidnapped.

2005 - January
* 3: The FARC demand Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to begin a investigation.
* 5: Venezuelan Minister Jesse Chacón says that Venezuela didn't take part in the capture of Granda.
* 5: The Colombian Minister of Defense Jorge Alberto Uribe says that Colombian forces captured Granda inside Colombian territory.
* 6: The Colombian President Álvaro Uribe also says that Colombian forces captured Granda inside Colombian territory.
* 9: The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that the Colombian police lies about the Granda capture.
* 12: The Colombian Minister of Defense Jorge Alberto Uribe says that a reward was paid for Granda. He reiterates that Colombian forces captured Granda inside Colombian territory.
* 13: The National Police director Jorge Daniel Castro says that Colombian authorities didn't take part of the arrestment of Granda in Caracas, Venezuela.
* 13: Chavez says that Venezuelan ambassador should leave Bogotá in Colombia. The Chinese Embassy has confirmed a report by the Al-Arabiya television station that the eight hostages held hostages in Iraq four days ago had been released unharmed.

Al-Numan Battalion, the militant group holding the men had threatened to kill them if China failed to clarify its position on Iraq. It reportedly said in a videotape that the hostages were being freed after China said it had advised its citizens not to travel to Iraq.

"The Islamic Resistance Movement, al-Numan Battalion, has decided to release the eight citizens as a goodwill gesture for the friendship between the two countries of Iraq and China," the militant said on the tape. "They were not harmed during the period they were held and also they weren't exchanged for any amount of money," the rebel added. Nunatsiavut means "Our Beautiful Land" in the Inuktitut language of the Inuit people of Labrador, and the name of their new land as part of a land claims agreement signed on Saturday by the Labrador Inuit Association and representatives of both the Canadian federal and Labrador provincial governments.
The flag of Nunatsiavut
The land agreement, thirty years in the negotiating, covers 72,520 square kilometers of northern Labrador, as well as special rights over 48,690 sqare kilometers of coastal waters. The Inuit will become owners of 15,800 sqare kilometers of the land, and will co-manage the balance. Under the agreement the Government of Canada will transfer $140 million to the Labrador Inuit, as well as $156 million for implementation.

The agreement also came with an apology for a forced relocation program half a century ago. The apology was delivered by the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador Danny Williams.

Despite being delayed a day due to heavy snowstorms, the signing ceremony in Nain was attended by federal Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott Williams and other dignitaries.

The land claims agreement must still be approved by the Canadian House of Commons, but has already passed through the House of Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador. An estimated 15,000 people attended a memorial service in Hong Kong for Zhao Ziyang, the former Chinese leader.

Zhao, who died at 85, was a reformer who was removed from office, and imprisoned, in 1989 after denouncing the use of force against student protesters in Tiananmen Square.

Though acknowledged for his economic reforms in the 1980s, controversy surrounds Zhao's funeral. Zhao was removed from his position as secretary general of the Communist Party of China and placed under house arrest in 1989 after denouncing the use of force against student protesters in Tiananmen Square. Analysts suggest the CPC, fearful that Zhao's death would rekindle unrest, reluctantly allowed Zhao to be memorialized in public after party elders criticized Beijing for not honoring Zhao's contributions.

Szeto Wah, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Patriotic Movements in China, gave the eulogy at a makeshift funeral altar in Victoria Park, Hong Kong. Szeto said the turnout was a testimony to the public's respect for Zhao.

Zhao died Monday, January 17 at the age of 85. Zhao had been recovering from pneumonia in a Beijing hospital before suffering a series of strokes and lapsing into a coma January 15. In 2004, the amount of online purchases and transactions in and from Romania through the VISA card system grew substantially, indicating Romanians are increasingly confident in online shopping.

Based on statistics published by VISA International, the total amount of electronic sales in Romania for 2004 exceeded US$5.7 million. VISA Card holders in Romania also made more than 41,000 transactions throughout the year via the Internet.

The most significant growth of the year was in December, when most purchases are made on account of the Christmas season. 28% of all online sales in 2004 occurred in December.

Cătălin Creţu, from VISA Romania, claims that, "It is a tradition to offer gifts to friends and family in the holiday season. We are pleased that Romanians are deciding to honour this tradition with the aid of a modern and innovative means of payment." He also stated that Romanians now have access to over 30,000 sellers throughout the world who are part of the Verified by Visa program, which guarantees the reliability of purchases through its network. The Verified by Visa program is used by more than 15 million people worldwide. Palestinian militants denied claims by an Israeli minister that they had agreed a ceasefire. Just a short while after a ceasefire was apparently agreed between Israel and the new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, a spokesman for Palestinian militant group Hamas denied the claim. Romania's only nuclear plant, at Cernavodă announced yesterday that the amount of electrical energy produced at the plant in 2004 was the highest ever, at a record 5,142,300 megawatt-hours (MWh). This exceeded the previous 2002 record by 36,000 MWh.

Cernavodă Unit 1, brought into operation in 1992, supplies around 10-12% of Romania's energy consumption. According to Nuclearelectrica, the operator of the plant, Cernavodă's performance has been better than the average of the world's 417 reactors. Nuclearelectrica considers the security of the plant, as well as of its employees and the environment, to be of utmost importance.

Currently, two more nuclear units are in construction at the Cernavodă plant. Unit 2 is 80% complete and will commence operation in 2006, while Unit 3 is approximately 40% complete. In the future, the nuclear plant is expected to produce a significant amount of the electrical energy of southeastern Europe.

Cernavodă is Europe's only CANDU reactor. CANDU reactors, which are designed in Canada, are one of the most advantageous forms of nuclear reactors due to their fuel efficiency and low amount of down-time. Viktor Yushchenko at election rally
The new Ukranian president Viktor Yushchenko was today sworn into office in Kiev's Independence Square, drawing a line under a bitter dispute between him and opposition candidate Viktor Yanukovych. Taking the oath of office, Yushchenko added "This is a victory of freedom over tyranny. The victory of law over lawlessness."

Opposition candidate and Russian backed Viktor Yanukovych has challenged the validity of the election rerun on December 26 2004, which saw his victory overruled. As recently as a few days ago, the Supreme Court overruled a final request to delay the ceremony. Mr Yanukovych has stated that he will take his battle to the European Court of Human Rights.

In a ceremony watched by eight heads of state, Viktor Yushchenko urged unity between sides and promised deeper integration into the European Union. As part of the United Nations World Year Of Physics 2005, events and celebrations around the globe are planned for the centennial of the publication of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

Some of the more noteworthy events include:

January 17—Chancellor Gerhard Schröder sparked off ceremonies at the German Historical Museum in Berlin for the "Year of Einstein".

April 18—A statue by Robert Berks will be unveiled at Princeton, New Jersey , his home for the last 22 years of his life.

May 24—A relativity inspired ballet is to be performed in London.

Pirelli Relativity Challenge 2005—Explain relativity with a five minute multi-media presentation, win $30,000.

Although best known for the theory of special relativity, it was a series of papers published in 1905 (later known as the "Annus Mirabilis" papers–the miracle year) that formed a break from Newtonion or classical science and changed modern physics.

While the title isn't known on a world-wide basis, the final paper Einstein that year–Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on Its Energy Content?–produced a famous mathmetical formula: E=mc², which describes the relationship between mass and energy.

Significant Events

*1879—Born Ulm, Germany March 14
*1902—Employed as clerk at Swiss Patent Office
*1905—Published his "annus mirabilis" papers in Annalen der Physik
*1921—Received Nobel Prize for his work on the photoelectric effect
*1933—Left Germany a month before Hitler took power.
*1955—Died Princeton, New Jersey April 18
*1999—Named Person of 20th Century by Time Magazine. The Romanian Prime Minister Călin Popescu Tăriceanu is on an official visit today and tomorrow to Brussels, where he will meet with the president of the European Commission.

During the visit, Tăriceanu will present the priorities and strategies of the Romanian Government regarding the country's accession to the EU. Romania is expected to join the European Union on January 1, 2007, provided it fulfills the commitments to integration that it promised during accession negotiations.

The Prime Minister said that, "The European integration is the government's absolute priority". Tăriceanu was accompanied by the independent justice minister Monica Macovei, who will discuss the Justice and Internal Affairs chapter. Justice and Internal Affairs has remained to date Romania's most problematic chapter towards accession, with the country coming under fire for its political interference in judicial institutions. Macovei claims that by March this year, a reform strategy will be put into place regarding the independence and efficiency of the justice system. Mioara Mantale was appointed yesterday as the new prefect of the Romania's capital Bucharest. She is the first female prefect in the history of the city. Mantale said that, "I am honored that the Romanian government had confidence in me to appoint me in this position", adding that a woman in a public position is a positive thing.

Mantale, who is 38 years of age and from the northern town of Iaşi, specialises in the capital market and has a masters degree in internal law and international environmental law.

Prefects in Romania are appointed by the President and are sent to each of the 40 counties and well as the capital, Bucharest. They act as the liaison between the central government of Romania and the local governments of each county.

Mantale's appointment was well received after the previous appointed prefect resigned after President Traian Băsescu claimed that he was not a good choice. Mantale is part of the Democratic Party, the same party that Băsescu belonged to before being elected as president. She also had good relations with the President while he was the general mayor of Bucharest. Romania's Social Democrat Party has criticised the government's new fiscal policy, which is centered around the introduction of a 16% flat tax for personal income and company profit.

The Social Democrats, which were in government between 2000 and 2004, were defeated in Romania's elections at the end of 2004. The current centre-right governing coalition is made up of the Liberal and Democrat parties, as well as the Humanist Party and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania.

The Vice-President of the Social Democrat Party, Mihai Tănăsescu, expressed his concerns that the flat tax would reduce individuals' contribution to the state budget by 10%. He also envisioned a rise in inflation as a result of a greater budget deficit.

The current government, however, defended the flat tax, saying that the drop in budget revenues will be lower than expected, due to taxes being collected more efficiently. The current Minister of Finance, Ionuţ Popescu, said that, "effects of individual tax cuts, along with reducing taxes on companies' profits have helped countries such as Slovakia, Russia and Ireland develop."

During Romania's election campaign in 2004, President Traian Băsescu promised that he would introduce a flat tax of 16%. Romania's previous progressive income tax, during the Social Democrat government, ranged between 18% and 40%. Based on the models of Slovakia and Estonia, which have prospered from a flat tax system, the new 16% tax is expected to ensure higher economic growth, reduce corruption and the grey economy, and encourage greater foreign investment.

The 16% tax rate has meant that Romania now has one of the most liberal and competitive fiscal policies in Europe, similar to what Ireland introduced before its Celtic Tiger period, which resulted in very high growth and development. Riga, Latvia — The Central Bank of Lithuania announced that it plans to adopt the common European currency, the euro in 2007, and replace its national currency, the litas.

Lithunia intends to introduce the use of the euro as an official currency on January 1, 2007, where it will be used alongside the litas until January 15. From January 15, the euro would become the only official means of payment.

Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004, and like the other new member states, it is obliged to adopt the euro when it is ready. However, in order to adopt the euro, a country must be part of the EU's Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II) for at least two years. During that time, the currency must not fluctuate more than 2.25% in relation to the euro. Additionally, the budget deficit should be under 3% of gross domestic product.

Lithunia became part of ERM II in June 2004, meaning that the earliest it could join the euro would be in June 2006. However, its target is 2007, which, at the present moment, seems to be achievable, considering the country's low inflation and budget deficit. The litas has been pegged to the euro, since February 2002, at a rate of 1 euro = 3.45 litas.

So far, only 12 out of the 25 members of the European Union have adoped the euro. However, in the next decade, it is expected that most, if not all, of the ten new member states will adopt the currency. Lithuania is expected to be the first to adopt the currency, in 2007. Estonia and Slovenia, which are the only other new member states that are part of ERM II, are also expected to join the common currency at this time.

Larger countries like Hungary, Czechia and Poland, which are not yet part of ERM II, may have to wait until 2010 at least, due to their large budget deficits.

Lithuania has been one of the most enthusiastic new member states concerning European integration. Besides its early adoption of the euro, it was the first country in the EU to ratify the European Constitution. In the northeastern corner of the USA, snowstorms have created mayhem as they cover the region with snow and ice. Several cold fronts, which lead to these storms, have spread from the south of the United States to areas like Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey, just to name the few states with serious blizzard emergencies. Most of the northeast region is covered in powdery whiteness. Up to two feet make transportation virtually impossible, even for air flight. The blizzards have not only wrecked ground transport, but have disrupted thousands of flights. This blizzard was extreme, even by New England standards.

The blizzard also hit Southern states and left four inches of snow in Washington DC. Sami Mohammad Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, accused of many bombings, has said to have been captured by US and Iraqi security forces. He was arrested on the 15th of January, but his arrest has not been revealed until now.

Al-Jaaf was said to have been a threat to security because of his ties to the militant group Zarqawi and his previous criminal record. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party offices were close to the site of the recent bombing in Baghdad, these bombings were claimed by Zarqawi supporters on their website, but, luckily, Mr Allawi was not in the area at the time of the blast, which happened on Monday. "We have declared a bitter war against the principle of democracy and all those who seek to enact it," the speaker has said in a tape reportedly from Zarqawi. al-Zarqawi has now declared war on the upcoming Iraqi poll, a bad sign for the mission in Iraq. WASHINTON D.C., USA – (Washington Post) A Washington Post report reveals a secret intelligence department created by the Pentagon "directly responsive to tasking from Secretary of Defense" Donald Rumsfeld. The report raises questions regarding the legality of the Strategic Support Branch, allegations disputed by Pentagon spokesperson Lawrence T. DiRita:

: "...the Department is not attempting to 'bend' statutes to fit desired activities, as is suggested in this article."

Sen. John McCain (R AZ) expects the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee to hold hearings on the issue. "I'm always sorry to read about things in The Washington Post when they affect a committee that I am a member of."

Members of congressional intelligence committees were reported as not being aware of the program. Funding of the program was through "reprogrammed" funds, without explicit congressional authority or appropriation. Internet search king Google is preparing to provide free VoIP service — a technology that that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the internet. Existing technology will be marketed in the Google name, something which may make all the difference.

Sources suggest that Google may firstly introduce its telephony service to users in the United Kingdom, but the actual date when the service will launch and the exact details of the plan are as yet unknown.

Google is a California-based search engine whose mission "is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". The largest search engine on the web, Google receives over 200 million queries each day through its various services. Members of the Taiwanese cabinet—the Executive Yuan Council—have resigned en masse to pave way for the new cabinet. It is not expected to cause any major change on Taipei's policy toward Mainland China.

"The cabinet has tendered its resignation," Chen Chi-mai, spokesman for the cabinet, told a news conference on Monday.

The entire 20-member cabinet, including Premier Yu Shyi-Kun, tendered its resignation to give President Chen Shui-bian a free hand in choosing a new set of ministers.

The move follows the parliamentary election last December, in which President Chen's Democratic Progressive Party and its allies failed to win a majority over the rival opposition coalition, led by the Nationalist Party of China — also known as Kuomintang (KMT).

In Taiwan's political system, the president is the head of state and appoints the premier, who heads the cabinet and runs the day-to-day affairs of government. The premier liaises with parliament (the Legislative Yuan), which has the final say over lawmaking.

President Chen is expected to name the new premier on Tuesday. Whomever is appointed will form a new cabinet in consultation with Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen is widely expected to name Frank Hsieh, the mayor of Kaohsiung City and close ally, to this post. The choice of premier may signal Mr. Chen's desired successor for 2008 when his two-term limit ends. Several key members of the outgoing cabinet are expected to retain their jobs.

Philip Yang, political professor at the National Taiwan University, doesn't expect Taiwan's policy towards the People's Republic of China to change much with a new cabinet.

"It is expected that those cabinet members who are in charge of cross-strait relations will remain unchanged. So I believe in terms of policy, there will be no major changes," he said.

Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province and has threatened to attack if independence is declared. Pro-independence supporters, such as Mr. Chen, maintain there are two countries. The two sides split amid civil war when the Communists established the People's Republic of China on the mainland while the Nationalists moved their government to Taiwan and maintained the seat of the Republic of China, which the Communists regard as defunct and illegitimate.

Mr. Chen won re-election in last year's presidential election by a narrow margin, but his pro-independence party then failed to gain a majority in the December parliamentary elections as had previously been predicted.

Analysts suggest the military threat and the growing economic relationships between the two sides swayed Taiwan's voters to not provoke Beijing. Professor Yang thinks if there are going to be changes in Taiwan's new cabinet policy towards mainland China, it will result from public pressure to reduce tensions.

"In terms of policy there will be no major changes, but definitely some pressure from the people and from the parliament," he said. "They would ask the government to be more active to improve cross-strait relations."

The new cabinet will take office on February 1, along with the new parliament. The U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will not attend high-profile talks on international defense policy at the Munich Security Conference claiming prior commitments. Rumsfeld will send Douglas J. Feith, the Undersecretary of Defense, instead, to discuss such items as the E.U. and U.S. stances on Iran.

Rumsfeld previously stated that he would not attend the conference unless Germany voided a complaint from the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, asking German authorities to prosecute him for war crimes. The group filed the complaint last December with the Federal German Prosecutor's Office, accusing Rumsfeld of war crimes and torture in connection with Iraq's Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse.

German legislation allows prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide regardless of where the crime occurred or of the nationality of the accused. A Chinese court has handed stiff sentences to 27 farmers who protested the confiscation of their fields. The sentences come as the government struggles to deal with a rising tide of sometimes violent protests by farmers angry over what they allege are illegal land seizures by government-backed developers.

For months, a group of farmers camped outside the local headquarters of the Communist Party in Sanchawan village, in China's Shaanxi province. The farmers were protesting plans by developers to seize their land and pay only $60 each in compensation.

The farmers said the compensation from the government-backed developers was too small, and the seizure was illegal.

Five months into the sit-in, paramilitary police descended on the village and arrested the group for charges including obstructing traffic and attacking government agencies. The detainees' sentencing came last week. Relatives of those arrested say some received sentences of two to six years, while a man accused of leading the demonstration was ordered to spend 15 years in prison.

The sentencing has drawn protests from overseas human rights advocates like Nicholas Becquelin of the New York-based Human Rights in China group, who says the government has recently tried to stop the protests from spreading by imposing a general ban on news coverage of land seizures.

He said the authorities are hoping the stiff sentences will discourage others from protesting.

"The government is sending a message to petitioners and protesters, saying that if they resort to this kind of demonstrations that the Communist party does not allow, they will be seriously punished," said Mr. Becquelin.

China's economy is booming and cases like the one in Shaanxi province are becoming more common, with more peasants losing their farmland to make way for development projects backed by local governments.

Officials estimate 70 million people have lost their land to the construction of roads, dams, housing projects and factories. Analysts predict that number will continue rising as the economy continues to expand.

As the economy grows, so do the disparities between rich and poor. The central government says the latest figures, from the year 2003, show farmers' per capita disposable income totaled about a third of that of urban dwellers.

Despite the government's assertion last year that rural incomes are growing, many of China's 800 million farmers live in deep poverty. Under China's socialist system, farmers cannot own the land they till, but rather lease it from the state. Plots are small and yield barely enough for families to eat.

Local officials have the power to make decisions on the land, leaving peasants little recourse should the officials choose to seize their plots.

Anger at the seizures has fueled desperation among peasants who complain they have not benefited from China's economic growth in the same way as people along the industrialized East Coast.

Some demonstrations have turned deadly. Last November, government troops opened fire and killed a number of protesters in a remote part of Sichuan province, where thousands of residents were protesting the seizure of their land for construction of a hydroelectric dam project. Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity and its tracks are captured in this enhanced-resolution image.

The picture was taken from Mars orbit with the Mars Orbiter Camera
on board the Mars Global Surveyor. The image was captured on April 26, 2004,
Opportunity's 91st martian day. The rover was on its way to
Endurance Crater.

Also visible and labeled on this image are the spacecraft's
lander, backshell, parachute and heat shield, plus effects of its
landing rockets.

The camera captured this image with use of a technique called
compensated pitch and roll targeted observation. In this method,
the entire spacecraft rolls as it passes over the target area so
the camera can scan in a way that sees details at three times
higher resolution than the camera's normal high-resolution
capability.

Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left. North is toward the
top of the image. The 100-meter scale bar is 109 yards long.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS The aggressive Internet search king is eyeing your television. Google Inc. today announced the launch of Google Video, a new free service which allows users to search thousands of television programs every day — everything from sports to dinosaur documentaries to news shows.

Google Video currently covers eight television channels:

* ABC (KGO)
* KQED
* KRON
* NBC (KNTV)
* PBS
* Fox News
* C-SPAN
* C-SPAN2

Just type in your search term, Google Video will search the closed captioning text of all the programs in the for relevant results. It allows users to have a look through short snippets of the text along with still images from the show. If a user provides their zip code, the site displays information on when the show will air next.

Google is a U.S.-based search engine whose mission "is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful", according to the company's corporate web site. The largest search engine on the web, Google receives over 200 million queries each day through its various services. A recent article in the Washington Post revealed the existence of a new type of battlefield intelligence group, referred to by the Pentagon as "Strategic Support Teams". The military in the field are using these units to improve their intelligence gathering capabilities.

The news of the existence of these units has sparked controversy over the manner in which they were created as well as the manner in which they are used. According to the original report in the Washington Post, these units have been in operation for two years. They deploy small teams of caseworkers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists to work alongside Special Operations forces. This is readily acknowledged by the Pentagon.

However, there is some dispute as to the accuracy of other items mentioned in the Washington Post report. According to the Post, the units were designed to report directly to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield, and use "reprogrammed" funds, or funds not appropriated with Congressional authority or oversight.

The Pentagon, however, denies these accusations. In a statement made by Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita, "There is no unit that is directly reportable to the Secretary of Defense for clandestine operations as is described in The Washington Post". Mr. DiRita went on to say, "Further, the Department is not attempting to 'bend' statutes to fit desired activities, as is suggested in this article."

Pentagon officials told reporters that the funding and other arrangements for these new units had been worked out in close coordination with the CIA and that appropriate congressional committees had been fully informed. One defense department official explained that part of the reason for the controversy might be that lawmakers contacted by the Post or other news organizations for information may not have recognized the new name given to the units, "Strategic Support Teams". According to this official, when these lawmakers were originally briefed on these new intelligence units they were referred to as "Humint Augmentation Teams" (Humint is short for Human Intelligence, referring to information gathered by human operatives). The Pentagon later changed the official name of the units to Strategic Support Teams. The official spoke on the condition that he not be identified.

Many Democrats, such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) and Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif) are calling for congressional hearings to investigate the matter.

"While I fully support improving the ability of our men and women in the field to get accurate real time intelligence, the creation of this unit raises a number of questions that this committee has a duty to examine," Tauscher said.

Many Republican lawmakers have stated their opposition to such hearings, such as the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif).

"The notion by some that various steps taken by the Department of Defense to enhance such intelligence is somehow sinister and illegitimate is nonsense," Hunter said.

The Undersecretary of Defense, Stephen A. Cambone, met with the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner (R-Va) and the panel's top Democrat, Carl Levin (D-Mi) for more than an hour on Monday. Warner said he was satisfied by the briefing and would ensure that other committee members were briefed fully as well.

"In my opinion," he said, "these intelligence programs are vital to our national security interests, and I am satisfied that they are being coordinated with the appropriate agencies of the federal government." The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation—the organization responsible for enforcing federal laws—has won a battle that could make it much harder for the public to access its files. If it is true that the requirements of scrupulous indexing and searching of files have been relaxed to the point of making subjective the process of retrieving them, it is a violation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which states that the public may view files of the unclassified category. From the perspective of the FBI, as deduced from their arguments in the case, the burden of doing complete searches is unreasonable.

Currently, only indexes of the files are searched in response to requests based on the FOIA. A lawsuit filed by the brother of a deceased federal inmate claimed that his specific request turned up no results, despite the proven existence of the files relating to the case against his brother, and the circumstances leading up to his death in prison, which was ruled a suicide despite the appearance of a violent death.

Critics of the government case, from the fields of journalism and academic law, contend that it is possible that the transferring of files from paper to electronic records is being used as an excuse to avoid doing complete searches that may turn up evidence of official wrongdoing. Following the example set by the Golden Globes, Martin Scorsese's The Aviator leads the nominees going into Sunday's 77th Academy Awards ceremony. The biopic depicting the life of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, with nominations in 11 categories. Tied behind, nominated in seven categories, are Marc Forster's Finding Neverland and Million Dollar Baby.

Notably missing from the Best Picture category are two of last year's most controversial films "The Passion of the Christ" and "Fahrenheit 9/11", voters instead opting with biopic Ray and Golden Globes Best Comedy winner Sideways.

Competing for best actor are Jamie Foxx, Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio and Hotel Rwanda's Don Cheadle.

Academy Award®-winning actor Tim Robbins has been tapped to present at the 77th Academy Awards®, telecast producer Gil Cates announced today.

Robbins received his first acting Oscar last year at the 76th Academy Awards, for his supporting role in Mystic River. In 1995, he received a nomination for directing Dead Man Walking. Robbins is currently filming War of the Worlds and will be seen next in The Secret Life of Words.

Meanwhile, Documentary category rules for the 78th Annual Academy Awards® have been changed by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to exempt documentaries "with a true theatrical rollout" from the rules' television blackout provision.

The change will apply to documentaries released during the 2005 Academy Awards year.

Documentary branch executive committee chair Freida Lee Mock said the theatrical exhibition requirements of the rules for the documentary awards were instituted in 2003 at the branch's request to encourage commercial theatrical runs for documentary films.

"Our new rules had a positive impact," Mock said. "Since 2003 there have been a growing number of documentary theatrical releases, and that growth exploded this summer."

But some of the films bumped up against the television blackout provisions of the rule and were thereby prevented from having a television exhibition until a nine-month time period had expired.

The Academy isn't trying to prevent television exhibition for documentaries that have had a successful theatrical run, Mock said, "but we want documentaries to be able to exploit their theatrical release as fully as possible, so we've modified the rules to exempt those documentaries from the blackout provisions." Even for documentaries with more modest theatrical runs, the 2005 rules reduce the blackout window to six months.

To qualify for exemption a film must have had a minimum of 25 commercial exhibitions for paid admission in motion picture theaters in 15 states, each exhibition to be at least two consecutive days. (Exhibitions held at festivals, benefits, special events and the like do not qualify under this provision.)

The 2005 rules also contain a provision requiring that short documentaries "must be contractually available for theatrical release for six months after receiving a nomination" unless they have met the test for the new blackout exemption. Tonight seven hours of festivities will take place in the well-known Avenue Paulista, in the heart of São Paulo. Over one million people are expected to show up at the celebration of the city's 451st anniversary.
Both the city´s Mayor, José Serra, and the state´s Governor, Geraldo Alckmin, are due to attend the celebration. A process that would normally take millions of years, scientists have mimicked within a couple of days. Today, researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have turned wood mineral by the process of soaking poplar and pine in a chemical mix and then cooking them. The team of scientists accomplishing this feat, led by Yongsoon Shin, bought pine and poplar boards and performed a series of steps. The first step leading to the petrifying of the wood is thinly cutting it, then soaking it in acids and a silica solution, after that, heating it, and lastly, cooling the product in argon. Silica takes up a bond with the carbon left in the wood's cellulose, creating silicon carbide, widely known as a ceramic. Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has chosen Frank Hsieh, a leading member of his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, as the new Premier of the Republic of China.

Frank Hsieh replaces Yu Shyi-kun, who served as Taiwan's premier for three years. Mr. Yu and the entire 20-member cabinet resigned Monday to allow President Chen Shui-bian to reshuffle the cabinet, after his party's coalition lost parliamentary elections last month.

Mr. Hsieh, the 59-year-old mayor of Taiwan's second largest city, Kaohsiung, is a close ally of Mr. Chen and will be expected to closely carry out the president's agenda. Mr. Hsieh served as Chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party from 2000 to 2002.

President Chen praised Mr. Hsieh as "the best person" to help open a new era of negotiations with both the opposition and with Mainland China.

Analysts suggest that Mr. Chen's appointment may signal President Chen's preference for a successor. Mr. Chen's second term ends in 2008 and Mr. Hsieh has had previous experience as a vice presidential candidate in 1996.

In ways, the two men are alike. Both grew up in poor families, graduated from Taiwan's most prestigious National Taiwan University, and passed the bar with the highest score in their junior years in college. Like President Chen, Mr. Hsieh rose to prominence defending the dissidents of the Kaohsiung Incident and went on to serve as a Taipei city councilor and a legislator.

Mr. Hsieh is expected to announce a new cabinet in two days. The cabinet must be endorsed by the new parliament, which convenes February 1.

Analysts believe that many key ministers, including those responsible for foreign affairs, defense, and mainland affairs, are likely to retain their posts.

Mr. Hsieh on Tuesday promised to seek co-existence and "cross-strait peace" through dialogue with the People's Republic of China. He said the new cabinet must maintain cross-strait stability. He will also need to smooth the economic recovery.

He will have to face a parliament in which the opposition holds 114 of the 225 seats. Mr. Chen has complained that passage of his key bills have been slowed by the parliament.

The pro-independence policies of President Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party have angered Beijing, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province. Beijing has threatened a military attack if the Taiwan independence is declared. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949 when the Communists established the People's Republic and the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, moved the original government to Taiwan where they maintained the Republic of China, which Beijing regards as defunct. President Chen maintains there are two countries.

The Kuomintang favors maintaining the status quo. Party leaders say the question of whether Taiwan should be independent or reunited with mainland China should be decided by future generations. The Kuomintang, citing its parliamentary victory, had sought to name its own premier and government.

Philip Yang, an associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University, says the recent election's message was that the president and his new premier will have to pay serious attention to relations with Beijing.

"A new message from the people is demanding the government to pay more attention to enhance cross-straits interaction," he said. On January 25, 2005, Don Brash, the leader of the New Zealand National Party made a speech to the Orewa Rotary Club where he focussed upon welfare dependency. He pledged to reduce the number of working-age beneficiaries from the current figure of 300 000 to 200 000 over ten years. His particular target was the 109 000 solo parents on the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB). Brash suggested a greater role for adoption in reducing this number, and also hinted that mothers who did not name the father, or who had another child while already on the DPB, may be penalised. Brash's advocacy of adopting children out has lead to a number of attacks, Prime Minister Helen Clark responded by saying "I think we need to support people to keep their babies".

New Zealand will hold a general election this year, most likely in September. The National Party is trailing the governing Labour Party by about 14% in the polls, but last year it polled better than the Labour Party following a speech on race relations by Don Brash at the same location a year earlier. This speech is gearing-up the National Party and setting policies in the build-up to the election.
New Zealand under went significant welfare reform during the early 1990s under a National government, with a 25% cut in benefits at the 1991 'Mother of all Budgets' by Ruth Richardson. The current Labour government (1999-) has restored some of the previous benefit levels. The Landless Workers Movement (MST) inaugurated on Sunday the school Florestan Fernandes created by the movement. The school is located at the city of Guararema, 60Km (37.282 miles) from São Paulo and is about 30,000m^2. Its estimated cost was about US$ 1,3 million, the money coming from the European Union, NGOs from France and Germany and the MST's own finances.

The inauguration was attended by the Brazilian Minister of the Agrarian Development Miguel Rosseto, Venezuelan Education and Culture Ministeries delegates, the writer Fernando Morais among other international guests.

According to the MST the proposed courses for the school are: professorship and pedagogy (teaching), collective administration expert, general farming, movement leadership, and Human and Social Sciences.

João Pedro Stédile, a leader of the MST said:
"This school is for taking the power for the workers. So that the friends transform the scientific knowledge into instrument of liberation and not of exploitation, as they do."
He also said:
"Our enemies are the large farmers, the imperialism, the multinationals, the bankers, the capitalist exploitation and the ignorance. Against them we fight." According to him the school has an ideological function.

The Brazilian Rural Society (Sociedade Rural Brasileira-SRB) President criticized the inauguration of the school. He said “is absurd that Brazilian Courts accept the creation of a school which will teach desrespect for the Law. Instead of the Executive being there joining them, it should do something so the Law gets obeyed.” According to him the pedagody that will be followed by the MST school is concerning since it is attached to old revolutionary ideologies. He accused MST of teaching guerrilla techniques to children.

According to the President of the União Democrática Ruralista (UDR) Luiz Antonio Nabhan Garcia, representant of the farmers, the government of the President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gets perverted upon the society when it supports a school which teaches invading lands. “In a country like ours, poor in education, is not acceptable that the government supports a group which acts against the Law and indoctrinates anachronistic ideologies of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro”, he added. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has decided to re-open diplomatic contact with the leader of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

Sharon had cut all links after a suicide attack killed six Israelis at a Gaza Strip border entry point, just days after Abbas has been elected leader. However, Abbas has made moves to curb the activities of Palestinian militants, leading to a drop in violence in the region.

Palestinian officials say that Palestinian security forces will be deployed in the southern Gaza Strip within 24 hours to reduce attacks on Israel. In addition, Israel has agreed to stop the targeted killing of Palestinian militants, reports say. U.S. President George W. Bush has asked the U.S. Congress for an additional $80bn to pay for the on-going military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is on top of $25bn approved by Congress last summer in the fiscal defense appropriations bill for 2005. Bush states that this money is to provide U.S. troops with "whatever they need to protect themselves" and also to fight terrorism in Iraq.

The money will support the 'global war on terror' until September 30, 2005. Of the $80bn, $75bn will be spent on the repair and replacement of equipment, training of the Iraqi security forces, and basic personnel costs.

The remaining $5bn will be used to fund State Department embassy construction, activities in Iraq, and humanitarian operations in Darfur, Sudan. Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov have just completed their mission's first space walk aboard the International Space Station. The mission lasted 5 hours, 28 minutes, ending at 1311 UTC.
The two astronauts, working in Russian space suits, performed a variety of tasks. Chiao and Sharipov installed a work platform, called the Universal Work Platform, along with its base and associated wiring. They also installed a commercial robotics experiment and a biological experiment on the exterior of the Zvezda Service Module. In addition, they checked vents on systems that help control the Station's atmosphere and relocated a Japanese physical science experiment.

Residue accumulation around the vents of the Elektron oxygen generator was noted and photographed by Sharipov. Technicians on the ground will analyze the information to determine if this residue has been contributing to the problematic operation of the Elektron.

During this spacewalk, the station again encountered the mysterious forces that have been saturating the Control Moment Gyros during previous spacewalks. Russian thrusters were activated to counter this force.

The walk marks Chiao's fifth for 31 hours, 34 minutes, accumulated time and Shapirov's first.

This was the 57th space walk conducted at the Station and the 32nd to be based out of the orbital outpost. Expedition 10 is scheduled to conduct its second spacewalk in March. A senior administration official, speaking anonymously, confirmed on Friday that the proposed NASA budget for the 2006 fiscal year will not contain additional funding for a Hubble servicing mission. The budget plan is to be announced Feb. 7.

The White House eliminated funding for a service mission the Hubble Space Telescope from its 2006 budget request and directed NASA to focus on deorbiting the spacecraft at the end of its life, according to government and industry sources .

Intensive work has been under way at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to develop telerobotic servicing skills for the Hubble Space Telescope in the event that a space shuttle crew is never again sent to the orbiting facility. Aerospace firms in the United States and in Canada have teamed with NASA to develop a Hubble Robotic Vehicle Deorbit Module.

"Excellent progress is being made on a telerobotic approach to servicing the Hubble," said Jim Crocker, vice president of civil space at Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver. The firm has supported NASA's planning and, later, the repair and servicing of the HST with four space shuttle missions to date.

The telerobotics team at work at Goddard Space Flight Center "have a good shot at pulling this off," Crocker told SPACE.com the day before the Space News story on the White House HST decision appeared
.

The estimated $1 billion plus cost for a robotic or shuttle servicing mission is considered too high by the White House in light of higher priority missions such as the shuttle "return to flight" project and NASA's "moon, Mars and beyond ."

The anonymous U.S. official told Reuters the estimated cost of a robotic repair was $2 billion and one feasibility study gave it an 80 percent chance of failure
.

"Hubble is in year 14 of a planned 15-year mission," the official said. "Trying to send a robotic mission to extend that time period would be a $2 billion gamble with taxpayer dollars where the odds are 80-20 that it would fail."

Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD) released the following statement January 25 condemning reports about eliminating funds to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope is managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center which is located in Congressman Hoyer's district.

"I am very concerned about reports that the Bush Administration may eliminate federal funds to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope from its budget for fiscal year 2006. Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Telescope's state of the art technology has dramatically changed our understanding of the universe and produced thousands of extraordinary discoveries
." Ten people are dead and up to 200 injured after three trains crashed in Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Two passenger trains and a freight train carrying gravel collided at 6:05 a.m. local time during the morning rush hour. Both passenger trains were double-decker Metrolink trains, one northbound from Union Station, the other southbound. One train overturned, and the other caught fire.

The northbound train normally carries 30 to 50 passengers. The southbound train normally has 200 to 250 people on board.

Over 300 firefighters are attending the scene.

The chief of police of Glendale reported at a press conference that a man trying to commit suicide drove his car onto the train tracks, but apparently changed his mind and left the vehicle before the impact, leaving the vehicle on the tracks. The suspect was taken into custody by police officers who arrived at the scene of the accident and has, according to the police, already admitted driving the vehicle onto the tracks. WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly confirmed Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state after a host of Democrats harshly criticized Bush administration Iraq policy. The expectation of Rice becoming the Secretary of State, like many presumed, has come true. Computer vendor Sun Microsystems released on Tuesday the first offerings of its OpenSolaris operating system code for free, under a license which allows anyone to use or work on the code and distribute the changes they make..

The full operating system is expected to be released for download sometime in the second quarter of 2005. Following along with the system source code are 1,670 patents Sun will make available for use by open-source developers. Sun hopes to leverage greater innovation in software from the open source community, in return for allowing the code to be used without charge.

"This is not an EOL (end of life) release. It's a supercharged, turbocharged rocket launching," Sun CEO Scott McNealy said. "No one else has done what we have just done."

The move follows a recent move by IBM to grant use of 500 patents freely to open source software developers. Open source developers had been becoming concerned that bureaucracy and legal issues associated with software patents could be damaging to their livelihoods and to innovation. The moves by Sun and IBM seem intended to placate this growing fear.

Dynamic Trace, or DTrace is the first OpenSolaris component to be released. DTrace is a performance-analysis tool that tells developers how to optimize their applications for maximum performance.

The code is to be released under Sun's own licensing scheme, the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) Version 1.0. This license has been approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI).

Sun's license is based on the Mozilla Public License. The Free Software Foundation has stated on its website that Sun's license, while free, is not compatible with the GNU Public License (GPL) used for the popular open source Linux operating system. This does not mean that Linux software and OpenSolaris software cannot be used together, but limits the extent of integration which may be achieved.

Sun had previously allowed free use of the operating system Solaris by some users, for example students. This move greatly extends the range of free uses permitted, and allows users to read and modify the source code without charge or non-disclosure agreement. Results published in the science journal Nature suggest previous Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predictions will need to be revised upwards.

Climateprediction.net has released it's first results, indicating that global temperatures could rise by up to 11° C, even if global carbon dioxide levels are limited to twice those found before the Industrial Revolution; levels that high are expected to be reached in the middle of this century.

The results indicate that carbon dioxide emissions will have an even bigger affect on the global climate than previously thought.

The Climateprediction.net is a distributed computing project. More than 95,000 people around the world have downloaded the software which runs calculations when the user's computer is idle, releasing computer power greater than that of even the largest supercomputers.

The project is a collaboration between several UK universities and the Met Office, funded by the British Natural Environment Research Council and the Department of Trade and Industry. In the summer of 2004 the project joined forces with the SETI program, with University of California computer scientists developing a version of the SETI software to run climate change models. The European Space Agency's (ESA) lunar probe SMART-1 has taken its first images from a low orbit around the moon, returning images of great detail. SMART-1 caps a streak of major planetary missions by the ESA in the past year.

Two features of SMART-1 have brought particular attention to the project: the ion drive and a sophisticated navigational software.

The probe features a low-thrust, long-duration ion drive, where ionised particles are accelerated by electromagnets and ejected from the motor of the probe to provide propulsion. The energy for this is supplied by solar panels, potentially allowing months of thrusting.

The probe arrived in lunar orbit on November 15, 2004. The ion drive has been firing for much of the time since, leading the probe to orbit ever closer to the lunar surface.

The coupling of the camera and the navigational system will allow more precise mapping of the moon's features than ever before. Using very precise positioning, the system will be able to measure the angles of shadows to such a degree that researchers will be able to build a very accurate topographical map of the moon's surface features.

The series of images were taken at an altitude of 5,000 to 1,000 km above the Moon to test the onboard camera. On February 9, the ion drive will be turned on once more to drop the probe to a height of 3,000 to 300 km above the surface. From then on, it will begin the bulk of its scientific investigations. The United States Senate has voted to accept President George W. Bush's nomination of Condoleezza Rice as United States Secretary of State. Eighty-five Senators voted to approve her accession while 13 opposed it. Two Senators did not vote.

Democratic Senators had criticised her during debates on the nomination, but this did not prevent her gaining the second-highest ever number of votes for a nominee for Secretary of State.

The former head of National Security replaces Colin Powell, who became the highest-serving African American in U.S. history when he became Secretary of State in 2000.

Ms Rice is expected to be sworn into office in the White House later this evening, with a more elaborate public ceremony on Friday, and to begin her new role on Thursday morning. The fifth World Social Forum (WSF) has kicked off in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. The Forum is back in its original home, Porto Alegre, after last year being held in Mumbai, India. The event was opened January 26, 2005 and it is scheduled to continue until January 31.

The World Social Forum is an annual meeting organized by left organizations, mainly from Brazil. It discuss strategies to fight back against the neo-liberalism, capitalism and imperialism. According to the organizers "The World Social Forum is an open meeting place where groups and movements of civil society opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism, but engaged in building a planetary society centred on the human person, come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, for formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action."

Just under 6000 different groups and organizations will participate in the six day event which joins discussions, protests and festivals.

Both the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez are to be guests at the forum; however the reception of the two leaders is set to be quite different. Da Silva (commonly referred to as Lula) has faced criticism from the leftists set to make up the majority of participants at the forum due to the allegedly weak results of the government social politics and the way the government conducts the Economy. This is in stark contrast to the reception that he received at the 2003 forum (also in Porto Alegre), where he was hailed as a hero.

Hugo Chávez on the other hand is set to receive a warmer welcome for enforcing a 2001 law allowing for the expropriation of idle agricultural land from large estates. However, the government of Venezuela has also received criticism for what some feel to be intimidation of journalists and other anti-democratic acts.

This year the event has been tarnished by the Brazilian journalist Políbio Braga, who alleges illicit negotiations between the World Social Forum and GP Equipamentos Elétricos Ltd, a Brazilian company contracted to work on the infrastructure for the forum. He also accuses the Brazilian government of trying to stop the police investigation into the matter.

In 2006 the forum is scheduled to be held in Venezuela and/or simultaneously in different cities around the world. The municipal council of a small town in Canada's Prairies has said it "accidentally" donated $10,000 to the Red Cross for tsunami relief. Now it wants its money back.

The council approved the donation during a Jan. 10 meeting by 3 votes to 2. However, the mayor was in the hospital and the deputy mayor, Barry Lewis, who substituted didn't realize he could vote. If he had voted, it would have been against the donation.

Some townspeople accused councillor Dorothy Lockwood of ambushing the meeting by presenting the last-minute proposal to divert money from the town's centennial fireworks fund. Lockwood claimed the timing was urgent as the federal government's deadline for matching donations was the next day at midnight.

The Red Cross has already deposited the cheque, but has indicated it will return the money. The People's Republic of China has commuted the death sentence of a prominent Tibetan monk, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, ordering him instead to spend the rest of his life in prison.

In 2002, a Chinese court found Tenzin Delek Rinpoche guilty of involvement in a series of terrorist bombings earlier that year in a region of Sichuan province historically part of Tibet, and of inciting separatist activities. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was then postponed for two years.

Upon the expiration of his suspended sentence late last year, Chinese officials suggested they might go ahead with the execution. It was to have taken place last month.

But Higher People's Court of Sichuan decided to commute the sentence, saying the monk had obeyed certain conditions that were not disclosed. Officials say he confessed to the bombing, a claim human rights advocates say they do not believe.

Tenzin Deleg, who is widely respected among Tibetan Buddhists, has said he was wrongly accused.

Anne Callahan, manager of the Free Tibet campaign in Britain, says Communist officials targeted the spiritual leader because they viewed his vast following as a threat to their authority among the large community of ethnic Tibetans in Sichuan province.

She says her group believes the real reason for the reprieve of the death sentence was the international pressure brought on Beijing by governments and private organizations.

"The reality is that his case generated a whole international campaign on his behalf and has actually highlighted the degree of religious repression in Sichuan now," she said.

The reprieve came exactly two years after the execution of another man, Lobsang Dhondup, who was tried and convicted along with Tenzin Delek for the 2002 bombings.

The Dalai Lama and his Tibetan government in exile, along with several human rights groups, had called for the sentence to be reversed.

The United States expressed serious concern about the monk's closed-door trial, saying Chinese authorities failed to provide clear and convincing evidence of guilt. The issue came up during visits to Beijing by Secretary of State Powell and other high-ranking Bush Administration officials.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing had no immediate comment following the news of the court's decision.

Meanwhile, Tashi Phuntsog, described as Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche's "right-hand man," walks free. He was released earlier this month after being detained since 2002, 10 days after Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche.

The government never said why Tashi Phuntsog was jailed or why he was released early.

Human Rights Watch, calling on the Communist government to explain Tashi Phuntsog's detention believes he was released needing medical attention. "Tashi Phuntsog entered prison as a healthy man in his early 40s, and he was cast out literally as a broken man," it said.

Xinhua reports he has been "well and fairly treated." Eleven charges of murder have been brought against the driver who caused the Glendale train crash, in which 11 people died.

Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, could well face the death penalty for his actions. It appears he parked his Jeep Cherokee on the railway line with the intention of committing suicide, but then changed his mind and left the vehicle. Three trains carrying approximately 350 people were involved in the crash, injuring up to 200 passengers.

His arraignment was delayed from Thursday to Friday due to his medical condition. He was charged with 11 counts of murder and was held without bail in a hospital's jail ward after apparently slitting his own wrists and stabbing himself in the chest. Prosecutors have filed 10 counts of murder with so-called special circumstances, and will add the 11th victim to the complaint shortly. Under California law, this makes Alvarez eligible for the death penalty.

The accident was caused as a result of a chain-reaction derailment of three Union Pacific trains. Investigators are continuing to try to determine the exact sequence of events. The row between the Irish Government and Sinn Féin intensified today with Gerry Adams accusing the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern of attacking Sinn Féin in order to divert attention from the jailing of disgraced former Minister for Justice Ray Burke.

Burke, who is a former Fianna Fáil minister, began a six-month prison sentence earlier this week for tax offences.

Speaking in London on the eve of his meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Sinn Féin President said Bertie Ahern had 'cleverly defused the Ray Burke affair by opening up a full frontal attack on Sinn Féin'.

Mr Adams said that attack was driven by political considerations because the Government had decided that little progress could be made in the Northern Ireland peace process in the next few months.

Referring to yesterday's heated exchanges in Dáil Éireann between Mr Ahern and Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Mr Adams said, 'We want to do business with the Taoiseach, but he can't expect to attack us in the way that he does and for us not to robustly defend ourselves. The Sixth Report of the Harold Shipman Inquiry, released today, concludes that British family doctor, Shipman, killed about 250 during his career. Shipman was arrested for the murder of Kathleen Grundy in 1998, and concerns arose around this time about the excess number of deaths among his patients.

Shipman was found guilty in 2000 of 15 counts of murder and one of forgery of a will, and jailed for life. The on-going Inquiry, chaired by Dame Janet Smith DBE, began soon after to investigate his past, as well as other suspicious deaths linked to the doctor.

According to the Sixth Report of the Inquiry, it is now thought that he may have begun killing at the very start of his career, possibly through recklessly prescribing drugs, in 1971. It is thought he later developed a deliberate intention to kill, mainly targeting the elderly. His first murder may have been as early as in March 1971, and the Inquiry concluded he continued to kill until 1998, the year of his arrest.

Shipman was found dead, hung with his bedsheets in Wakefield Prison on 13 January last year, raising questions about what measures could have prevented this apparent suicide and another investigation, this time by Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Stephen Shaw. African Union monitors in the Darfur region of Sudan have witnessed an air attack that has killed around 100 people.

The Sudanese government carried out the attack on a village in the northern part of Darfur. It represents a major violation of the ceasefire signed last April between the government and the rebels.

The rebels began their war with the government in 2003, accusing the government of neglecting their region and of oppressing black Africans in favour of Arab Africans. The New York radio station HOT 97 has apologized after one of its DJs played a song making light of the recent tsunami catastrophe in Asia.

The 'Tsunami Song' was played by 'Miss Jones' on the hip hop and R&B station's Morning show earlier this month. Miss Jones and station management later apologised on-air.

Miss Jones and the Morning team have now been suspended indefinitely.

action=edit Expand this article! The Palestinian Authority banned citizens from carrying weapons this Thursday in a step to reduce violence while negotiations with Israel continue on a proposed ceasefire. In addition, they will appoint a new security minister known for his tough stance against militants — preconditions for peace talks with Israel.

If enforced, this ban will be a strong move against guerilla groups, which actively display their weapons in the Gaza Strip and West Bank due to the lack of control by the Palestinian security forces.

Furthermore, the Palestinian security forces are planning to move in to the southern Gaza Strip to rein in attacks against Israel, to supplement their forces currently deployed in the north.

Mahmoud Abbas' actions are winning praise from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who said Thursday that conditions are right for a breakthrough toward peace. He said that he is "very satisfied" with his actions, which aim to curb four years of attacks against Israel. Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, last Tuesday accused Fox News of being a propaganda mouthpiece for the Bush administration. He likened the network's current popularity to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in pre-war Germany, and criticised the "dumbing down" of news which left the public uninformed of crucial issues.

Turner said, "Adolf Hitler was more popular in Germany in the early 1930s than people that were running against him."

Fox News in turn accused CNN of simple sour grapes.

In a statement, the channel claimed that Ted was "understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind - we wish him well."

Turner resigned from his post as Vice President of AOL Time Warner in January 2003. He remains one of America's largest private landowners, possessing approximately two million acres of land.

Fox News remains the highest rating 24-hour news channel on US cable - but has been highly criticised for its perceived right-wing bias.

Recent House Committee on Government Reform figures by the US Democrats show that the US Administration spent over $US88 million on public relations contracts in 2004, of which 41 per cent were awarded on a non-competitive basis. Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has defended himself before over 15 000 activists at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. He interrupted his speech to respond to hecklers by saying "Those of you that aren't from here, don't be afraid. These people that don't want to listen are sons and daughters of the PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores, "Worker's Party") that rebelled. That's typical of youth and one day they are going to mature and we'll be here with open arms to welcome them back". Supporters also drowned out the hecklers by chanting "Lula" the president's name.

The President also used his speech to help launch an ambitious campaign by 1,000 non-governmental organizations to halve world poverty within ten years. "For the first time, the Forum takes upon itself the task of making a priority of an issue such as poverty," Lula said.

*Nearly 500 activists from the Campaign Against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) participated in a meeting to discuss the future of the movement which appeared for the first time in the 2002 WSF. They celebrated the current impasse in the negotiations involving the Free Trade Area of the Americas. João Pedro Stédile, leader of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) and the Vila Campesina movement said that the campaign has been victorious so far.

*Social movements proposed a mobilization against the poverty and hunger for next September 10. According to Cândido Grzybowski, they planning on mobilizations right around the world. The date, September 10, was chosen because it is near 14 September when there will be a meeting of the United Nations. The date is also the day before the forth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks and they wish to protest against the pecieved unilateralism with which the USA reacted to those attacks. 

*Feminists discussed strategies for the legalization of abortion in Brazil.

*There was a march called "March Against the Lies and the War of Bush" in protest against the American President George W. Bush. 

*The Portuguese writer José Saramago suggested a more propositive WSF. 

* The Brazilian writer and former Catholic priest Leornado Boff identified what he termed the "Three Wounds" of Brazilian society: colonialism, the past of slavery and the transformation of the country by great multinational companies.

:According to Boff, the Catholic Church does not have the right to talk about dignity because it is seated in the blood of millions. He still defended that the first right is the right to the life and that other freedoms must come later, including the rights of freedom of movement and freedom of thought.

:Finally Boff considered three criteria to judge the religious traditions that exist: "All tradition that implies in suffering of any person should be abolished; all religion that violates the human rights must be abandoned; and everything which means the breaking of the land, the water and the environment must be abolished." 

* South America is the absolute priority of the Brazilian external politics according to the special assessor of external politics of the Presidency of the Republic, Marco Aurélio Garcia. ( audio) 

* Activists promoted a campaign against Coca-Cola. According to them the Coca-Cola Company is responsible for contamination and crisis of the water supply, unemployment and deaths. 

* Conference with José Saramago, Eduardo Galeano and Ignácio Ramonet. 

* Conference with the Brazilian Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil about Free Software.

* Professor Laurindo Leal, from School of Communication of the University of São Paulo (USP) defended the control of content in the broadcasting network. He cited the USA, France, Germany, Canada, England as good examples how a broadcasting network model should work. 

* The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, arrived. Chavez said it is impossible to solve the severe problems of poverty in the world in Capitalism. "Neither by Statism -- Capitalism of the State -- which would be the same Soviet perversion that was the cause of its destruction. But another Socialism which can put the man and not the machine of State at the first plan."

:President Chavez also criticized the President of the USA, George W. Bush. He said Bush promises to be the Superman fighting for the justice. "However, we have the red kryptonite", Chavez said. 

* Chavez defended the control over the media by the State. "The children cannot see this violence and the media cannot transmit calls to the terrorism", he added. 

* Chavez met with the Landless Workers' Movement (MST). The Brazilian Minister of Agrarian Development, Miguel Rossetto, said that the presence of the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, is a homage to the people who try to construct Brazil in a different form.

:Miguel Rossetto signed, with Chávez, a protocol of intentions for the interchange and reproduction of native seeds for the Brazilian and Venezuelan agriculturists. The Minister and the President also signed a document that initiates the discussion about the creation of the Latin American School of AgroEcology in Brazil, following the model executed in Venezuela. 

* Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that the WSF is of paramount political importance. He participated of a conference with the Brazilian Minister of the Cities Olívio Dutra, the governor of the Paraná Robert Requião, the President of the CUT labour union Marine Luiz, and the managing director of the monthly periodical Le Monde Diplomatique Ignacio Ramonet. 

*Activists protested against US President George W. Bush.

* There was a farewell show, with musical presentations and of dance. Chinese Communist leaders and the family of the late purged party chief, Zhao Ziyang, have agreed to bury him on Saturday, nearly two weeks after his death. The burial has been delayed over disagreements between Mr. Zhao's family and the government over the funeral arrangements.

For many in China and overseas, the former premier of Communist Party general secretary symbolized the drive for a reassessment of the government's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

In the two weeks since his death, police have been posted outside the Beijing home where Mr. Zhao spent his last 15 years under house arrest and where hundreds have been assembling to pay tribute. Agents have been turning many of the mourners away.

The leadership wants the ceremony on Saturday to take place out of the public eye and officials announced Thursday that foreign journalists would not be allowed to cover it. However, Mr. Zhao's family has asked for appropriate honors in keeping with his status as a former party chief.

Instead of being given the customary state funeral to reflect his former positions, he will be given a more low-key ceremony.

Disagreement between the family and the government about what should be said at the funeral was part of the delay. Zhao's family disagrees with the government over the correctness of Zhao's actions regarding Tiananmen Square.

State-controlled newspapers and broadcasts have been devoid of news on Zhao's death and on what his eulogy will say.

Cheng Li, a professor of government at Hamilton College in New York, says the Communist leaders have been trying to ensure that Mr. Zhao's funeral and eulogy do not ignite what might be an explosive new debate.

"They don't want to see it widely publicized," he said. "Certainly, they don't want to repeat what happened 16 years ago because of the emotions and other things could lead to a very sustained, prolonged event."

Analysts say the government sees a parallel with the death of another reformer, party leader Hu Yaobang, which sparked the demonstrations in May and June of 1989.

Mr. Zhao, then the Communist party chief, went to the square two weeks before the crackdown and tearfully urged the students to abandon their protest.

Shortly after, the leadership accused him of sympathizing with the demonstrators and trying to split the party. He was ousted as party chief and placed under house arrest until his death on January 17th at the age of 85.

While many young people in China today do not remember Mr. Zhao as an advocate of reform, emotions remain high among those who do recall his role. Witnesses on Thursday said guards beat a number of people - some of them elderly - who have been trying to pay tribute to the late leader outside government offices in Beijing over the past few days. About twenty eight human rights activists who had been imprisoned on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 have now mostly been freed from police custody following rapid international solidarity appeals. The activists had been imprisoned in relation to their protest in the main square of Krakow, Poland, against the presence of Vladimir Putin at the ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the freeing of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

At least two people were officially charged, under Article 136 of Polish criminal law, with the offence of insulting a head of state, namely, Vladimir Putin, but it remains unclear how many people in total have been charged with this offence.

Vladimir Putin, who is suspected to be responsible for war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity in Chechnya, was neither detained nor arrested during his visit to Poland. The People's Republic of China intensified security to prevent mourners attending funeral in Beijing for Zhao Ziyang. Mr. Zhao was the former Communist Party secretary general who was purged for opposing the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square student movement. He died two weeks ago at age 85, having spent the last fifteen years of his life under house arrest.
According to a story released by the Agence France-Presse anonymous witnesses said the government detained several people in Beijing. They claim some of these people were severely beaten.

A man who preferred to be anonymous said: "A man from Henan province was beaten badly. His left eyeball looked like it was beaten out of its socket and he had a one inch cut to his right eye. An elderly woman from Shandong province was beaten to a point where she couldn't move and a man from Hunan province was also beaten."

According to the witness the police argued Zhao was a political criminal. They said:"Why are you commemorating him? You're clearly opposing the government."

The government of China has already received criticism for what some feel to be intimidation of activists and other anti-democratic acts like censorship , American manufacturing giant Proctor & Gamble (P&G) plans to acquire Gillette Co. for US$57 billion in stock. The purchase plan calls for P&G to swap 0.975 shares of its stock per share of Gillete Co. P&G also announced a stock buyback program in which they would purchase up to US$22 billion of shares over the next 18 months. Including the stock buyback program, the merger is being financed by 60 percent stock and 40 percent cash.

P&G is known for brands such as Ariel and Tide washing powder, Max Factor cosmetics, Pringles potato crisps (chips) and Hugo Boss and Lacoste perfumes.

Gillette, known for brands such as Gillette razors, Oral B dental care, and Duracell batteries, has had growing problems with the growth of private labels and price cuts demanded by large supermarkets.

After the acquisition is completed, Gillette's CEO James Kilts will be P&G's vice-chairman. Kilts said that he expects that this acquisition will cause additional mergers to take place.

"I believe the consumer product industry needs to consolidate," said Kilts, "we believe we can bring these companies together and create a juggernaut."

P&G and Gillette have a combined market capitalization of about $185 billion US, which will make it the largest in the sector.

The early morning announcement states that 6,000 employees will be eliminated. Most of the layoffs will result from reducing overlapping management positions and other supporting positions within the combined company.

Antitrust regulators in the US and Europe plan to review the acquisition, to determine whether the combined company will have too much power over pricing and shelf space.

P&G plans to provide additional details about the merger Friday morning (East Coast time) in New York. Communications corporation Telekom Austria has stated that it intends to expand in southeastern Europe and is specifically targeting the Romanian mobile phone giant Mobifon, which operates under the brand name Connex. Mobifon's Connex GSM network is the second-largest in Romania, with more than 4.9 million subscribers. Mobifon is also one of the largest and best-known Romanian companies, as well as one of the largest ISPs in the region.

Several sources have stated that Vodafone, which has an important share in Mobifon, could sell its shares to Telekom Austria to take-over the Romanian operator for approximately 3 billion euro.

This is not the first attempt by Telekom Austria in its drive towards expansion in the region. At the end of 2004, it signed an agreement to buy Mobiltel from the Bulgarian government for 1.6 billion euro. Telekom Austria also intends to expand into Serbia and Bosnia in 2005, followed by Macedonia and Montenegro.

Mobifon, the Romanian operator, is currently a branch of Telesystems International Wireless (TIW), a Canadian communications company which also owns the Oskar brand in Czechia. The main shareholders in TIW are Netherlandic operator Mobifon Holdings BV, with 63.45% share, as well as Vodafone Europe BV (20.15% participation) and Deraso Holding BV (14.4% participation).

With 4.9 million customers, Mobifon has significant market share of Romania's 10.2 million mobile phone subscribers. It also plans to be the first operator to establish a 3G network across the country. Retired schoolteacher Gordon Park, 61, was today convicted of murdering his wife in July 1976, after a ten week long trial known as the "Lady in the Lake" case.

Mother of three Carol Park disappeared from her home near Barrow, Cumbria, in July 1976 when she was 30 years old. She had had a tempestuous relationship with her husband, and had previously twice left him to live with a lover. Park reported that she was missing from their home when he returned with his children from a day trip to the seaside resort of Blackpool. Because of her earlier disappearances, he did not report her missing to the police for six weeks, shortly before she would have been expected to start a new school year as a teacher.

A jury at Manchester Crown Court however heard evidence that the keen climber and sailor had bludgeoned her to death with an ice axe, tied her body up in a foetal position, and wrapped it in plastic and a weighted carpet and dumped the body in Coniston Water, the third largest lake in England. The body was discovered by an amateur diving team in 1997. The jury heard that if the body had been dumped only a few feet further from the shore, it is likely that it would have sunk to the deepest part of the lake beyond the reach of divers, and would never have been found.

Park was arrested and charged with the murder in 1997, but his trial then collapsed through lack of evidence. Further evidence came to light, including geological evidence that the rocks which were used to weigh down the body were of a rare type which happened to be found in the rockery of the Parks' house, and the meticulous knots used to tie up the body were described as "unusual", of the type used by climbers or sailors, and Park was re-arrested in 2004.

The prosecution admitted that most of the evidence against Park was circumstantial, and there were some exclamations of surprise in the public gallery when the jury returned its verdict. In a plea of mitigation, defending lawyer Mr Andrew Edis QC said that Park, who had subsequently remarried twice, had lead an otherwise blameless life. Trial judge Mr Justice McCombe said that he was not sure if there was a significant degree of planning in the murder, but he did take into account the degree of violence employed in the killing, and the degree of suffering endured by many people, not least the Park children, because of the concealment of the crime for so long, in passing a sentence of life imprisonment with a recommendation that Park not be considered for parole for 15 years. Hamas, a radical islamist party, has won by a large majority in the Gaza Strip council elections held last month. Hamas won 75 out of the 118 seats, with Fatah, the party of Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas only managing to secure 39 seats. Of the ten council areas in Gaza, Hamas has control of seven.

Fathiya Barghouti Rheime, a 30-year-old high school teacher, and mother of two, was one of the seven Hamas mayors elected in the Gaza strip. She has become the second female mayor of a Palestinian community, and the first ever elected one. "It's a sign of change," she said "I'm deeply concerned about transmitting the picture of the active Islamic woman to the world, to wipe away the blemish of the veil."

In the West Bank, Female candidates won 52 of 306 seats. Two and a half times the number of seats that had been reserved for women. With just days to go before Sunday's historic poll to choose a new government in Iraq, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has invited the people of Iraq to exercise their democratic rights.

The poll, the first free elections in a generation, faces disruption from insurgents who are totally opposed to democracy. Annan warned them not to interfere and promised continuing help from the UN for the country in the future.

Annan made his appeal in a pre-recorded message, broadcast on TV inside Iraq. "Elections are the best way to determine any country's future; please exercise your democratic rights on Sunday," he said. "Whatever your feelings about how the country reached this point, this election offers an opportunity to move away from violence and uncertainty toward peace and representative government."

The UN has been providing advice and technical help to the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI), as well as $100m funding for the poll and co-ordination of international assistance. A team of 40 experts has overseen the delivery of three million tonnes of election materials and helped the IECI and Iraqi officials prepare and maintain the voters register. BEIJING/TAIPEI — Nonstop flights between mainland China and Taiwan took off Saturday for the first time in more than half a century.

Traditional dragon dancers in bright costumes performed on the tarmac as three airplanes prepared to leave Beijing's airport Saturday, the first to fly nonstop to Taiwan since 1949. The ceremony marked the first of 48 charter flights allowed to operate between Taiwan and the mainland over the three-week Chinese New Year holiday season.

Later, a China Southern Airlines plane, which took off from the Guangzhou, landed at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek International Airport amid similar fanfare. This marked the first successful direct flight across the two sides, still technically at war.

The Republic of China government banned direct flights after the Kuomintang defeat in the Chinese Civil War to the Communists caused the government to retreat to Taiwan. Although there is consensus on all sides to resume the three links — direct postal, telephone, and airline links — between mainland China and Taiwan, Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian has been reluctant to move ahead, citing the possibility that the People's Republic of China could disguise troop carriers as commercial airliners to invade Taiwan.

All normal airline flights between the two sides have to be routed through a third party — usually Hong Kong — making a three hour flight between Taipei and Shanghai last eight hours.

Taiwanese and mainland airlines are forbidden to travel into their respective airspaces, forcing passengers to change airlines too. These restrictions were first lifted for Chinese New Years in 2003, but those flights still stopped briefly in Hong Kong.

Taiwanese legislator John Chang, the grandson of former President Chiang Kai-shek, spoke of the flights' significance at the ceremony.

Mr. Chang said that despite differences, the flights symbolize "the hopes of the two sides for peace, stability, dialogue and mutual development."

Mr. Chang had been part of the group of opposition lawmakers that helped arrange the flights.

This year's flights were planned after diplomatic negotiations in Macau, ending on January 15. They are aimed to allow the easy reuniting of families which are split between the island and the mainland for the celebrations.

The ROC government hopes the flights can form the basis for further negotiations and better relations with the People's Republic of China. However, the PRC, which is refusing to deal with the independence-leaning government of President Chen, is less optimistic.

Most of the passengers taking advantage of the nonstop flights, running until February 20, are Taiwanese businesspeople who work on the mainland.

Many Taiwanese have lobbied their government to ease its ban on direct air links, especially as trade continues to grow between the island and the mainland, despite the political tensions. Mainland Chinese officials this month said cross-strait trade had reached a record $70 billion in 2004. The U.S. Navy has chosen the US-Europe US101 helicopter to be the next Marine One, the helicopter for the U.S. President.

The present aircraft, Sikorsky SeaKings, are around thirty years old and do not have the payload capacity to carry the modern communications gear demanded by the White House. The contract is expected to cover the purchase of 23 helicopters.

When invitations were made to industry inviting proposals for replacements, Sikorsky offered their H-92. Lockheed Martin did not have a suitable helicopter and, rather than developing, a new design, offered the European EH101, renamed the US101. The US101 will be built in America using mainly US components with some European content.

The EH101 was developed jointly by the British company Westland and the Italian Augusta, who formed the AugustaWestland company. The helicopter has seen service with the British Army in Bosnia, the Royal Navy in the recent Iraq war and with Canadian Coastguard in search and rescue operations. Fourteen countries outside of Iraq have been selected for the installation of polling stations for the Iraqi National Assembly election. Among these, Paris, capital city of France, will welcome voters from France, Belgium, and Switzerland.

While the event has not been kept secret, the French government and media have been quite discreet about it. The polling station has been installed in an unused elementary school in a calm residential neighbourhood of the XIIIe arrondissement, without fanfare. Most inhabitants are not even aware of its presence – that is, until they notice the unusual deployment of police and come across the posters written in French and Arabic. Despite the discretion, the sight of police guarding a polling station is striking in a country where elections are a calm affair on a Sunday, and polling stations, most of which are installed in schools, are only noticeable because of the official billboards carrying the candidates' posters.

Security measures have been taken – metallic barriers prevent parking in and around the front and back entrances to the station, and CRS riot police with bulletproof vests guard the entrances.
Still, overall, the security measures remain limited. Traffic flows in the street, passers-by freely walk in front of the station entrance, no display of heavy weapons. This contrasts with the use of military troops and deployments of gendarmes mobiles that France used in its Vigipirate anti-terror plan following the Islamist terror bombings that it suffered in 1995, or the typical security measures kept around possible terror targets such as the embassies of Israel and the United States of America. This time, military cars and a handful of soldiers were seen in the morning, but were gone in the afternoon.

Original reporting

sv:Det irakiska valet dämpat, men säkert, i Paris The BBC reported on January 27 that statistics released by the Iraqi Ministry of Health showed that Coalition forces killed 60% of the civilians that died in the period July 2004 to January 2005.

The figures, normally available only to the Iraqi cabinet, show a total of 3,274 Iraqi civilians were killed and 12,657 wounded during the continuing conflict. These figures exclude the deaths of known insurgents.

However according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, the BBC misunderstood the matter. According to the previous story from BBC these figures were a result of Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces military operations.

However, the Iraqi Ministry of Health explained that the published figures also include Iraqis killed by terrorists, not only those killed by Coalition forces or Iraqi security forces; and that those recorded as killed in military action included terrorists themselves, and Iraqi security forces.

The BBC recognized their error and apologized in a recent news item, and retracted the conclusions drawn by their original report:

"The BBC regrets mistakes in its published and broadcast reports yesterday," reported the BBC."

The figures, based on records from Iraqi public hospitals released by the Iraqi Ministry of Health, are shown in the following table:

Shortly before the release of the figures by the BBC, US Ambassador John Negroponte had told BBC reporter John Simpson:

"My impression is that the largest amount of civilian casualties definitely is a result of these indiscriminate car bombings." Officials from the People's Republic of China have agreed to purchase 60 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in a deal worth US$7.2bn.

In China, airliners are selected and purchased by the government, which then distributes them to different airlines. The preliminary agreement will see Dreamliners delivered to six airlines — Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Xiamen Airlines. The deliveries are scheduled to be in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The aircraft was once named the 7E7 but was renamed at the same time the deal was announced. Boeing will begin production in 2006 and the aircraft should enter airline service in 2008. It will seat 200 to 300 people and will have a range of 3,500 to 8,500 nautical miles. Through the use of the latest materials and designs it will be 20% more fuel efficient than the equivalent aircraft today. Ex-British Culture Minister Chris Smith has lived with the HIV virus for 17 years, he has revealed to the Sunday Times.

The former cabinet minister decided to go public after the former South African President Nelson Mandela announced his son Makgatho Mandela, had died of AIDS.

'When I first heard about it, I was really worried because there was hardly any treatment,' he told the newspaper.

Mr Smith was quickly put on a course of anti-retrovirals after he was diagnosed. He said that he had "been with the National Health Service all the time".

Chris Smith revealed he was gay in 1984. He was sacked from his post (which he held since 1997) in 2001, after controversies over the National Lottery and the construction of the new Wembley Stadium.

He is due to stand down at the next General Election. The first free elections in over 50 years have begun in Iraq, via proportional representation, to choose members for a 275-strong assembly that will then draw up a constitution.

Interim President Ghazi Al-Yawar was among the first to cast a ballot.

However violence has already begun to overshadow the event, both inside Iraq and abroad, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up close to a polling place in western Baghdad, and a riot and bomb scare in Sydney, Australia.

According to police reports four people were killed and at least nine injured in the Baghdad bombing. A total of at least 36 people have so far been killed in Iraq today in various suicide bombing since the opening of the polls.

As well as suicide bombings, insurgents have used mortars to attack the people. In southern Baghdad they killed at least two people, and in Hilla one person was killed. Mortar rounds have also been fired on other cities, including Mosul and Baquba.

28,000 polling booths in 5,578 stations opened at 7 am (local time), closely guarded by both coalition troops and Iraqi security forces. Turn out has so far been described as "sporadic", with queues in Shia areas but few people voting in Sunni areas.

"Thank God, thank God." said the Interim President, "Blessed are the Iraqi elections. We greet all Iraqi people and urge them not to give up their rights, to vote for Iraq, elect Iraq and not to give up on Iraq"

"Deep in my heart, I feel that Iraqis deserve free elections," he went on, "This will be our first step towards joining the free world and being a democracy that Iraqis will be proud of."

Booths have also been set up in many countries outside Iraq to allow expatriates a chance to vote in the elections, however Iraqis in countries without booths are complaining about not being able to use postal votes, and those in countries which do have booths complain that there are not enough of them.

Iraqis in New Zealand would have to travel to Australia to lodge their vote. "There is a lot of interest in this election. Not all the Iraqis here have passports yet, so not so many can travel. I'm a little sad that we can't contribute to this," said Wellington's Iraqi Association spokesman Jafar Abdulghani yesterday. "Our association would have been very interested to invite the organisers to help us with voting." There are currently around 7000 Iraqis in New Zealand who are eligible to vote.

Fifty people rioted in Sydney, Australia, when about 20 protesters yelled insults at voters leaving the center, setting off the melee. Voting organizers said the protesters were Wahhabis, members of a sect of Sunni Islam associated with militants in Iraq. Police said there no were arrests and no reports of injuries. After the fighting was contained, an unattended backpack found near the center led police to close the center and cordon off the area.

It turned out not to be a bomb, but polling was extended. Thair Wali, an Iraqi adviser for the International Organization for Migration, said the fight broke out after the protesters began using cameras and cell phones to take pictures of voters leaving the station. "This is scary for the people, taking photos of the voting," he said.

Iraqi nationals abroad have said they failed to register to vote, fearing terrorists would then target relatives in Iraq. Mamdouh Habib, a former Guantanmo Bay detainee, arrived back in Australia and was reunited with his family on Friday, after having been held in the US navy base for three years without charge.

In a statement through his Australian lawyer, Stephen Hopper, the Habib family thanked the Australian people during Mr Habib's incarereation. The statement also offered thanks for the work of Mr Habib's American lawyer saying, "Most of all we'd like to thank Joe Margulies for his excellent efforts ... Joe's the best lawyer in the world."

Mr Margulies says Mr Habib needs medical treatment for chronic physical and mental conditions he suffers from his incarceration.

Mr Habib was detained by Coalition forces in Afgahnistan three weeks after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, on suspicion of having links to Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist group. Students and professors at New York's Hamilton College have raised protests over an invitation to the controversial ethics professor, Ward Churchill, to participate in a panel at the college. The main objection is related to comments by Mr. Churchill, chairman of the ethnic studies from the University of Colorado, who in a paper written after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, compared the victims of the attack to "little Eichmanns".

Churchill's paper, entitled "Some People Push Back", charges that all American citizens are complicit in the "genocide of 500,000 Iraqi children," which he maintains occurred during the Gulf War as a direct result of military actions and the destruction of infrastructure and the water supply. Due to their inaction and empowerment of the American government, he compares American citizens to "Good Germans." He also charges that the inhabitants of the targets of attack, namely the Pentagon and World Trade Center, have a dubious claim to the title "Innocent Civilians," as the Pentagon was a military target and the WTC was home to many who he alleges profited from the Iraqi Genocide.

Administrators defended Professor Churchill's appearance despite the fact that some considered his views repugnant and disparaging.

According to Hamilton College spokesman Michael DeBraggio: "Hamilton, like any institution committed to the free exchange of ideas, invites to its campus people of diverse opinions, often controversial."

The University of Colorado's Interim Chancellor Phil Distefano said in a statement:"I wish to make it clear that Professor Ward Churchill's views of the events of 9/11 are his own and do not represent the views of University of Colorado faculty, staff, students, administration or Regents. While I may personally find his views offensive, I also must support his right as an American citizen to hold and express his views, no matter how repugnant, as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution."

The professor's opinions divided New York's Hamilton College, where Churchill is scheduled to speak. Jessica Miraglia, a student at Hamilton, created a poster defending the professor reading "You don't have to agree with them in order to learn from them.". Sophomore Matt Coppo, who lost his father in the World Trade Center attacks was angered over the invitation to Churchill. "Knowing that I'm paying for a person to disrespect my father, it doesn't go over too well in my mind."

Two congressmen from Colorado asked professor Churchill to apologize for comparing victims of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack to Nazis. Professor Churchill has said that he will not back off his statement. Ephraim Kishon, Israeli author, satirist, playwright, screenwriter, and film director, died of a heart attack in his home in Appenzell, Switzerland, Saturday night. He was interred on February 1, in the Trumpeldor St. cemetery in Tel Aviv, Israel.

He was born on August 23, 1924, in Budapest, Hungary, as Ferenc Hoffmann. A prisoner in a Hungarian concentration camp, he escaped during the journey to the extermination camp of Sobibor.
He returned home to find his family alive and joined them in hiding until the end of the war.

Changing his name to Ferenc Kishont, he worked as a writer in a pro-communist satirical magazine until fleeing to Israel with his first wife, Eva, in 1949. There, an immigration clerk changed his name to the Hebrew Ephraim Kishon (אפרים קישון), which he had used ever since. Recently, he lived in both Switzerland and Israel.

A worldwide bestselling author, his books and short stories were translated into 37 languages. He also wrote a regular column in Maariv, wrote numerous plays, and created several films, amongst which are Sallah (סלאח שבתי), which won two Golden Globe awards and was nominated for an Academy award, and The Policeman (השוטר אזולאי), which won one Golden Globe award and was nomniated for an Academy Award.

He won many awards over the years, including the Israeli Nordau Prize for Literature (1953), the Israeli Sokolov Prize for Journalism (1958), the Israeli Kinor David Prize (1964), and the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2002).

Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, said in a eulogy: "Ephraim Kishon was one of the giants of Israeli culture, who created an entire cultural world for a country in formation; he created an entire world of culture for the country."

Prior to the funeral, his coffin was placed on the morning of February 1, in the Journalists' House in Tel Aviv, where his friends, colleagues, family, and fans, payed their lasts respects to him. Amongst them was Israeli Minister of Education, Limor Livnat, and Mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai.

Kishon left behind his third wife, Lisa, and children Raphael, Amir and Renana. 452 serious incidents that occurred during 2003 and 2004 have been brought to light, by a report released today about the safety of patients in the hospital system in New South Wales, Australia. Many of the incidents highlighted by the report resulted in injury, or even death.

The report detailed 13 patients who had operations that they were not meant to have or who had the wrong part of the body operated upon. It also noted that another 22 were seriously injured in falls in wards and bathrooms.

Other statistics included four suicides in hospital, with another 128 occurring in community care. Another nine people retained surgical instruments or materials inside them after the operation. The rest of the serious incidents related to labour and delivery problems (26) and clinical management problems (157). A Slovakian man who was trapped in his car under an avalanche, has escaped by urinating on ice to melt it. The man—who had 60 half-litre bottles of beer with him in the car—literally drank his way to safety.

"I was scooping the snow from above me and packing it down below the window, and then I peed on it to melt it," he said.

Rescue workers found the man still drunk on a mountain path in Slovakia’s Tatra Mountains four days after his Audi car was buried.

"It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt. But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful and I managed to get out of there," he said.

He first planned to shovel the ice from outside his window, directly into his car, but soon realised that he would run out of room in his car before he would be able to reach the top.

Snowfalls of levels not seen since 1941 have fallen over parts of Europe over the past week. Some places have registered more than 3 meters of snow in 24 hours. Police are investigating damage to a memorial to the 28 victims of the Myall Creek massacre. The Plaques which are in the town of Inverell in northern New South Wales, Australia had the words "murder", "women" and "children" hammered from it leaving the plaque unreadable.

Inverell police Senior Constable Chris Curtin said that "We got reports aboriganal elder that deep gouges have been scratched into the plaques along the memorial walk. Several of the plaques will have to be replaced."

The NSW government has reacted to the event by calling the vandalism an appalling and insulting crime. "This is a gross act of vandalism, Defacing this memorial is disrespectful and insulting to the people who were murdered, and their families." Aboriginal Affairs Minister Andrew Refshauge said.

"All you're doing is really showing the blackness in your own heart, the sadness of your own spirit - there is much more at stake here than that," Mr Refshauge continued. "The reconciliation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the region is already a powerful movement - join it, don't trash it."

The Myall Creek massacre is particually important in Australian history, as it marks the first time that Europeans were charged and convicted of murdering Aborigines. "It was the first occasion when European law was applied to deliver justice for Aboriginal people," Mr Refshauge said. "That's why this act of vandalism is especially appalling." Metlife announced on 01/31/05 that they were going to acquire Travelers Life and Annuity from Citigroup. Travelers Life and Annuity is an insurance underwriter. MetLife is a large life insurance and annuities underwriter. MetLife will have to borrow a lot of money to pay for the company, so rating agencies like S&P warn that the AA credit rating of MetLife might be lowered. This would cause the interest rates at which all of MetLife's debt must be repaid to increase.

Citigroup committed to continue distributing Travelers life insurance and annuities through its Smith Barney stock brokers, Primerica agents, and Citibank branches.

Citigroup was previously known as Travelers Insurance before it bought Citicorp. First the Property and Casualty business of Travelers was spun off, and now the life insurance division has been sold off. This is primarily because insurance underwriters get a lower price to earnings multiple from the stock market because of the cycles and uncertainty associated with the insurance business. Also, having an insurance underwriter and a bank together does not usually create "cross-sell" opportunities, because consumers and businesses almost always buy life insurance and annuities through brokers who have a duty to give them other options. Citigroup will continue to sell insurance through its brokers as before. The Virgin of Suyapa, a 6cm high statue that is the patron saint of Honduras, was brought to the local suburb of Eben Ezer in Chamelecón, San Pedro Sula, after the residents of this area experienced the massacre of 27 people returning home by bus on 23rd December 2004. A further 29 were left injured. Many thousands of people from all over Central America come to Suyapa, a suburb of the capital Tegucigalpa, to celebrate her name day in early February, and she made this visit yesterday, Sunday January 30th, as a part of this year's celebrations.

Her presence was heavily guarded by a contingent of armed military troops, as this statue has already been stolen more than once, though always recovered later. A minute's silence was held at the spot where the massacre took place. The nationally well known bishop's assistant Rómulo Emiliani led the ceremonies. A British Royal Air Force C-130K Hercules transport aircraft crashed 30 km north of Baghdad in Iraq yesterday, killing ten service people.

The aeroplane was flying from Baghdad International Airport to the U.S. airbase at Balad, when it crashed at approximately 1635 local time.

The Royal Airforce at RAF Lyneham has confirmed that ten British servicemen were killed in the crash: Sqn Ldr Patrick Marshall, Flt Lt David Stead, Flt Lt Andrew Smith, Flt Lt Paul Pardoel, Master Engineer Gary Nicholson, Ch Tech Richard Brown, Flt Sgt Mark Gibson, Sgt Robert O'Connor, Cpl David Williams all of the Royal Air Force and Acting L/Cpl Steven Jones of the British Army Royal Signals. The UK Ministry of Defence has said that the aircraft was on a routine transport flight.

Flt Lt Paul Pardoel was an Australian born Navigator serving with 47 Squadron Lyneham of the British RAF. Flt Lt Pardoel is Australia's first casualty in Iraq.

The cause of the crash is unknown and is under investigation. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has noted that the Iraqi people turned out in large numbers to vote in the January 30 ballot. Voters were deciding who to elect to the 275 seat Transitional National Assembly.

Sporadic violence saw the deaths of 22 people across the country during voting, but attacks by insurgents did not seem to deter voters from exercising their new democratic rights. Annan praised the courage of the people and congratulated the Independent Election Commission of Iraq (IECI) and UN officials for successfully running the poll.

The Secretary General went on to say that the success bodes well for the on-going transition process. The next step will be a referendum in October 2005 on the constitution the Transitional National Assembly will be tasked with drawing up.

In the Out-of-Country Voting Program, 93.6% of Iraqis eligible to vote, did so. Four prisoners at Camp Bucca Theatre Internment Facility near Umm Qasr in southern Iraq, were killed by US guards during a riot that broke out at the facility yesterday. The US military has also stated that 6 other detainees were injured during the riot.

A statement from the US military said that the riot started just after noon, in one of the camp's ten compounds, following a routine search for contraband.

"The riot quickly spread to three additional compounds, with detainees throwing rocks and fashioning weapons from materials inside their living areas," the statement said. "Guards attempted to calm the increasingly volatile situation using verbal warnings and, when that failed, by use of non-lethal force. After about 45 minutes of escalating danger, lethal force was used to quell the violence." The statement said.

"The cause of the riot and use of lethal force is currently under investigation by the chain of command and the US Army's Criminal Investigations Division, which is standard procedure whenever a detainee death occurs," the statement continued. The Iraqis turned out in large numbers to the national election of January 30, 2005, risking their lives and ignoring the threats and attacks of terrorist groups. The rebels caused at least 44 deaths during the election. Ten of the deaths were caused by suicide attacks. The Al-Qaeda organization announced on a website that 13 suicide attackers participated in the attacks.

Despite the violence, a 'loosely estimated' 60% of the 14 million registered electors appeared to vote, according to the Electoral Commission. Proportional representation was the voting method used to select the members for a 275-strong assembly that will then draw up a constitution. The Iraqis faced up to threats, attacks, and the inconvenience of long lines caused by the security measures at polling booths.

This was the first free election held in Iraq in over 50 years. The 2005 Iraq election was very different than the previous one in 2002 during the regime of Saddam Hussein. At that time the Iraq elector was offered "yes" or "no" choices in a referendum for the only candidate, Saddam Hussein. The results of that election showed 100 percent in favor of Hussein in a 100 percent turnout. That election was called the mother of all election frauds, since any Iraqi elector who didn't appear and vote for Hussein was condemned to death. , 

Mahdeya Saleh, an 80 year old Iraqi citizen said: "I had often been forced to vote under Saddam Hussein. Today I come out of my own will to choose freely the candidate of my choice for the first and last time in my life." 

"Why should I be afraid?" Arifa Abed Mohamed told a Christian Science Monitor reporter at a Baghdad polling station. "I am afraid only from God."

Other Iraqis expressed a similar disregard for the rebels’ threats. “I would have crawled here if I had to,” Samir Hassan told a Reuters reporter. “I don’t want terrorists to kill other Iraqis like they tried to kill me.” Hassan lost his leg in an October 2004 car-bomb attack. Margaret Pardoel, mother of the first Australian soldier to be killed in Iraq since the commencement of hostilities, has expressed anger over the death of her only son, a father of three, who was about to return home to Australia and had been planning a career change. Mrs Pardoel and husband John were devastated by the loss of their only son.

Mrs Pardoel said she opposes the war. "I think it's just cold-blooded murder. Look at all those young American boys that have been slaughtered," she said. "I don't think this should have gone on ... He said to me one night he phoned, he said, 'Mum there's nowhere to hide here, it's just so dangerous, there's nowhere to hide'."

Thirty-five year old Flight Lieutenant Paul Pardoel had been on his last flight when the C-130 Hercules he was aboard crashed north of Baghdad yesterday, killing ten personnel. He was serving with the British Royal Air Force (RAF), to which he had transferred several years ago from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), as Navigator in 47 Squadron Lyneham RAF.

Mr Pardoel had been expecting to return in July to his wife and three children in Australia, where they had recently bought a new house in Canberra.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, says he is saddened to hear of the man's death.

"I want his family to know, and his friends to know, that he certainly did not die in vain, that this tragic accident occurred - or this tragedy because it may not have been an accident - but this tragedy occurred on a day when 65 per cent of the people of Iraq went out and voted," he said. The King of Nepal, Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, has dissolved the coalition government, accusing it of factional fighting and failing in its duty to protect democracy. Several key political figures in the old coalition have been put under house arrest, including the leader of the Nepal Communist Party.

The king has said that he removed the government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba because "it has failed to make necessary arrangements to hold elections by April and protect democracy, the sovereignty of the people and life and property". The king had repeatedly called on Deuba to set a date for elections despite threats by Maoist rebels to block any vote.

"I have exercised my rights given to the crown under the present constitution and I have, therefore, dissolved the government for the larger interests," the king said.

This announcement occurs with the backdrop of a continuing civil war which has claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people since 1996.

February 2, 2005 A survey by the Romanian Institute for Marketing and Polling (IMAS) shows that 64% of the country's citizens consider that things are moving in the right direction and are optimistic about the future of Romania.

Additionally, 59% consider that the current centre-right liberal government, led by Călin Popescu Tăriceanu, will do a better job than the previous social-democrat government under Adrian Năstase.

The surveyed people were also asked who they would vote for if an election were held now. 66% said they would choose the governing Truth and Justice Alliance, while only 19% said they would back the Social Democrats. This is one of the lowest approval rates for the Social Democrats ever, especially considering that they achieved 37% of the vote in the November legislative elections, and the Social Democrats' Adrian Năstase only narrowly lost to current president Traian Băsescu in the December run-off election, getting 48.77% of the electorate's vote.

In terms of individual politicians, Presdient Traian Băsescu has the highest approval rating, with 73% trusting him. The next most trusted is the Prime Minister, Călin Popescu Tăriceanu, of the Truth and Justice Alliance. He has an approval rating of 64%.

Perhaps shockingly, the poll shows that the far-right nationalist Great Romania Party leader, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, has an approval rating of 21%, while the interim Social Democrat leader Victor Ponta has an approval rating of only 15%.

This dramatic fall in the Social Democrats' popularity is expected to change Romanian politics significantly, considering that , after the fall of Communism in Romania, they dominated politics for most of the years up until the present.

What matters most, though, is that in Romania at present, most people trust the people which elected as their leaders, something which is crucial at a time when Romania must implement important reforms to prepare for accession to the European Union in 2007. According to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Iraq election was a blow against global terrorism. He vowed to stand by Iraq as it moves to build a democracy and paid tribute to British military personnel who died in a plane crash on election day.

In a nationally broadcast statement, Blair said: "It was moving and humbling for those of us lucky enough to live in a democracy and take it for granted, to see the enthusiasm and the simple determination, the clear sight of courage of millions of Iraqis that came out to vote for the first time in their lives, despite the terrorism, despite the threats, despite the dangers...Democracy in Iraq is not just good for Iraq itself. It is also a blow right to the heart of the global terrorism that threatens destruction not just in Iraq but in Britain and virtually every major country around the world."

President Bush also spoke of the incident, saying he mourns the British and American military personnel who died on Sunday. US students are apathetic about their First Amendment rights to free speech, according to the largest study of its kind, released today by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Most students surveyed said they believed flag burning is illegal, half that the government can censor the internet, and half that government approval should be required for stories published in the press.

“These results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous,” said Knight Foundation President and CEO Hodding Carter III. “Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation’s future.”

Researchers from the University of Connecticut questioned more than 100,000 high school students, nearly 8,000 teachers, and more than 500 administrators and principals, in a two-year study costing US$1 million. Entitled The Future of the First Amendment, the study was commissioned by the Florida-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

According to the study, teaching of First Amendment values is effective in redressing the types of misunderstandings revealed, but it concludes even the basics are not being taught effectively now.

Appreciation and understanding of the rights were much greater amongst teachers, principals and adults, studied in this, and other recent studies. In contrast, students were more likely than others to think that potentially offensive song lyrics should be allowed, and student publications should not require approval from the school authorities.

Other findings included that one in five schools offer no student media whatsoever, and that finances limit the ability of administrators to offer such opportunities for student expression, particularly for low income, inner city and regional schools; and that student participation in student media increased appreciation for First Amendment rights. The Colombian Caracol Radio reported on January 31, 2005 that the government of Colombia released a detailed document which describes how the FARC operates in Colombia and around the world. The report was prepared by the Unidad Administrativa Especial de Información y Análisis Financiero del Ministerio de Hacienda(Special Administrative Unit of the Information and Financial Analysis of the Ministry of the Finance) and describes how the FARC operates and manage their finances. The study was delivered to the Colombian government at the end of the last year.

According to Caracol Radio the most important facts from the report are the following:

The report identifies three types of guerrilla:
*High rank: these members can participate in the high level operations, including the drug trafficking. They have access to beer, seafood, gatorade (a soft drink), prawns, shampoo, gel for the hair, brandy, and whiskey. Daily cost: $6 798 pesos ($US1 equals 2359 Colombian pesos).
*Average rank: these member can participate in illicit activities such as kidnapping, extorsion and theft . Daily cost: $4,917 pesos.
*Low rank: they are supported by the secretaryship or other structures because they operate in difficult conditions. Daily cost: $2.800 pesos.

28 percent belongs to the high ranking members of FARC, 64 percent belongs to the middle ranks and 8 percent to the lower ranks.

The costs of feeding people who are kidnapped is 2,382 million pesos

* 20 billion pesos are the expenses of 690 thousand units of armament, that include as much ammunition expenses as weapon expenses during a year.
* 14 billion pesos are the expenses of quartermaster equipment (uniforms, machetes, boots) during a year.
* up to 4 thousand 256 million pesos are the expenses on explosives.

* There is evidence that FARC members are under specialized treatments in recognized clinical of Ecuador and Venezuela. Expenses of up to 1450 million pesos a year.

* Vehicles and gasoline. Each FARC structure does between 14 and 18 short trips per month, and between 8 and 11 long trips, spending up to 1500 million pesos.

* Purchase of radios and cellular telephones and batteries costs up to 8311 millions pesos.

* Chemical products used during the narcotic processing. 722.000 gallons of gasoline are used. Expenses with gasoline are up to 12515 million per year. Other chemical reagents: up to 305 billion pesos per year.

FARC recruit people of between 16 and 30 years of age. The new recruits first get a minimum information on internal, objective statutes of the organization and commitments. After been incorporated, the members are sent to training basic schools by a period between 3-5 months. When they leaves the scholl they are considered flat guerrilla. After two years depending on profits and behavior the guellicas can get promotion to squadron commander, delegate of guerrilla, commander, etc.
* Each student spends about 10,000 pesos per day in feeding and uniforms.
* The FARC annual expenses for personnel and education are 5110 million pesos.
* In a optimistic hypothesis the FARC train 200 men per year in each one of their 7 schools.

* 327 million pesos are expenses with social programs supporting indigenous groups, associations of farmers, students and labour unions workers and leaders.
* internet: 20 million pesos
* Radio: Intelligence detected between 5 and 7 clandestine radios of low range but with the possibility of moving them through all the territory: up to 431 million pesos.

Support to the captured members and their families.
* Prisoner support: 7 billion pesos by year.
* Family support: 1773 million pesos by year.

* Support to the FARC activities in foreign countries: 476 million pesos by year.

* Protecting plantations: $541 million pesos.
* Storage of the leaf of the coca: 953 million pesos.
* Production of base cocaine: 886 million pesos.
* Production in sophisticated laboratories: 2621 million pesos.

There are 57 clandestine airports that the narco-traffickers use(this is a big number since in Colombia there are only 73 official airports). The FARC rent the use of these airport to drug-dealers and receive income of up to 7154 million pesos from doing so.

The report says that the Farc directly commercializes 30 percent of the drug that is produced, and the remaining 70 percent is left to international networks of drug trafficking.
* Cocaine commercialization: incomes up to 7 billion pesos

* Kidnapping: up to 88560 million pesos is gained per year through kidnapping.
* Extorsion: 1 billion 569 million, 315 thousand pesos per year.
* Assaults on banks: 2,780 million pesos per year .
* Cattle robbery: 52 thousand 668 million pesos per year.
* Fuel robbery: 42 billion pesos.

According to the Vice-Minister of Defense Andrés Peñate the majority of the FARC incomes comes from the commercialization of the drugs, followed by extorsion and kidnapping. The President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe is scheduled to meet the President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez Thursday. Apparently the crisis between Venezuela and Colombia is almost solved. The crisis began with the imprisonment of the alleged FARC member Rodrigo Granda by Colombian forces on December 13, 2004. Venezuela accused Colombian of invading Venezuelan territory. Colombia accused Venezuela of harboring FARC terrorists.
The President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, intervened in the crisis and talked to Chavez and Uribe.

According to Bogota's newspaper El Tiempo, Uribe asked for Castro's help on January 21. Castro responded with surprising speed and effectiveness. On January 21 Castro sent the chancellor Felipe Perez Roque to Caracas where he met with Chávez and then returned to Havana, informing Castro on the results of the encounter. After midnight Castro communicated by telephone with Uribe for two hours. They decided that Castro would send his Vice-chancellor with a letter detailing what they had talked about to Chávez.

During the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre Chavez appeared to be optimistic about the end of the crisis. He recognized the importance of Castro's role in the resolution of the problems between Colombia and Venezuela. Also he was thankful for the help of the other leaders in South America.

The crisis between Venezuela and Colombia lasted more than a month without a solution and it was entering a dangerous stage, with severe accusations from both sides. During recent days the US government became more interested in the conflict and was pressuring Chávez for a clear declaration about his relationship with the FARC. The US is an ally of Colombia in the fight against FARC. FARC is a member of, and supported by, the Foro de São Paulo, an alleged anti-imperialism and anti-liberalism organization of South America. Other Forum de São Paulo member states include Brazil, Cuba and Venezuela.

There is some uncertainty about the date of some events. 

2004 - December
* 13: FARC-EP member Rodrigo Granda is arrested by Colombian authorities.
* 15: The Colombian National Police director Jorge Daniel Castro says Granda was arrested in Cúcuta, Colombia.
* 16: Sources of the Cúcuta police say Granda was arrested in a city hotel.
* 17: Another source of the Cúcuta police says Granda was arrested in a street of the Norte de Santander capital, Colombia.
* 30: The FARC say Granda was kidnapped.

2005 - January
* 3: The FARC demand Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to begin a investigation.
* 5: Venezuelan Minister Jesse Chacón says that Venezuela didn't take part in the capture of Granda.
* 5: The Colombian Minister of Defense Jorge Alberto Uribe says that Colombian forces captured Granda inside Colombian territory.
* 6: The Colombian President Álvaro Uribe also says that Colombian forces captured Granda inside Colombian territory.
* 9: The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that the Colombian police lies about the Granda capture.
* 12: The Colombian Minister of Defense Jorge Alberto Uribe says that a reward was paid for Granda. He reiterates that Colombian forces captured Granda inside Colombian territory.
* 13: The National Police director Jorge Daniel Castro says that Colombian authorities didn't take part of the arrestment of Granda in Caracas, Venezuela.
* 13: Chavez says that Venezuelan ambassador should leave Bogotá in Colombia.
* 20: Lula da Silva talks to Colombian president Álvaro Uribe.
* 21: Fidel Castro intervened. A meeting between Uribe and Chaves is scheduled. The crisis seems to be solved. The Brazilian government announced on January 28 that the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) will have to provide the Ministry of Planning and Budget with all research data 48 hours before it is released to the press. The ministry will be responsible for checking the data before it becomes public. All government employees with previous access to IBGE data will be required to keep it private or face prosecution.

According to the announcement, the objective is to organize the flow of information according to practices adopted in several other countries. Both the government and the IBGE deny claims of censorship and data manipulation.

IBGE is an independent public agency responsible for research in Brazil. Microsoft released today the final version of its new service, MSN Search. The new features that are available include tabs that allow consumers to target searches to the Web, news, images, music, desktop or Microsoft Encarta. Australian Prime Minister John Howard will visit Banda Aceh this afternoon.

He will visit the hospital which reopened recently with the help of Australian and German military doctors, and also take a helicopter tour of tsunami-ravaged coastal areas. He will also hold talks with senior Indonesian ministers who are overseeing relief efforts.

Australia has committed AUD$1 Billion in aid over five years to the tsunami recovery, it's largest ever foreign aid program. US based NGO Human Rights Watch has criticised the United States attempts to block the UN Security Council from referring atrocities in the Darfur conflict region to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The US favours setting up an ad hoc tribunal instead. HRW claims that the resulting delay will lead to the loss of more innocent lives.

The US has long opposed the ICC, because of concerns over politically motivated prosecutions of it's citizens.

A report prepared by a five member UN commission noted "killing of civilians, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, throughout Darfur", and secretly named alleged war criminals that should go before the ICC.

Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes, said "We don't want to be party to legitimizing the ICC."

In the last two years in the Darfur region more than 70,000 people have been killed, and over 2 million displaced.

The United States, which signed but did not ratify the statute during the Bill Clinton administration, withdrew its support soon after George W. Bush assumed the presidency. It signed the ICC Statute at the last minute, primarily so that it could continue to take part in negotiations on the rules of procedure for the new court, in an attempt to obtain an exemption for U.S. nationals taking part in UN-sponsored peacekeeping missions--as several other countries were able to do. The U.S. fears that American soldiers and political leaders may be subject to frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions.

U.S. opponents of the ICC maintain that in cases where the U.S. failed to act quickly enough to prevent disaster the U.S. has been criticized for allowing genocide to occur (e.g. Rwanda: "Rwanda: U.S., France blamed for genocide", "Rwanda-US: Intelligence Warned Early of Genocide, New Papers Show"); in cases where the U.S. has acted quickly they have been criticized and even accused of war crimes (e.g. Yugoslavia, Somalia: "Yugoslavia: US Terrorism", "American Slaughter of People in Somalia").

Furthermore, opponents contend that the neither the ICC nor the United Nations has any real power to enforce the extradition of war criminals from signatory states. Therefore, any kind of military action to force compliance would have to be undertaken (in large part) by the U.S., action which would expose U.S. officials to spurious charges of war crimes. Pope John Paul II has been taken to hospital and is suffering from a "breathing crisis", the Vatican has confirmed.

The Vatican said in a statement that the Pope, 84, is suffering from an acute respiratory infection. He was admitted to the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital at 2300 local time (2200 UTC).

According to the Vatican the Pontiff is suffering from an acute inflammation of the larynx as well as laryngo-spasms that constrict the lung's intake of air. He was diagnosed with a severe flu three days ago and taken to Gamelli as a precaution.

The Pope is no stranger to Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital. In 1981 he was taken there after being shot in the abdomen by Mehmet Ali Agca and he has been re-admitted at least three times since.

Although the Vatican usually does not comment on the pontiff's state of health, it is widely known that the Pope suffers from Parkinson's disease, and chronic joint problems. Australian churches have begun a public campaign opposing late-term abortion. Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Buddhist, Hindu, Lutheran, Sikh, Salvation Army, Wesleyan and Seventh-Day Adventist religious groups issued a signed statement yesterday calling for laws limiting abortions after a pregnancy has reached its 20th week.

The statement also calls for information to be provided to women considering abortion. They should receive detailed information about the health risks, the stage of the actual foetal development and the exact nature of the medical procedure. Additionally, a seven day "cooling down period" should follow initial counseling to give women more time to consider their decision.

But according to the document, the concerned church leaders are also aware that public opinion in Australia is predominantly pro-choice.

And New South Wales Premier Bob Carr has revealed that of 31,600 abortions in NSW last year, only 200 were in fact late term.

Prime Minister John Howard has welcomed the renewed debate about abortion without committing himself yet. King Gyanendra of Nepal has today announced a new 10-member cabinet, after yesterday sacking the coalition government. The King, who some Nepalis view as a reincarnation of the Hindu foreign=suppress Vishnu, made the announcement on the state run television and radio service. "A new Cabinet will be formed under my leadership," he said. "This will restore peace and effective democracy in this country within the next three years."

Gyanendra named Rames Nath Pandey as foreign minister, Dan Bahadur Shahi as Home Minister, as well as Radha Krishna Mainali, a member of the communist party, as minister for sports and education. The king has decided to head the new administration himself, after accusing the old administration of failing to ensure the small nation's security. Nepal is in the midst of a Maoist insurgency that has claimed more than 11,000 lives since 1996.

All telephone lines and mobile telephone networks have been cut with the outside world. Flights into and out of the capital of Kathmandu, have also been stopped. However one flight did leave for New Delhi overnight. Local radio stations are also reported to have been shut down, and Nepali websites are inaccessible from outside Nepal.

The United Nations, Britain, the United States and India criticized the king's action, and Australia has advised its citizens not to travel to Nepal.

Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the UN has said that the king's actions are "a serious setback for the country ... steps should be taken immediately to restore democratic freedoms and institutions" The US administration added that the sacking was a "step back from democracy" and India joined into the chorus by saying that the developments were a "cause of grave concern". The UK, the USA and India have all provided Nepal with arms and given the army training under the banner of security aid. The Nepalese army has tripled in size in less than 10 years. The US alone is estimated to have supplied 20,000 M-16 rifles as well as night-vision and communications equipment, and counter-insurgency training.

The Indian Express newspaper is reporting that the Indian government tried to dissuade King Gyanendra from a "power grab" a few weeks ago.

A statement from New Delhi said ""These developments constitute a serious setback to the cause of democracy in Nepal and cannot but be a cause of grave concern to India," an Indian foreign ministry statement said. The latest developments in Nepal bring the monarchy and the mainstream political parties in direct confrontation with each other. This can only benefit the forces that not only wish to undermine democracy but the institution of monarchy as well." India shares an open border with Nepal.

The leader of the Maoist rebels, Prachanda, likened the kings actions to "medieval feudal autocracy", and said that the King was trying "to push the Nepalese society of the 21st century back to the 15th.". In a statement to a Maoist website he said "We heartily call upon the entire pro-people forces of the world to raise their voices against this autocratic step and in the favor of the Nepalese people's democratic movement,"

Prachanda, denounced King Gyanendra as a "national betrayer" and told Nepalis to "shut down Nepal" in a three day general strike from Wednesday to Friday, however witnesses in Kathmandu said life was going on as normal, and there are no obvious signs of additional security. Meenakshi, a street sweeper outside the gates of the King's palace said "I just don't know anything. I am just here like any other day," The King has imposed a state of emergency which forbids mass gatherings. Two new drugs used in the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), Health Minister Tony Abbott announced today. The new drugs are Risperdal Consta, for the treatment of schizophrenia, and Zyprexa, for the treatment of bipolar one disorder.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is a programme that provides heavily subsidised prescription drugs to all citizens and residents of Australia. Most necessary medicines are included in the list of medicines covered by the PBS.

The Federal Government through the PBS purchases medication in bulk from drug companies at a pre-agreed price. The consumer then buys the medicine from his/her pharmacist at a subsidised price and the PBS covers the difference between the bulk purchase cost and the consumer price. Australian Prime Minister John Howard has arrived in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. He is taking a short tour of the tsunami-hit region, and meeting with Indonesian government officials.

He was met at the airport by Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and officials coordinating relief efforts in the region.

He will tour the coastline by helicopter, and visit Australian military engineers who are clearing debris. A man is in Royal Adelaide Hospital in a critical condition after being run over by a train north of Adelaide today. The accident occurred at 1:30pm ACDT.

The man has lost both his legs.

Reports indicate that the man was a railway employee involved in shunting of train carriages. Dennis Ferguson, a convicted paedophile has become the center of a row between Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisale, and Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie. Mr Ferguson moved to Ipswich, north of Brisbane, Australia after being forced out of his previous home by picketers in Murgon in the South Burnett region of Queensland yesterday.

A group of protesters have now gathered outside Mr Ferguson's new home in Ipswich, who at one stage threw rocks at the house. The Mayor has defended the actions of the protesters saying "All the residents are doing is showing their democratic right - what they feel - and I think that in this country, they have a right to do that," he said.

"I think the only thing left is institutionalise. I think that's the only thing left in this community because you just can't keep shifting the problem all over the state and all over the country until people start showing signs of remorse and show signs of whether they've been rehabilitated."

However the Premier of Queensland, Peter Beattie, reponded by asking Mayor Paul Pisale what he meant by "institutionalised". "To do what?" he said."Okay, so you actually believe that somebody should be locked up forever? We have laws in this state now, and I will talk to Paul about this, which basically say that a paedophile will not be released if they're a danger to the community."

But the Deputy Opposition Leader Jeff Seeney says that in Mr Ferguson's case "Those laws have failed," he said. "He needs to go into an institution and Peter Beattie has a responsibility to ensure that people such as that are kept in an institution." A 16 year old Sydney student was killed when a 10 metre gum tree fell on the tent in which she was sleeping.

Another girl sleeping beside her was unharmed.

The accident occurred at 1:30am AEDT at a campsite near Wombeyan Caves. The girl was participating in an overnight leadership camp with Sydney's private Queenwood School for Girls.

Severe storms have lashed the east coast of Australia for the past few days. An overhaul of Incapacity Benefit is due to be announced in Parliament today.

The payments are likely to be renamed and there could be financial penalties on those who do not actively seek work.

The benefit, given to those unable to return to work, currently varied between £56 a week to £74.

Under Labour proposals, a flat-rate of £56 would be introduced. But financial penalites will be taken on those who do not attempt to look for work, if they are able to.

Incentives will be offered for claimants to undergo training, rehabilitation classes and attend work-focused interviews.

Charities such as Leonard Chesire have voiced concerns that the plans could damage disabled people already living in poverty.

"People whose condition causes them pain or fatigue should not be forced to look for employment," said a spokesman for the disability charity.

The Conservatives have claimed that the proposals will not work, and have suggested that a scheme run by the voluntary and private sector could get 250,000 people into jobs.

The Liberal Democrats accused Labour of applying a "one-size-fits-all" approach. The Brazilian government has proposed a policy to increase external control on public and private Universities. The Brazilian magazine Veja published a cover story about the subject criticizing this proposal.

The magazine put a picture of a donkey on the cover, a critical allusion to the recent political decisions related to Education taken by the government (in Brazil the donkey is a symbol of stupidity). The magazine claims the recent decision of the government's new education policy is motivated more by ideological rather than technical reasons.

On June 06, 2004 during a convention of intellectuals, the president of the Confenen (National Confederation of the Educational establishments) Robert Dornas said the idea of external control conflicts with the idea of the university autonomy. "This is the way of all totalitarian States" , he added.

The Vice-chancellor of the UFRJ (Federal University of Rio De Janeiro), Aloísio Teixeira, said to fear that the advice finishes obliquing the activities of the university. According to him the university should be evaluated by already existing mechanisms, as the National Congress. Pablo Alcântara Gomes, the chairman of the board of the Brazilian Universities’ Vice-chancellors, said Brazilian universities do not need external control, but internal advice with participation of the society.

There are worries that with the external control universities may be subject only to political and ideological oriented decisions of non-representative groups.

The Ministry of Education Tarso Genro is a defender of the external control: "I am enthusiastic about the external control. Me and my friend Olívio Dutra (minister of the Cities), are the founders of the shared public budget program in Porto Alegre. This model of management worked like a organized social external control over what is the exposed power nerve, the public budget. And it worked. Therefore, I think it is a good thing. We have to enrich what is not the State, but the public space." Eben Moglen, Columbia University Law Professor, will head the new
Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC). An initial 4 million dollars has been provided by Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) to fund the project.

The law center will provide free legal service for open source projects and developers. In 2004 OSDL established a separate $10 million Linux Legal Defense Fund providing legal support for Linus Torvalds, Linux kernel creator and end user companies subjected to Linux-related litigation by the SCO Group. The new law center will not be affiliated with the OSDL.

"This is about taking care of the goose that laid the golden egg and not letting wolves come in the middle of the night and steal it away," Moglen said during a press conference. "This is a legal firm not involved so much in litigating and defending as it will be for counseling and advising and nurturing non-profits and to prevent millions of dollars in litigation."

Moglen will serve as chairman and director-counsel of the non-profit organization. Also on board as directors are: Lawrence Lessig, law professor at Stanford Law School; Daniel Weitzner, director of the World Wide Web Consortium's technology and society activities; and Diane Peters, general counsel at the OSDL. Daniel Ravicher, executive director of the Public Patent Foundation, will help manage as legal director.

Moglen, one of the world.s leading experts on copyright law as applied to software, will run the new Law Center from its headquarters in New York City. The Law Center will initially have two full-time intellectual property attorneys on staff and expects to expand to four attorneys later this year. Initial clients for the Law Center include the Free Software Foundation and the Samba Project.

Other services provided by the SFLC include: asset stewardship, to avoid intellectual property claim conflict; license review and compatibility analysis; legal consulting and lawyer training. The Iraqi President Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer said yesterday, on February 01 2005, that the US and other foreign troops should remain in Iraq. "It's only complete nonsense to ask the troops to leave in this chaos and this vacuum of power."

He expects foreign troops to leave after insurgent groups have been defeated, the security situation has been improved and Iraq's own security forces are strengthened. "By the end of this year, we could see the number of foreign troops decreasing," he added.

Other Iraqi ministers echoed the President's statement.

"We don't want to have foreign troops in our country" said Hazem Shaalan, the Iraq Defence Minister.

"But at the same time, we believe that these forces should stay for some time until we are able to control the borders and establish a new modern army and we have efficient intelligence."

"At that time ... we'll ask them to leave." Bolivia have rejected Chile's Organization of American States (OAS) candidate for the Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, saying that he is not a consensus candidate. According to Bolivia the only consensus candidate is Mexican Luis Ernesto Derbez.

The reason behind Bolivia's rejection of the Chilean candidate is the ongoing dispute between Chile and Bolivia that began with the War of the Pacific in 1879 and resulted in Bolivia losing it's maritime border (and thus maritime access) at Atacama. Bolivia is still demanding maritime access, something Chile refuses to give. Bolivia thus believes that Mr Insulza would be incapable of finding a solution to what Bolivia feels is it's legitimate demand for maritime access were he to become the OAS Secretary General. While Bolivia believes that the OAS is the right multilateral forum to address this issue Chile claims that it is an issue between Bolivia and Chile, and should not concern other nations, a viewpoint that Mr Insulza has himself expressed.

The Bolivian ambassador to the OAS María Tamayo Arnal pointed out that in 1979 and 1989 the OAS approved resolutions stating that Bolivia's lack of maritime access was of hemispherical interest. NASA's Swift satellite has completed all tests since
its launch last November and with the Ultravioliet/Optical Telescope
(UVOT) now on line, is now fully functional for the mission's 2 year quest
for gamma-ray bursts.

The UVOT was tested on the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101).

"After many years of effort building the UVOT, it was exciting to
point it toward the famous Pinwheel Galaxy, M101," said Dr. Peter
Roming, UVOT Lead Scientist at Penn State University. "The ultraviolet
wavelengths in particular reveal regions of star formation in the
galaxy's wispy spiral arms. But more than a pretty image, this
first-light observation is a test of the UVOT's capabilities."

Gamma ray bursts are some of the most powerful objects observed
in the Universe and are thought to signal the birth of black
holes.

Swift is designed to detect the bursts and automatically
re-orient itself to gather images and data of the phenomenon.
Swift detected and imaged its first official burst on January 17,
2005, before the UVOT was operational with the aid of the Burst
Alert (BAT) and X-ray (XRT) telescopes activated several weeks
earlier. The BAT detects the gamma-ray bursts, automatically and
immediately turns the telescope, bringing the XRT
and UVOT to bear on the location of the event which record
detailed observations of the burst afterglow.

The UVOT is a joint product of Penn State University and the Mullard Space
Science Laboratory. The whole of the east coast of Australia has been lashed by severe storms in the last 24 hours, with at least one reported death. Wind gusts in some areas reached 110 kilometers per hour, and flash flooding and power cuts were reported from Far North Queensland to Tasmania in the South.

State Emergency Services (SES) crews are stretched to the limit, working into the night to cope with the effects of the freak weather.

Around 29,000 homes in Queensland experienced power outages.

Sixty millimetres of rain fell in an hour on the region around Herberton, in Far North Queensland. A man and woman were rescued from nearby Sandy Creek after their car was swept off the road while trying to cross the Creek during heavy storms last night.

The man had escaped to cling to a tree, but lost sight of his wife as the car was washed away. Rescuers later found the woman on the bank. Neither was seriously injured.

About 150 kilometres to the south-west, a search continues for missing stockman, a 38-year-old from Carpentaria Downs Station near Einasleigh who failed to return after checking fences yesterday.

Heavy rain and large hailstones pummelled Sydney and the Central Coast.

The NSW State Emergency Service reported receiving more than 2,300 requests for assistance, mostly in Western Sydney and Gosford.

"Most of those jobs have been for hail damage to roofs, fallen trees on houses and across roads, flash flooding and water getting into properties," said SES spokesman David Webber.

Around 100,000 homes in NSW experienced power outages.

In the southern Sydney suburb of Bexley North three people were rescued from vehicles when they attempted to drive along a flooded road, and a girl was killed near Mittagong when a tree fell on the tent in which she was sleeping.

Melbourne has been hit by severe flooding as wild storms and heavy rain strike the east coast of Australia. With triple the city's average February rainfall in just 24 hours, major roads and train lines have been cut and travel is extremely difficult.

A search involving police and State Emergency Service volunteers is currently underway for a schoolboy, believed to have been swept into floodwaters north of Werribee, and a 10 year old girl narrowly escaped being killed when a tree fell through the house in which she was sleeping. The tree missed her by centimeters. She was trapped for an hour before being freed by emergency services and taken to the Royal Childrens Hospital in a serious condition.

The Spirit of Tasmania I was also forced to return to Station Pier, in Port Melbourne, after windows were broken when the Bass Strait ferry encountered 20 metre waves caused by the gale force winds.

The city received 120mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am, while the average monthly rainfall for February is 45mm. Making this the largest measured rainfall in a 24 hour period for Melbourne since records began in 1856. The rainfall stopped sometime this afternoon local time. Authorities urged people to stay away from Melbourne city centre.

South Australia has, for the first time in 27 years, experienced hail in February. According to a story released on January 26, 2005 by the Chinese news agency Xinhua, the government of China has banned 50 electronic games in a new government probe into the software market and electronic publication.

The Director of the State Anti-Pornography Office, Liu Binjie, said that the Chinese government will concentrate on combating illegal publications: pirated textbooks, electronic publications and illegal journals that may have negative influence on the youth.

Among the banned games are: "Manhunt", "FIFA 2005", "The Sims 2", "Battlefield Vietnam", "Painkiller: Battle out of Hell", and "Age of Mythology: the Titans". In an attempt at a world first twenty short-tailed bats are to be moved by the New Zealand Department of Conservation from the Tararua Ranges to Kapiti Island. If the transfer to predator-free Kapiti works, it will become the first time that bats have ever been trans-located.

All previous attempts at moving bats have failed due to their natural homing instincts. However scientists with the Department of Conservation, are aiming to overcome this by shifting juveniles. The young bats, which weigh in at only 14 grams each, were born in the week around New Year and were raised at Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre near Eketahuna.

Conservation Minister Chris Carter said that while the trial was risky, it was also worthwhile. "A willingness to push boundaries and try new things is exactly what conservation in New Zealand needs," he said. The government of Cuba has re-established official contacts with all of the European Union countries. The diplomatic relationship with the EU had been limited for more than 18 months.

The EU relationship with Cuba was injured on March-June 2003 after the arrest and conviction of 75 "dissidents" by the Cuban government. In a separate case, three Cubans were executed on foot of a sentence handed down by a civil court, and confirmed on appeal by the Cuban Supreme Court, which found them guilty of hijacking a ferry and endangering the lives of its occupants. Cuba accused the dissidents of collaboration with the US and sabotage against the Cuban communist system. All 75 "dissadents" appear to have pleaded guilty of receiving illegal payments from US agents in court when confronted with the evidence. 14 of the 75 convicted mercenaries, who the US continues to insist were "dissadents", have since been released on licience.

Cuba and the EU began to come close again after the efforts of the President of the government of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. At that time, the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder didn't agree with Zapatero about unfreezing the relationships between Cuba and the EU. Schröder believed Cuba should first show real commitment to improving the human rights conditions on the island. However, on November 25, 2004, the Cuban Chancellor Felipe Pérez Roque announced the re-establishment of official contacts with the government of Spain.

On November 30, 2004, Cuba released four political dissidents: Marcelo López, Margarito Broche, Óscar Espinosa Chepe and Raúl Rivero. The Dutch Presidency of the European Union praised the Cuban decision. Cuba said that the decision was not influenced by the Spanish government.

On December 15, 2004 the Council of the European Union for Latin America committee recommended the suspension of the diplomatic sanctions against Cuba, according to alleged Spanish diplomatic sources.

Finally, on January 10, 2005, the Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told journalists:"We can say that from this moment onward Cuba has re-established government-level official contacts with all European Union countries." On January 31, 2005, the EU council of foreign ministers agreed to a suspension of EU sanctions against Cuba. The international non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders protested and sent a open letter to the president of the European Commission on February 1, 2005. U.S. President George W. Bush tonight presented his annual State of the Union address. In the address, he proposed economic change, Social Security reform, the defense of the definition of marriage, and the spread of liberty in Iraq and elsewhere. The elections in Iraq were cited as an example of this. The Beslan siege organiser, Chechen rebel Shamil Basayev, has spoken for the first time since declaring he was responsible for the hostage situation. The Beslan school siege last September resulted in 330 deaths, half of which were children. Basayev was also responsible for the Moscow Theatre siege, in which 130 people died after a military assault to free the hostages and overwhelm the terrorists.

A package containing three video CDs with an hour's statement by Basayev was sent to Channel 4 News, four months after they asked an intermediary questions about them man behind the attacks.

In the statement, the rebel leader aimed to justify the siege, claiming the Russian government's aggressive response was unexpected and led to the large number of deaths. He claims that he would and likely will do it again, though he said he appreciated that it would appear cynical. He restated that he is fighting for an end of Russian military offensives in Chechnya. Zurab Zhvania, Prime Minister of Georgia, was found dead of gas poisoning at a friend's home. The China Daily quotes Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili: "This is a tragic accident... It was a gas poisoning."

Zhavani was visiting in the home of Raul Usupov, deputy governor from the Kvemo-Kartli region, when an apparent carbon monoxide leak from a gas space heater overcame and killed both him and his host.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is not unknown in Georgia; 45 deaths by carbon monoxide poisoning are reported by the official Russian Information Agency. Power supplies are not entirely reliable, and central heating systems are not universal, so small portable heaters are common even in the capital.

President Mikhail Saakashvili called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss responding to the death. "(Zhvania's death) is a huge blow for our country and personally for me as a president and as a person," quotes the China Daily, "I have lost my closest friend, my most loyal adviser, my biggest ally."

Once a protegé of Eduard Shevardnadze, and widely viewed as his chosen successor, Zhvania chose to join the opposition in supporting Saakashvili. He has been viewed as a moderating influence on Saakashvili, who appointed Mr. Zhvania after taking office one year ago.

Zhavania joined Georgia's Green Party in the 1980s. He was chair of Georgia's Parliament from 1995-2001.

"He played an important role in helping Georgia meet its aspirations for greater peace, prosperity and euro-Atlantic integration," NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in his expression of condolences. Despite assurances from the European Commissioner for the Internal Market Charles McCreevy that the Council would adopt its controversial Common Position text covering Software Patents, members voted to restart the entire process with a new directive.

MEP Michel Rocard noted several "inelegancies" by the Commission in his speech against the directive, such as not taking into account any of the Parliament's substantive amendments in its recommendation to the Council. He also took the Dutch and German governments to task for ignoring their respective parliaments. The Irish Presidency's sponsorship by Microsoft was also criticised, as were the attempted ratifications at fishery Council meetings.

There was also confusion over the actual effects of the proposed directive with industry players confirming that the Council text allowed pure software patents, while the Commission claimed it would not.

"In the debate, broad agreement prevailed over the fact that the current proposal was counter-productive and far from a good basis for a decision," said Italian MEP Monica Frassoni.

The computer-implemented inventions directive was voted down by members of European Parliament (MEP) in the legal affairs committee. 19 MEPs voted in favour of re-starting negotiations, 2 against with one abstention. A report released by the United Nations last week said that there is no genocide in Sudan's western region of Darfur.

The report also says that the Sudanese government and its Arab militias had committed crimes against humanity by destroying villages and torturing, killing and raping civilians. According to the report, there is credible evidence that local rebel groups, including the Sudanese Liberation Army, are responsible for serious violations of international law which may amount to war crimes.

The government of the United States and aid agencies say genocide is been committed in Sudan. In Germany 30,000 students demonstrate in 5 big cities against study fees. People think, that paying for information is not socially compatible and gives only privileged people the chance to get in depth information. Germans demand a broad and free education for every citizen of the world. In the next weeks, students will fight for justice and show solidarity with the Countries of the Federal Republic, which want to already demand study fees in the next term.

At this time, the first education in Germany is free, but the Federation decided days ago, that the states of the Federal Republic can create their own financing concepts, because CDU governed states complained against the Federation.

Several German states partly plan to plug budget gaps with the money from the young people willing to give their power for a broadly educated Germany. Australian immigration authorities have held a mentally ill Australian woman, Cornelia Rau (also known as Anna), against her will for over 10 months, at least two of them spent in high security, where she was reportedly isolated for 18 to 20 hours a day, subjected to 24-hour simulated daylight and deprived adequate legal or medical aid.

Volunteer advocates' requests for ministerial intervention, prompted by her clear distress and aberrant behaviour, went unanswered for seven weeks, while Ms Rau was held at South Australian Baxter Immigration Detention Center.

http://www.safecom.org.au/images/baxter-gate.jpgBaxter high security detention facility in South Australia (Photo: Project Safecom)

Several days ago, refugee advocate Pamela Curr had visited and spoken with the woman, then unidentified and known only as Anna, and said "She exhibits psychotic symptoms, screaming and talking to herself at times, and screams in terror often for long periods especially when locked in the cell.

"Such is her terror of being put back into this cell that it takes six guards in full riot gear to manhandle her back into the room and close the heavy door."

"We have reports from witnesses that the guards are enjoying this aspect of Anna's behaviour," said refugee advocacy group ChilOut.org at around the same time. 

One message from a fellow detainee posted on the refugee advocate website safecom.org on January 24, said Ms Rau appeared to be "very, very sick".

"She takes her clothes off and wanders around in this all-male compound," the account read. "She screams obscenities, throws food at other detainees and smashes things."

According to Ms Curr, Ms Rau was being held in isolation in Baxter's dedicated 'Red One' isolation block for 18 to 20 hours a day, and in daylight conditions for 24 hours a day, a practice which has in the past been criticised because of use of isolation and sleep deprivation in Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) facilities to coerce cooperation from inmates .

The Migration Act prevents anyone from acting on behalf of a detainee unless the detainee requests this in writing, and so chances of any improvement in Ms Rau's condition or welfare were slim. The Act makes no provision for cases such as this, where the detainee is no longer competent to make such a request. Mental ill health is a reported by-product of the DIMIA system of indefinite detention .

Fellow detainees became concerned for Ms Rau's welfare when immigration authorities failed to remedy her mental ill health, and were unable to identify her. Refugee advocates in contact with detainees then led a campaign to identify the woman, resulting in her family recognising her description.

Thirty-nine year old Qantas flight attendant Cornelia Rau had in fact been listed as a missing person with New South Wales (NSW) police since August of last year, after disappearing in March. A NSW police effort to find her in November failed to identify that she was being held by Australia's Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, meanwhile DIMIA was stumped as to the identity of their German-speaking prisoner.

The Immigration Department said it had gone to great lengths to identify of Ms Rau, contacting the police missing persons registry in Queensland, and several foreign governments, but not NSW police missing persons. "All the information provided by the woman led the department to believe she was an unlawful non-citizen. At no time did she state she was a permanent (Australian) citizen."

Aborigines at Coen in Far North Queensland had found Cornelia in a disturbed state on March 31 last year, and become concerned, taking her to police for her own safety. The Queensland Police failed to identify her and assumed she was an illegal immigrant since she spoke German. Instead of hospitalising Ms Rau, they handed her over to immigration officials, on April 5.

According to Ms Curr, when she spoke to Ms Rau at Baxter last month, "Her English was fine. She told me then she really wasn't in touch with reality, but there was a moment of clarity when she just wanted to get out of Baxter. I spoke to a detainee two days ago and he said her English was so good he thought she was an Aussie girl."

Ms Rau had arrived in Australia at the age of 18 months from Germany. Cornelia's sister Chris says, "The two groups who were kind to Cornelia in all this time were the two most downtrodden groups in society -- the Aboriginal people in Cairns and the refugees in Baxter. There's an irony in that".

The Australian Federal Government Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC)'s Immigration Detention Centre Guidelines state that, "Immigration detainees who are found to be severely mentally ill should be transferred to an appropriate facility as soon as possible."

The Immigration Department said she had been under mental supervision at all times. "A number of medical assessments were conducted by healthcare professionals, including doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists," a departmental spokesperson said.

Findings by a number of independent inquiries have shown that long term, indefinite detention, which is the norm within the Australian immigration system, has the unfortunate side effect of inducing mental health problems in individuals who were otherwise healthy on entering the system, and refugee advocates have pointed to this issue previously in cases involving non-citizens.

Countless human rights violations have been documented within DIMIA's system by the Federal Government's own policing body, HREOC, which has complained repeatedly for years that its recommendations are not being met. Principally, that the system of mandatory detention itself is an infringement of human rights and should be abolished, and that children (of whom there are currently 87 in detention ) should not be held in custody.

HREOC criticises the general lack of adequate mental health services, the use of isolation detention for behaviour management, detainees' restricted access to legal assistance and lack of information about the application process, their limited access to general information and contact with the outside world, including relatives, and the effects of such long term detention on the detainees, specifically on their mental health. 

Past publicised cases have shown detainees denied any legal avenues they do not explicitly ask for using correct legal/bureaucratic terminology ; failure to provide adequate medical assistance; and habitual isolation of troublesome detainees instead of meeting of their grievances.

HREOC has the ability to make recommendations only, and it is up to the Government to enforce, or not enforce them.

"It's pretty dangerous if you have Alzheimer's disease or you speak a second language right now," according to Labor immigration spokesperson, Laurie Ferguson. Mr Ferguson believed Queensland Police and the Federal Government had questions to answer, and that there should be an Inquiry.

As well as the personal cost to Cornelia Rau and her family and friends, each day a person spends in immigration detention costs the Department between $111 to $725 . According to DIMIA, "Government policy is that, where practical, immigration detainees should be billed for the cost of their stay in detention." It is not known whether the Department intends to bill Ms Rau. Scientists studying data from the
Chandra X-ray telescope have
found strong evidence for the missing half of ordinary matter
in the universe. Two immense intergalactic clouds confirm the
existence of a cosmic web of hot gas, predicted by computer
simulations, containing baryons, the material making
up visible objects in the Universe.

"An inventory of all the baryons in stars and gas inside and outside
of galaxies accounts for just over half the baryons that
existed shortly after the Big Bang," Fabrizio Nicastro of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "Now we have found the
likely hiding place of the missing baryons." Nicastro is lead author
of a paper in the February 3, 2005 issue of
Nature describing the recent research.

Various measurements give a good estimate of the mass-density of
baryons - the neutrons and protons
that make up the nuclei of atoms and ions - in the
Universe 10 billion years ago. However, sometime
during the last 10 billion years a large fraction of the baryons,
commonly referred to as "ordinary matter" to distinguish them
from dark matter and dark
energy, have gone missing.

Using the computer predictions, Nicastro and colleagues
searched specifically for the diffuse system of gas clouds
galaxies and galaxy clusters form within. Evidence of the
clouds had been previously detected around our own galaxy and in
the Local Group, but the temperature range (a few
hundred thousand to a million degrees Celsius) and low density
have prevented detection outside the immediate neighborhood of
galaxies and the reliable estimation of baryon density for the
entire universe.

The clouds were detected using Chandra observations when the
galaxy Mkn 421 brightened in X-ray
emissions. The X-ray spectral data showed two hot gas clouds,
150 million and 370 million light years distant, absorbing the
X-rays from Mkn 421. The data shows the presence of carbon,
nitrogen, oxygen, and neon present in the clouds. Combined with
other data the research team determined the thickness and mass of
the clouds.

Assuming that the size and distribution of the clouds are
representative, Nicastro and colleagues made the first reliable
estimate of average density of baryons in such clouds throughout
the Universe, finding it consistent with the mass density of the
missing baryons.

Mkn 421 was observed three times with Chandra's Low-Energy
Transmission Grating (LETG), twice in conjunction with the High
Resolution Camera (May 2000 and July 2003) and once with the
Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (October 2002). The distance to
Mkn 421 is 400 million light years. Iraq – With more than two-thirds of the 3.3 million votes counted in the Iraqi legislative election, the United Iraqi Alliance has a considerable lead over interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi List which trails with approximately 17% of the current tally.

The election commission ( IECI) did not have firm figures for how many people voted, but estimates approximately 8 million Iraqis participated in the historic poll. The results so far do not include the northern provinces which are largely Sunni and Kurdish strongholds.

The most recent returns were from the provinces of Babylon, Basra, Karbala, Maysan, Muthanna, Najaf, Qadissiyah, Zi Qar and Wassit, and from Baghdad.

Jalal Talabani, leader of the northern Kurdish political bloc, has called to be nominated as the new Prime Minister or President, a proposal which may indicate the suspected deal between the Shia and the Kurds may in fact be in place - a situation sure to inflame the former ruling minority Sunnis.

Final results are expected to be announced on Tuesday, February 8. The BBC today unveiled it's plans for a new iMP player with which people in the UK will be able to download any BBC tv or radio programme for a week after it has been broadcast in the UK. These downloads will have a limited life, becoming inactive a week after the show has been shown live in the UK. The BBC are justifying their proposed decision to restrict the use of the new player to those using a UK Internet service provider on the basis that it is only UK citizens who pay the television licence. In the UK it is illegal to use a television to receive UK broadcasts without a television licence, but no such restrictions are in place for using either a radio or a computer. It is the money from the licence fee that funds the BBC.

At the moment it is possible to listen to live BBC radio, and to some old programmes for a week, as well as some news output, including Newsnight, by Streaming media through the internet, and this service is available in every part of the world. At the moment there are few sites whose availability is restricted depending on where one is geographically located. Some countries such as Iran and China restrict what the users in it's country can view on the internet, but till now almost all of the material that has been released has been made available all over the world.

The iMP is still not ready, and while the BBC are hoping to release it this year they are refusing to make any promises. Clearly having the technology in place to ensure that the downloads deactivate at a given moment, and that people outside the UK cannot access these downloads, either directly through the internet, or indirectly through file sharing, is going to take a little while yet. Houston - The major oil company, ConocoPhillips, today announced that it is to buy back up to $1bn worth of common stock over the next 2 years. The major aim of the repurchase is to ensure existing shareholders do not have their stakes in the company diluted over the coming years as a result the company's stock compensation program. The purchase of stock will be done over the next two years at manager's discretion at prevailing prices as permitted by securities laws and other legal requirements.

The company also announced a quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share which is to be payable on March 1, 2005, to stockholders of record at the close of business Feb. 15, 2005. The Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations Felipe Peréz Roque visited Brazil on February 2-3. He met Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations Celso Amorim.

According to the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations website, the objective of the visit was to intensify the dialogue and to fortify the cooperation between Brazil and Cuba, giving attention to the development of high level agreements between the governments.

On February 2, the Cuban minister was received by the Brazilian Senate President José Sarney, the President of the Chamber of Deputies João Paulo Cunha and by the Chief of Staff José Dirceu.

On February 3, Roque met Lula da Silva and Amorim. During the meeting, he mentioned that he was carrying a personal message from the Cuban President Fidel Castro to Lula da Silva. "We express to Lula Cuba's affection for the project of integration of Latin America," he added.

Roque also said that Cuba supports the candidacy of Brazil for the UN Security Council: "We hold the same position as Brazil in favor of a multipolar world, a world in which the UN's role and authority are strengthened, concurrently with a profound reform and democratization of the United Nations."

Roque and Amorim discussed the situation in Haiti. He reiterated that Cuba keeps a contrary position to the form as Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide left power.

During the visit, the Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations, Felipe Peréz Roque, also met parents of Brazilian students studying in Havana, delegates from the Landless Workers Movement (MST), delegates from labour unions and delegates from student organizations which expressed solidarity to the cause of the Cuban Revolution.

Brazilian diplomatic relations with Cuba were suspended in 1964, and reestablished in 1986. Bilateral relations between Brazil and Cuba have strengthened since then, particularly in the past few years. The Brazilian government advocates the end of the US embargo against Cuba. The Brazilian government says the unilateral application of economic and commercial sanctions for political purposes violates the principles of international law. 

Cuba purchased 480 buses from Brazil for collective transportation in Havana and between provinces in 2000. The Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) participates in the funding of an project aimed at the modernization of the Cuban sugar industry.

The President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, has visited Brazil several times, most recently in September 1998, June 1999, September 2001, and January 2003. James Gosling, the creator of the Java programming language, said last week that he believes Microsoft is wrong in its decision to support C and C++ programming languages in the common language runtime in Microsoft .NET. According to him, this decision may lead to severe security flaws in .NET. Gosling is currently in Australia, giving talks and visiting friends.

According to Gosling, the problem lies with the programming languages and some of their characteristics: “C++ allowed you to do arbitrary casting, arbitrary adding of images and pointers, and converting them back and forth between pointers in a very, very unstructured way."

The Java language was developed due to limitations of C++. Gosling began using C++ for the former Sun Microsystems's star-seven project. At that time Gosling concluded C++ was inadequate and created the Oak language. The Oak language would become the language known today as Java. The former star-seven project shares its defining characteristics with networked software applications today: safety and portability.

Gosling continues: "If you look at the security model in Java and the reliability model, and a lot of things in the exception handling, they depend really critically on the fact that there is some integrity to the properties of objects. So if somebody gives you an object and says 'This is an image', then it is an image. It's not like a pointer to a stream, where it just casts an image."

Charles Sterling, a Microsoft developer and product manager of the .NET framework, didn’t entirely disagree with Gosling’s thoughts. But he said that .NET defines different types of code. And there is the code which is managed by the .NET framework. All new Microsoft languages, such as C# and Visual Basic.NET, produce only code managed by the .NET framework, so they are safe.

A key idea that has not shown up in Gosling's talk is that Java itself allows a very similar process to occur. Java's JNI (Java Native Interface) allows the integration of the same unsafe code that prompted Gosling's central thesis.

However, Gosling says languages like C and C++ can still produce unsafe code which would not follow the rules of safety of .NET. This sort of code, usually found in old software applications, requires additional .NET permissions to execute. Sterling says it is up to developers to decide whether or not to use unsafe code in their .NET applications. A collaboratively-developed operating system kernel known as GNU Hurd has been made bootable using the L4 microkernel, which provides room for significant speed improvements over an existing implementation using the Mach microkernel. The newer architecture also has a more lively developer community.

Developer Marcus Brinkmann made the historic step and finished the process initialization code, which enabled him to execute the first software on Hurd-L4. In a message to the L4 port of GNU Hurd mailing list, Brinkmann wrote, "We can now easily explore and develop the system in any way we want. The dinner is prepared!". However, the kernel's current feature set is very limited. "With my glibc port, I can already build simple applications, but most won't run because they need a filesystem or other gimmicks (like, uhm, fork and exec), and I only have stubs (dummy functions which always return an error) for that now," he added in a later posting. 

Compared with Linux and BSD Unix's monolithic kernel architecture, a microkernel based operating system provides developers greater modularity and isolation from hardware, a big win with L4 already being available for a large number of hardware varieties.

There is a cost in speed for such abstraction, and this cost was higher on Mach, at around 15%, compared with only around 5% on L4 and it's predecessor L3, both developed by Dr. Jochen Liedtke. 

The greater modularity and abstraction of a microkernel approach means that the microkernel itself does not need constant modification as is seen in the Linux kernel today, since it provides only the very minimum of services, and does so very carefully. Thus, the fact that L4 was developed in 1996 is seen as exemplifying this stability -- rather than showing its age -- since few, if any, improvements in approach have been imagined in the meantime.

However, the Mach kernel first developed ten years earlier at Carnegie Mellon University is seen as a flawed first implementation, with the lessons learned being implemented in microkernels like L4, known as second-generation microkernels.

The GNU Hurd forms the base of the GNU operating system, much of which has been widely adopted by users of other Unix-like operating systems, including Linux. The GNU Project has been developing the Hurd since 1983. In 1990, the GNU Project decided to use the Mach kernel, rather than writing their own. The Hurd is released as free software under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

The Hurd kernel is an experiment which aims to surpass existing Unix kernels in functionality, security, and stability, while remaining largely compatible with them. It currently runs on Intel IA32 machines. According to the GNU Hurd project, "The Hurd should, and probably will, be ported to other hardware architectures or other microkernels in the future" .

`Hurd' stands for `Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons'. And, then, `Hird' stands for `Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth' - perhaps the first software to be named by a pair of mutually recursive acronyms.

A limited port of Linux already runs on L4, known as L4Linux. At UN World Headquarters in New York on Friday, February 4, 2005, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Samir Sumaidaie, declared to reporters that the international body of the United Nations helped the regime of Saddam Hussein. This allegation came one day after the former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker delivered a preliminary report of the investigation into the United Nation's Oil-for-Food program with Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Sumaidaie says he has serious doubts about the role of the former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali although there is no charge against him in the report.

In an interview with Voice of America reporter Peter Heinlein, Sumaidaie said: "In the early days, the secretariat bent over backwards to please the Saddam regime. At that time it was Boutros Boutros-Ghali who was the Secretary-General. And the report asserts that he tried to please the Saddam government by accommodating its requests which laid the basis for most things that went wrong later.... What's clear to me is that Saddam and his regime were able to manipulate things in such a way as to get what they wanted out of this program."

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Sumaidaie said the inquiry's investigators were ignorant of the UN system and that their allegations were silly.

After being questioned by journalists, the current UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said: "Each Secretary-General has to do things his way and in accordance with the circumstances that he finds himself in. I think Mr. Boutros-Ghali has indicated in the report, the environment and the circumstances in which he was taking those decisions and I don't want to second-guess him."

On Friday, Annan said there were some hard knocks in the report and said he would take action promptly: "We do not want this shadow to hang over the UN, so we want to get to the bottom of it." Five same-sex couples won a major victory Friday as a New York State court ruled that gay couples must be allowed to marry.

Doris Ling-Cohan, a New York state Supreme Court justice, said New York’s state constitution guarantees lesbian and gay people equal access to marriage rights that are violated when same-sex couples are not allowed to marry.

"This is a historic ruling that delivers the state Constitution's promise of equality to all New Yorkers," Susan Sommer, Supervising Attorney at Lambda Legal Defense Fund, said in a statement to reporters.

In the New York State justice system, the Supreme Court is court in which cases originate, and is not the highest court. Decisions from the Supreme Court may, with reason, be appealed to the Appellate Division, and possibly beyond that to the Court of Appeals, the highest court in the New York State justice system.

Justice Ling-Cohan ordered the New York City Clerk's office to start issuing marriage licences to same-sex couple within 30 days. An appeal is expected. On Saturday NATO and Afghan troops located the wreckage of the Kam Air Boeing 737 missing since Thursday.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal announced the discovery. "The debris of the plane was found around 25 kilometers east of Kabul in a mountainous area called Band-e Ghazi."

The jet had been enroute to Kabul from Herat when it was diverted due to heavy snow. The crew then sought clearance to land across the border in Peshawar, Pakistan before it lost contact with air control. 104 persons are reported to have been aboard, including 8 crew members; there are no signs of survivors reported.

The weather conditions have hampered search and rescue efforts. NATO-operated helicopters located the crash site. Afghan police and units from Afghanistan's foreign peacekeeping force are investigating the scene of the crash, according to Mr. Mashal. The quarterly G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' meeting at Lancaster House concluded on February 5, 2005, with the G7 failing to agree on a plan to reduce debt in developing countries. According to the Los Angeles Times, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced that he believes, "this summit will be remembered as the summit for 100% debt relief" for the 27 countries involved in the Enhanced HIPC Initiative. Ministers from other G7 countries disagreed. Brown's so-called International Financial Facility proposal, or IFF, "would not work for the U.S," Undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury John Taylor said to the Los Angeles Times.

The joint statement issued by the ministers in the wake of the conference stated that, "We are agreed on a case-by-case analysis of HIPC countries, based on our willingness to provide as much as 100 per cent multilateral debt relief." The ministers did not cite a figure for the minimum amount of debt relief that would be provided.

The conference was preceded by a demonstration in Trafalgar Square on the theme of "Make Poverty History." Nelson Mandela spoke at the demonstration, attended by an estimated 20,000 people, according to World Development Movement, an organization involved in the planning of the event. Chancellor Brown invited Mandela to address the G7 on February 4, 2005, which he did in a "fireside chat," according to Larry Elliott of The Guardian.

The G7, or 'Group of Seven,' is a coalition of seven major industrial democracies: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, and Canada. They hold quarterly meetings to discuss financial matters. The celebrations to mark the 60th birthday of Bob Marley, the reggae musician who died of cancer in 1981, have been marked by controversy. Since his death these festivities have always taken place in Jamaica, but this year they are taking place in Ethiopia, and particularly in the town of Shashamane, which is where the former Ethiopian Emperor and Rastafarian God Haile Selassie gave land to the Rastafarians to settle on nearly 40 years ago.

The controversy was sparked last month by Bob's wife Rita Marley's comments that she wanted his body to be reburied in Ethiopia. Such was the wave of disapproval generated that she quickly backed away from her original statement, but the question as to where his remains should lie is now being hotly debated both in Jamaica and the rest of the world.

As a Rastafarian Bob Marley's spiritual home was in Africa, and specifically in Ethiopia. Yet he only visited the country once, and according to those who want his remains to stay in Jamaica, he was entirely a product of Jamaican culture. The Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Vélez was forced to cancel the planned meeting with the Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Thursday. He is suffering from gastrointestinal and labyrinthitis problems.

Uribe remains hospitalized in the Naval Hospital of Cartagena in Colombia. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-FARC attacked Colombian navy soldiers at the city of Iscuandé, Nariño in Colombia. 16 soldiers from the navy died in the attack and 25 were injured.

The attack started at 02:40 and finished at 05:20 yesterday February 1st. This was one of the most severe attacks made by the FARC in the last few years.

The navy soldier John Jaider Foronda described the attack to the Colombian Caracol Radio:"I was sleeping. It was 02:30 when we heard the cylinder exploding. It sounded like a bomb. It was at the house of my lieutenant. I got pieces of grenade in my leg and arm." audio. Australian Prime Minister John Howard has announced an Inquiry into the "very regrettable incident" of a mentally ill Australian woman being detained for months and allegedly maltreated by the country's own Immigration Department.

The woman, Cornelia Rau, still insisted she was German Anna Schmidt, according to her sister Christine yesterday. "I think it will take a long time for her to stabilise," she said. "At the moment she doesn't accept that she is Cornelia and she doesn't want to see us."

"She is still insisting her name is Anna Schmidt and that her passport is in Baxter and that she wants to return to Germany."

Refugee advocate Pamela Curr claims Ms Rau was held in isolation for 18 to 20 hours a day in Baxter's 'Red One' isolation facility, where she was allegedly kept in simulated daylight for 24 hours a day.

Her family had only discovered her whereabouts through a refugee-initiated effort to identify the woman, authorities having failed to connect the unidentified detainee with her missing person file, held by New South Wales Police since August last year.

After her family recognised media reports of her on Thursday, and contacted the police, her photo was emailed to the Baxter compound and her identity confirmed.

The schizophrenic woman had spent six months in a Queensland prison, according to Channel Nine News, as well as at least two months in immigration detention, according to various sources. Earlier reports had her being handed over to immigration authorities over 10 months ago, with only five days spent in custody with Queensland Police.

Ms Rau is presently recuperating in hospital. A United Nations report has shown that sports footwear companies are making progress towards ending the use of sweatshops and are implementing more worker-friendly codes of practice than clothing companies and retailers.

The study, published by the International Labour Organisation, suggests that consumer pressure is behind the changes. As a result of consumer's concerns, footwear companies have been diverting financial and human resources towards developing and implementing better codes of conduct for suppliers. Large teams have been established within companies to work toward the goal of better conditions for factory workers.

The study, based upon interviews with hundreds of managers, activists, government officials, factory workers and worker representatives and visits to companies all over the world, goes on to suggest that workers should be given more powers to oversee conditions in their places of work.

Clothing companies have been failing to make such good progress due the large number of constantly-changing suppliers they use, with the ILO study describing progress as "spotty." A major retailer may have a supply base of over 5,000 different companies, making it more difficult to establish stronger, more effective links with supply companies. They have also assigned less manpower to the task of compliance with codes of practice.

In some areas of the retail industry, there has been almost no compliance with codes of practice. After the death of President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, the army of the African state of Togo has suspended the constitution and installed the son of the late President, Faure Eyadéma, as the new leader.

The constitution stipulates that the parliament's speaker should take over power in the event of the death of the President. Eyadéma did not hold the office of Speaker of the Parliament at the time of his father's death.

The African Union has spoken of a "military coup" taking place in the country. The United Nations and the European Union have also made calls for the army to respect the rules of the state.

By the time Eyadéma's death was announced on public radio, the army had already sealed the border. It then installed Faure, previously the communications minister, as president. Army Chief of Staff Gen Zakari Nandja said the decision had been taken to "avoid a power vacuum."

The speaker of parliament, Fambare Natchaba Ouattara, who was returning to Togo from Paris, was reportedly not permitted entry due to the border closure. He is now exiled in neighbouring Benin.

Gnassingbé Eyadéma, 69, Africa's longest-standing ruler, died while being evacuated for medical treatment abroad. After seizing power 38 years ago, he dissolved all political parties. He legalized elections due to popular pressure in 1991, but won three elections. Accusations of electoral fraud and political repression continued. In 2002, he amended the constitution to lower the minimum age for the presidency from 45 years to 35 years.

The day after the president's death, Natchaba was dismissed by the parliament and unanimously replaced by Faure Eyadéma by the deputies who were present at that time. The parliament also eliminated a constitutional requirement that elections be held within 60 days of the president's death, clearing the way for Faure to rule until the end of his father's term in 2008. Twenty seven people are dead and 35 injured after the bus in which they were travelling left the road and fell into a gorge in Kashmir, India.

The bus fell into a deep gorge near Barmeen, 90 km from the winter capital of Kashmir, Jammu. Twenty seven people died at the scene and another 35 have been transferred to a nearby general hospital.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident. A list of 240,000 names from a Soviet Union-era secret file has been leaked on the internet. The list contains the names of potential collaborators with the Communist government of Poland, and its victims. The list has overtaken "sex" as the hottest search item on the internet in Poland. Piotr Tchorzewski, an employee of Poland's biggest Internet portal Onet, said:"This thing is huge. We have recorded around 100,000 Internet searches a day for the list, which is 10 times the number looking for 'sex'."

Last week the Polish journalist Bronislaw Wildstein obtained the list from the National Remembrance Institute (IPN). The files accessed by Wildstein were protected and few people--primarily historians and journalists--had been authorised to see them.

Wildstein obtained the list legally, and he distributed it to his colleagues. Somehow, the list has been leaked on to the internet. Since then the list has been copied and widely distributed on websites and peer-to-peer networks.

On the Onet site the list is at the top of search items. Visitors are referred to 650,000 links related to it. On Google the search for "Wildstein list" returned 15,800 references on February 6, 2005.

The Prime Minister Marek Belka expressed concern for the safety of active intelligence agents whose names might be on the list. The American Indian Movement protested against the controversial professor Ward Churchill, chairman of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, who in a paper written after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, compared the victims of the attack to "little Eichmanns".

The American Indian Movement says Churchill’s statements comparing victims to Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann who implemented Adolf Hitler’s plan to exterminate European Jews and others should be condemned by all. Also, they say Churchill fraudulently represents himself as an Indian and a member of the American Indian Movement.

Additionally, Ward Churchill has perpetrated art fraud and plagerism. He was banned from selling his artwork in 1990.
http://wardchurchill.blogspot.com/2005/02/chief-wannabe-is-art-fraud-indian.html
http://michellemalkin.com/s/001596.htm The new London police commissioner Sir Ian Blair has warned middle class dinner party users of cocaine that he is out to get them. In contrast, he is relaxed about cannabis smokers, saying he does not wish to waste police time pursuing them. He has been quoted as saying: "People seem to think the price of a wrap of cocaine is 50 quid UK pounds, but the cost is misery on estates here and a trail of blood back to Colombia. Someone has died to bring it cocaine to a dinner party. People who wouldn’t dream of having a non-organic vegetable don’t seem to notice the blood on their fingers."

Blair is clearly trying to prick the conscience of the 624,000 estimated cocaine users in the UK, hoping to persuade them to boycott this Class A drug. Others, including Colombian Nobel Prize winner and author Gabriel García Márquez, have stated that the misery both in Colombia and on poor housing estates in the UK is caused not by drugs themselves but by the banning of them. Marquez has specifically said that he cannot see the end of the civil war in Colombia as long as the illegal drug trade exists, and he cannot see the end of the illegal drug trade unless drugs are legalized. The trade in cannabis also generates violence both at home (in the UK) and abroad, in spite of Sir Ian's softly, softly approach to this recently reclassified Class C drug. Colin A. Norman, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at
Johns Hopkins University, testifying before the
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science February 2nd, presented the Hubble Origins Probe (HOP) as a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope.

Concerning the shuttle's estimated one billion dollar cost and 65 month
time-frame for deployment to earth orbit, Norman said: "The
groundbreaking science, the cutting edge technology generated in
the development of new instrumentation, the ability of Hubble
science to engage the interest of the public, and its impact on
the imagination of students, make it worthwhile to invest this
sum of public funds to complete the last chapter of Hubble's
remarkable legacy."

HOP will tackle three of the most central intellectual issues of
our age; the nature of dark energy, the nature
and distribution of dark matter, and the
prevalence of planets, including earths, around other stars.

Norman noted during the testimony that HOP would be, essentially,
a lighter copy of the Hubble Space Telescope and would include
two instruments that were scheduled for installation on the
Hubble: the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), plus the new Very Wide Field Imager (VWFI) to be paid for and provided by Japan.

The VWFI has a field of view 17 times greater the advanced
camera on board the Hubble now, and is 3-4 times more sensitive
at critical wavelengths. This will provide for mapping 20 times
faster than achievable by the Hubble at present.

The COS would make possible the identification of the invisible
portion of "ordinary matter," potentially residing in gigantic
gas clouds discovered by the
Chandra X-ray Telescope.

"The WFC3 has greatly enhanced power for discovery in the blue and
the red region of the spectrum and will significantly enhance
studies of galaxies and stars. Its infrared capability is
essential to studies of dark energy," Norman added.

"The decision is obvious. We must continue with the
Hubble adventure to explore these great questions
further, to understand more fully our remarkable
Universe and our place in it. We must do this with
intense determination and energy and thus continue to
inspire new generations with the wonder and thrill of
exploration and discovery," concluded Norman.

Colin Norman was educated at the University of Melbourne and
Oxford University. He has been a professor of physics and
astronomy at Johns Hopkins University and astronomer at the
Space Telescope Science Institute since 1984. Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, appears likely to be returned to office, making history as the first elected Thai PM to win a second term. If exit poll indications are borne out, his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party will win in a landslide, to become the first single party majority in Thailand's relatively short history of parliamentary democracy.

The Thai Rak Thai (TRT) Party looks set to secure approximately 375 seats in the election, allowing them to form the first single-party elected government in Thailand's history. The main opposition party, Pak Prachatipat (Democratic Party), had hoped to secure 201 seats to prevent a TRT majority but conceded defeat long before the ballots were completely counted. The leader of the Democrats, Banyat Bantadtan, has announced he will resign.

"I would like to congratulate Thai Rak Thai for achieving its goal of being a single-party government," Banyat Bantadtan, leader of the Pak Prachatipat is quoted by the Independent as saying. "I would like to encourage the two other opposition parties to join the Democrat party in monitoring the government for the benefit of the people."

TRT has promised to eradicate poverty, by spending $60 billion on new infrastructure and pushing ahead with privatisation of state firms against fierce opposition from unions. Cheap loans and subsidised healthcare for Thailand’s poor rural areas sweetened the deal.

Already making history as the first elected PM to serve a full term, Thaksin is widely viewed as turning the recent Tsunami disaster into a political asset. When five- to eight-thousand Thais and foreign tourists were killed in the disaster, Mr. Thaksin responded by touring affected regions, refusing international aid loans, and promising farmers, fishermen, and the tourism industry support and compensation.

Thailand's economic growth rate during the past term in office had broken 6 per cent, second only to China, and rural income soared by 20 per cent.

Another big issue during the previous term was conflict between security forces and Muslim insurgents in the three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala. With around 10-30,000 troops on duty guarding polling stations, no overt violence arose during the vote, although there had been around 600 deaths in the past 13 months.

Thaksin himself has been dogged by conflict-of-interest and nepotism allegations, including in 2001 charges of concealing financial assets, which could have put him out of politics for five years. A controversial 2003 campaign against drug users was widely seen as amounting to simple assassination of drug dealers, with several hundreds or thousands of alleged extra-judicial killings condemned by the United Nations.

After first entering Thai politics in 1994 as head of the anti-corruption Palang Dharma Party, the multi-billionaire head of telecom giant Shin Corporation had set about building TRT for the 2001 election. Forming a coalition from previous parties and factions, Thaksin was seated as PM with 248 seats of 438 to TRT.

Election officials said there were 146 allegations of fraud which merited investigation, with opposition and independent observers saying that vote buying had started weeks ago. However, more than 70 percent of the 44.8 million eligible voters cast ballots in the country's population of 62 million.

"The election may be free, but I don't think fair," said Somsri Hananuntasuk of the Asian Network for Free Elections, citing reports that party workers were paying Bangkok slum dwellers 200 baht ($5.21) each for votes.

Officials were reportedly planning to confiscate mobile phones at polling booths and to arrest voters who snapped a picture of their completed ballot papers with a camera phone as proof to claim a payment, though whether any such incidents occurred is unknown.

Two Election Commission volunteers were killed in the south by gunmen during campaigning last month, but, according to General Kowit Wattana, Thailand’s police chief, “Ambushes and killings of candidates are down from four years ago.” Iraq – With a strong lead in a pre-weekend partial report, Shi'a leaders have begun making known their interests in a Shiite Prime Minister. Others have spoken of the negotiations for the constitution. Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Ishaq al-Fayad is quoted saying the separation of religion and state must be "completely rejected."

"All of the Ulema (clergy) and Marja, and the majority of the Iraqi people, want the National Assembly to make Islam the source of legislation in the permanent constitution and to reject any law that is contrary to Islam," he said in his statement.

Vice President Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld spent the weekend on television shows and interviews assuring the U.S. public the Iraqi elections would not result in a theocracy for the country.

"We have a great deal of confidence in where they're headed," Mr. Cheney said on Fox News Sunday. "I don't think, at this stage, that there's anything like justification for hand-wringing or concern on the part of Americans that somehow they're going to produce a result we won't like."

The violence of the insurgency, however, has returned after a brief lull following the elections whose final returns are expected in the coming week.

* 14 insurgents, 22 Iraqi police officers and soldiers were killed in an attack on a police station south of Baghdad.
* Four Egyptian telecom engineers were abducted.
* One U.S. soldier was killed and two injured by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad.
* One U.S. marine was killed south of Baghdad on Saturday.
* In a rocket attack, 2 missiles exploded near the Baghdad Airport, while a third struck an Iraqi National Guard building; no casualties were reported.
* On Friday, an Italian jounalist was abducted near Baghdad University. The Lunar New Year's Eve Festival will be celebrated in Bucharest, Romania for the first time ever as an organised event. The celebrations will include live shows, food exhibitions and fireworks, and will take place on February 10 in Nichita Stănescu Park.

Designed to promote Chinese cultural heritage, the event will be organised by Bucharest City Hall, as well as the Romania-China Cultural Centre and the Chinese Embassy in Bucharest.

Signifying the end of the winter and the start of spring, the Chinese New Year takes place on a different day at the beginning of the year, based on the moon's position relative to the sun. The celebrations will mark the beginning of the Year of the Rooster. The international airport of Sibiu, Romania, will be modernised through 2007, when the city will become Europe's Capital of Culture. Representatives from the Sibiu County Council, Sibiu City Hall and the Sibiu prefecture asked the Romanian government to allocate funds for the modernisation of the airport. The city wants to update the airport infrastructure because the city will receive a tourism and visitor boom when it becomes the European Capital of Culture in 2007.

Martin Bottesch, the president of Sibiu County Council, claims that five times more passengers will use the airport in 2007 than in 2004, when it received 45,000 passengers. The Sibiu International Airport currently has flights from Sibiu to Bucharest, the Romanian capital, as well as to Munich and Stuttgart in Germany and Bergamo, Treviso, Verona, Bologna and Rome in Italy. Despite the air connections, train remains the most popular way of reaching the city, though it is believed that the modernisation of the airport will change this.

Sibiu, which is located in central Romania, in the province of Transylvania, is one of Romania's best-maintained and most-visited medieval cities. It is also one of Romania's most important cultural centres, home to the Brukenthal Museum, which is one of the most renowned in central Europe. The city of 170,000 is also home to Romania's largest German population. While today it only makes up 1.6% of the city's population, Sibiu maintains an important German heritage in terms of culture. The pre-trial hearings in the trial of the pop singer Michael Jackson have begun the process of jury selection. An initial jury selection of 4,000 people has been narrowed down to 250 by Judge Rodney Melville and the prosecution and defence attorneys.

The process of selecting the final 12 jurors and eight stand-by-jurors will continue on February 14th, following the death in the family of Jackson's lead defence lawyer.

Jackson, 46, is accused of child molestation in a case which is expected to last up to six months. The International Maritime Bureau, an agency of the International Chamber of Commerce, has stated that 30 sailors were murdered by pirates during 2004. The Bureau's 2004 Annual Report on Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships shows that the number killed has increased from the 21 who died in 2003, according to data collected by the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

However, the total number of attacks has decreased--325 recorded attacks, down from 445 in 2003.

Indonesian waters are the most violent, with 93 incidents; one-quarter of the global total of attacks. Tugs and barges are common targets, with crew members often being kidnapped.

Nigeria has the most dangerous waters of any African country. In 2004, there were 28 attacks (down from 39), the third highest number of incidents in the world. London - Low-fares airline easyJet today announced that passenger figures for January rose to over 2.08m, a 23.8% rise on 2004. Load-factor dropped slightly to 76.4% whilst average yields only fell 2% between October and December. After what was expected to be a tough winter period for the airline industry--with the flamboyant Ryanair CEO Micheal O' Leary having stated in December that a "bloodbath" was to take place in the European aviation industry--the figures were better than expected. British sailor Ellen MacArthur crossed the finish line today at 2229 UTC (and local time) to set a new world record for sailing solo around the world. Her 71 day, 14 hour, 18 minute, and 33 second voyage took her from the English Channel, south past the Cape of Good Hope, through the Southern Ocean, back past Cape Horn, and through the Atlantic. She shaved 32 hours off the previous record, set by Frenchman Francis Joyon in 2004.

On arrival in the English port of Falmouth, she was greeted by a crowd of thousands and full media array, the BBC extending its already considerable coverage, fronted by senior presenter Sian Williams - and told that on behalf Queen Elizabeth, she is to receive the award of Dame - and she also received the honorary title of Lieutenant Commander of the British Royal Naval Reserve. Cocaine smugglers were themselves robbed of an estimated 1,000 kilos of cocaine yesterday by local criminals while trying to flee Honduran authorities in the remote La Mosquita region of the country. The smugglers were taking the drug by speed boat from Colombia to the United States when they were spotted and pursued by members of the Honduran navy. In order to escape their pursuers, the bandits landed on the beach at Yahurabila and tried to make their way inland. Within minutes, they were held up by a group of local delinquents, who relieved the smugglers of their merchandise. Both the smugglers and the local criminals are still being sought by the Honduran authorities. Bucharest, Romania – According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Romania was the 14th most preferred country in the world for foreign companies looking to relocate their activities. This confirms Romania's growing attractiveness for foreign investment.

The study examined the conditions in sixty countries, and took into account nine categories of indices: geographical proximity, political and security risks, economic stability, legislation, taxation, labour costs and skills level, and infrastructure. The scores given to the countries ranged from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest. The final composite score was calculated as a weighted average of the scores of the nine indicators. Some indicators, such as labour costs, had more weight than others.

Romania's final score was 7.08 points, edged out in Europe by only Bulgaria (7.08 points), Slovakia (7.12 points) and Czechia (7.26 points). Romania's strengths lay in the workforce cost category, where it received a score of 9.49, and in the geographical proximity chapter, where is received 8.35 points. It also scored well in the categories of economic stability and political and security risks, with 7.2 points each. The country's weaknesses were mainly in the infrastrucutre chapter, where it received just 4.6 points.

Romania is further expected to improve its score in the coming years, as the effects of its new 16% flat tax rate on personal income and corporate profit come into effect, and as the country joins the European Union in 2007.

The worldwide leader in attractiveness for business relocation was India, with 7.76 points, due mainly to very low labour costs, high skill levels and a stable legal system. India edged out China by a considerable margin, with China being ranked second, with 7.34 points. China lags behind India mainly due to its lack of a well-developed legislative system.

Surprisingly, wealthy countries such as Japan, Norway and Denmark ranked very low, mainly due to their very high cost of labour. Cicerone Măgerusan, the chairman of Romanian agricultural company Agromec, from the city of Târgu Mureş, was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison for taking bribes of US$65,000. The anti-corruption court found him guilty of taking the bribes from a businessman in 2002 and 2003 in exchange for illegally handing over company shares. Măgerusan was investigated after the businessman informed prosecutors. He can now appeal the sentence only at the Supreme Court, the country's highest court.

The Cicerone Măgerusan case is seen as one of the first successes of a high-profile anti-corruption campaign that has started this year, due to the new Romanian president Traian Băsescu, who has promised to crack down on widespread corruption in the country. Măgerusan is one of the first prominent figures to be imprisoned.

While there remain other high-profile officials suspected of corruption, Romania has set a significant precedent in dealing with the corruption problem. Additionally, on Sunday, Traian Băsescu issued an ultimatum to police and prosecutors, giving them six months to prove that they are serious about fighting corruption. The average production of genetically-modified (GM) soy grew by 50 tonnes to 250 tonnes per square kilometre last year, said Constantin Sin from the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture. Soy is the only GM crop allowed in Romania for commercial purposes. Additionally, the area cultivated with the modified soy increased from 396 km² in 2003 to 581 km² in 2004. GM soy is mainly farmed in southeastern Romania, in the counties of Brăila, Călăraşi and Ialomiţa.

In 1996, the European Union endorsed the import of transgenic soy, and, in 2004, the green light was given for the sale of new genetically-modified products which were used for animal breeding. Globally, the largest producers of genetically-modified soy are the United States of America, Argentina and Brazil. The revolutionary space telescope that brought great images of space back down to Earth will lose out in NASA's budget reorganisation for 2006. While NASA's budget will increase by 2.6%, most of Hubble's $93 million in funding will be directed into bringing it safely to Earth. The big winners include the space shuttle program and the International Space Station, including the development of a new Shuttle replacement.

A planned fifth maintenance job on the space telescope was cancelled as a result of the Columbia disaster, and experts argue as to how long it can remain useful to scientists. It is expected to fail irreversibly by 2007 if vital work is not done.

Another project to bite the dust was the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), which would have been the largest satellite ever sent to the outer solar system. It was to have featured a new form of nuclear reactor as propulsion, but instead NASA has allocated $320 million to developing nuclear technologies in space in a less aggressive, more stepped approach.

In a January 2004 speech, George W. Bush proposed a human return to the Moon and a first journey to Mars. This grand aim is behind the agency's new budget, with $6.8 billion (over one-third of the total) devoted to the ISS, Space Shuttle and space travel support. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palesinian President Mahmoud Abbas today declared an end to military and violent activities against each other. The two leaders made the expected announcement at a summit held at Shram el-Sheikh, Egypt, the first such meeting between the two sides in four years.

Prime Minister Sharon pledged to end military operations against Palestinians, and President Abbas similarly said that the Palestinians will likewise end "all acts of violence against Israelis....wherever they are". Both leaders expressed hope that the agreement will lead to long term peace in the long-running conflict. Prime Minister Sharon said that the agreement is part of the goal of "quiet, dignified and peaceful lives for all the nations in the Middle East". President Abbas said "the calm that is currently prevailing in our territories signals the start of a new era, the start of a hopeful peace." Both sides also confirmed their intent to create an independent Palestinian state. The talks became possible in the renewed optimism after the death of Yassir Arafat and the election of Abbas.

The agreement marks a profound change in Israeli-Palestinian relations, but the negotiated truce is a shaky peace. The ability of President Abbas to exert control over Palestinian militant groups is questionable, and thorny political issues remain for the Israelis if they begin to withdraw settlers from the occupied territories. There are signs that the Palestinian resistance groups are willing to participate in the cease-fire: the terrorist organisation, HAMAS released a statement in the hours before the summic stating that "was prepared to calm down resistance raids in the event the Zionist entity reciprocated," referring to Sharon's pledge to stop military activities, yet shortly after the summit a spokesman for the organization said it will not be bound by the cease-fire.

The agreement includes a pledge by Israel to release 900 Palestinian prisoners, to create join committees on prisoner release and the withdrawal of troops from Palestinian territories, and cooperation with Palestinian security forces in occupied areas. Microsoft has announced that it plans to purchase antivirus firm Sybari Software in order to expand its market within the computer security market. The takeover comes after Microsoft purchased Romanian security firm GeCad in 2003 and two months after an announcement that it is to acquire anti-spyware vendor Giant-Company Software.

Sybari is a private company based in East Newport, New York that develops antivirus software which can be used with Microsoft's Exchange software, as well as with the Lotus Notes system.

This takeover is seen by analysts to be hostile move on Microsoft's part, as it places the software giant in direct competition with market leaders Symantec and McAfee. Sterling Auty, an analyst with JP Morgan, told Reuters that he estimated that Microsoft could be competing for up to five percent of Symantec's business and up to eight percent of McAfee's revenue.

Microsoft's shares rose $0.10 at midday to $26.26, while both McAfee and Symantec shares fell. Alex Wolszczan of Penn State and Maciej Konacki of Caltech announced the discovery of the smallest planet detected outside our solar system. The new body is located in the same planetary system where Wolszczan found the very first extrasolar planets in 1992.

The planet, approximately one-fifth the mass of Pluto, orbits the pulsar PSR B1257+12, 1500 light years from Earth. "Despite the extreme conditions that must have existed at the time these planets were forming, nature has managed to create a planetary system that looks like a scaled-down copy of our own inner solar system," Wolszczan said.

Three terrestrial planets discovered earlier occupy orbits similar in proportion to the orbits of Mercury, Venus, and Earth. The new fourth planet is in an orbit six times larger than the third planet's position, corresponding to our own asteroid belt.

"Surprisingly, the planetary system around this pulsar resembles our own solar system more than any extrasolar planetary system discovered around a Sun-like star," Konacki said.

"Because our observations practically rule out a possible presence of an even more distant, massive planet or planets around the pulsar, it is quite possible that the tiny fourth planet is the largest member of a cloud of interplanetary debris at the outer edge of the pulsar's planetary system, a remnant of the original protoplanetary disk that created the three inner planets," Wolszczan explained.

Since the original discovery of planets in 1992, Wolszczan and colleagues, using the
Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, ". . . feel now, with this discovery, that the basic inventory of this planetary system has been completed." London - India has placed first in the Economist Magazine's list of the top offshoring locations in the world. The list, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, measured the attractiveness of 60 countries as destinations for offshoring, scoring each country on nine criteria commonly used by companies when deciding where to locate offshore. The list was compiled as part of the Economist CEO Briefing 2005. India came out first with a overall score of 7.76, followed by China with 7.34 and the Czech Republic with 7.26. The list was dominated by Eastern European and South East Asian countries. The top developed country was Canada with 7.23, ranking 6th overall.

The top fifteen were as follows:

1st - India with 7.76 points 
2nd - China - with 7.34 points 
3rd - Czech Republic - with 7.26 points 
4th - Singapore - with 7.25 points 
5th - Poland - with 7.24 points 
6th - Canada - 7.23 points 
7th - Hong Kong - 7.19 points 
8th - Hungary - 7.17 points 
9th - Philippines - 7.17 points 
10th - Thailand - 7.16 points 
11th - Malaysia - 7.13 points 
12th - Slovakia - 7.12 points 
13th - Bulgaria - 7.09 points 
14th - Romania - 7.08 points 
15th - Chile - 7.08 points Copenhagen – The Danish people have voted to keep the current centre-right political coalition of the Venstre (The Liberal Party), Det Konservative Folkeparti (Conservative People's Party) and the Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People's Party).

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Liberal Party retained the largest number of seats in parliament. The governing coalition between the Liberals and Conservative People's Party remained intact. They will likely be supported largely by the Danish People's Party, which gained 2 seats. The Radikale Venstre (Radical Left) party gained the most seats of any party, although it remains outside the governing group of parties. The election marked the second time in a row that the Social Democrats were not the largest party in the parliament, a change from most of the 20th century. The party lost 5 seats and leader Mogens Lykketoft resigned immediately after the election.

Venstre, the liberal party of the prime minister, campaigned on their municipal restructuring plan, as well as a continuation of the "tax-freeze" and tight immigration requirements. They also promised to see 60,000 jobs created during a second term.

The largest opposition party, the Socialdemokraterne (Social Democrats) led by Mogens Lykketoft focused on employment, which they claim has decreased under the current government.

The Dansk Folkeparti, who support the Venstre-Conservative coalition, criticized the "tax-freeze" but agreed, conditionally, to support it for another parliamentary term. They also wanted increasingly tough immigration restrictions.

Going into the election, the governing coalition had 94 of the 175 seats up for election. (Danish overseas territories designate four additional representatives).

PRELIMINARY NATIONAL SUMMARY
================================================================================
Votes and seats are compared with those won at the elections of November 2001

Party Votes % Change Seats Change
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Centre-Democrats (CD) 33,611 01.0 -00.8 - 00
Danish People's Party (DF) 444,257 13.2 +01.2 24 +02
Unity List-The Red Greens (ERG) 113,687 03.4 +01.0 6 +02
Conservative People's Party (KF) 345,104 10.3 +01.2 19 +03
Christian People's Party (KrF) 57,815 01.7 -00.6 - -04
Radical Left (RV) 307,306 09.2 +04.0 16 +07
Social Democracy in Denmark (SD) 867,857 25.9 -03.2 47 -05
Socialist People's Party (SF) 201,224 06.0 -00.4 11 -01
Left, Liberal Party of Denmark (VDLP) 974,700 29.1 -02.1 52 -04
Others 8,672 00.3 -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 3,354,233 175
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Brazilian Ministry of External Relations decided to remove the English language knowledge section from qualifying tests required by the Brazilian school of diplomats, the Rio Branco Institute. The decision proved controversial among Brazilians.

In Brazil, those interested in following a diplomatic career first must study at the Brazilian school of diplomats: the Rio Branco Institute (IRBr).

After having passed the Rio Branco Institute's (IRBr) entrance examination, the student becomes a Third Secretary. The career path then continues to Second Secretary, First Secretary, Counselor, Second Class Minister, and First Class Minister or Ambassador.

The candidate must fulfill the following requirements before signing up for the entrance examination to IRBr:
be Brazilian by birth, have a clean criminal record, be up-to-date with military and electoral obligations, and have concluded a full undergraduate course recognized by the Ministry of Education before the date of inscription.

The course of study is 2 years long. In the first year, the student has lectures in International Public Law, Economics, Brazilian Foreign Policy, History of International Relations, Theory of International Relations and Brazilian Readings, Diplomatic Language, English, French, and Spanish. For every three class hours on concepts, there is one lecture, seminar, workshop or debate guided by an expert in the field.

In the second year, the student develops his diplomatic professional skills. He works as a trainee in different units of the government and at Brazilian embassies and consulates in South America and Mexico.

The following written tests are part of the entrance examination: Portuguese, English, French and Spanish languages; History, Geography, Brazilian and International Law, Brazilian and International Economy, and International Politics. Also, the following oral tests are required: International Politics, English, and Portuguese language.

Until 2004, the English language tests could eliminate a candidate. However, on December 7, 2004, the Brazilian Minister of External Relations Celso Amorim changed the entrance examination rules. Failing the English test no longer removes the student from the program. 

The following tests can still remove a person from the program: Portuguese language, History, and Geography.

The Minister Celso Amorim explained his decision: "This is a democratic decision. I would rather have a diplomat who knows Portuguese and Brazilian History well than another one who knows English well".

However, the decision proposed by the Ministry of External Relations caused some controversy.

The Senator and former diplomat Arthur Virgílio(PSDB) sent a letter to Minister Celso Amorim protesting against the change in the entrance examination to IRBr. He said that the minister's decision is nonsense, a symbolic protest against the USA. The decision minimizes the importance of English in the world. According to him, the government is being underhanded. "The question is not to love or to hate the United States, but to recognize their enormous weight, until bothering, in the world-wide scenario," he added. 

The journalist and high critic of the government and the Workers' Party (PT), Percival Puggina, said: "On March 18, 2004, during a opening speech of a popular restaurant of Coca-Cola in Belo Horizonte , President Lula said: 'I spent much time in my life thinking that if you wanted to be anti-American you should not drink Coca-Cola. Later, I got more mature and realized that there is nothing better than waking up at night and finding a Coca-Cola in the refrigerator.' However, Lula’s anti-Americanism which still remains is more naive than not drinking Coca-Cola. The Ministry of External Relations under the rule of Celso Amorim gives us a clue when it eliminates the English knowledge skills as a requisite to the entrance at the Rio Branco Institute. I assume that this is a kick in both Bush’s groin and in Blair’s ankle. Camões is thankful, but he excuses the courtesy."

In an interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, the Minister Celso Amorim told:”It should be explained that the English language was not removed from the examination, and it will not stop being obligatory; it will just not remove students anymore. Brazilian diplomats will still have to know English as well as other languages too. What the Itamaraty (the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations) decided was to take for itself the costs of the necessary complementation so that the diplomat has the domain of the language.” Amorim also added: ”There are many people who I knew during my life with all the requisites to be diplomats, but who had difficulty to pass in an examination of eliminatory English.”

According to Amorim, the English language elimination test favors the children of diplomats. Ricardo Neiva Tavares, spokesman of the Itamaraty, says that with the changes candidates of all regions of the country can compete evenly to enter the diplomatic career.

The former chancellor Celso Lafer criticized the decision: "Portuguese is not the language used in international communication." According to him, the change in the admission examination is a false idea of democratization.

Cristovam Buarque professor of University of Brasilia, senator (PT) and former minister of Education during Lula’s government said: “The knowledge of foreign languages, especially of English, is absolutely necessary to the diplomat. But this knowledge little says about the potential of creativity, knowledge, and ability of a youth who intends to enter the diplomatic course. Henry Kissinger, for example, would have been disapproved of in our course of diplomacy, since he still speaks with a German accent.” The community of the town of Condoto, 600km of Bogota, in the region of Chocó, has been surrounded by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC for a week. The rebel army is interfering with the movement of people, food, and medicine to the city. According to the Government of Chocó Secretary Fredy Lloreda the action is apparently in retaliation for recent operations performed by government forces against the rebels.

The FARC are a Marxist revolutionary group with about 12,000 members which originated from the Colombian Communist Party of the 1960s. The FARC's main stated objective is the creation of a Communist government in Colombia.

According to the Colombian government, the US FBI, and Interpol, the majority of the FARC's recent funding has come from kidnapping, extortion, hijacking, and illegal trade in cocaine.

The FARC are considered a terrorist group by the governments of Colombia and the United States, a Colombian ally in the fight against the FARC. The FARC are a member of the Foro de São Paulo and are opposed to the influence of the government of the United States in South America. A close encounter with the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way has set a star on a one way trip into intergalactic space. The star, detected at the MMT Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, is zipping outward at a speed of 1.5 million miles per hour. Rocketing along at twice the galactic escape velocity, the Milky Way's gravitational attraction doesn't have the holding power to keep the star from disappearing into the emptiness between galaxies.

"We have never before seen a star moving fast enough to completely escape the confines of our galaxy," Warren Brown of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) said. "We're tempted to call it the outcast star because it was forcefully tossed from its home. Only the powerful gravity of a very massive black hole could propel a star with enough force to exit our galaxy."

Using measurements of the star's line-of-sight velocity, the scientists have concluded the star, cataloged as SDSS J090745.0+24507, is moving almost directly away from galactic center. Composition and age of the star also provide evidence of the star's origin and ultimate fate. "Because this is a metal-rich star, we believe that it recently came from a star-forming region like that in the galactic center," said Brown. Less than 80 million years were needed for the star to reach its current location, which is consistent with its estimated age.

Margaret J. Geller, Michael J. Kurtz and Scott J. Kenyon, along with Brown, will publish their find in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where scientists study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe. London/Reykjavík – The Icelandic retail and investment company Baugur is making a bid for the British supermarket chain Somerfield of £1 billion, 120 billion ISK, or US$1,8 billion. The supermarket chain has 700 Somerfield supermarkets and 500 Kwik Save discount foodstores across the United Kingdom. Baugur already owns the Iceland supermarket in the UK and Ireland, Bónus and Hagkaup supermarkets in Iceland, and other retailers in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, United Kingdom, Sweden & Denmark. New York - Carly Fiorina was ousted by the board of directors of HP yesterday, much to the delight of Wall Street. Ms Fiorina's resignation was the result of a disagreement with the board over the future of the company. Often cited as America's most powerful businesswoman, Ms Fiorina presided over the multi-billion dollar merger between Hewlett Packard and Compaq Computers in 2002.

The move comes after several months of intense speculation about her future with the company. Having promised billions in annual savings to the company from the 2002 merger, the combined company failed to keep pace with competitors such as Dell, or to deliver any significant increases in profits, particularly in the personal computer market. A recent investigation by Fortune magazine highlighted the fact that the firm's highly profitable printer business supported the lower-margin computer business.

After the announcement, HP shares surged 10% on Wall Street against a generally poor performance by the major indices. Following the much hailed truce between the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority, the most powerful armed group in Palestine has declared that the conference in Sharm el-Sheikh has changed nothing.

Hamas said that although the Palestinian leaders had announced a truce, the organisation was not bound to it. The group also said in a statement that it should have been consulted first, a view shared by another militant group - Islamic Jihad.

Both groups have largely observed an unofficial ceasefire for the past three weeks, having reached an understanding with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that would enable him to negotiate with Israel in an environment of relative calm.

The groups appear to have come to an agreement that they should continue to observe a month's calm, as agreed with Abbas in late January. Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri told Aljazeera that Hamas leaders would be seeking a meeting with Abbas within the next few days to discuss the summit. Masri, however, said that the Sharm el-Sheikh talks had been "disappointing," as the agreement did not represent many of the Palestinian groups.

Khadir Habib, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, said, "Islamic Jihad has endorsed a one-month period of quiet and we will respect it", indicating that some Palestinian groups may be willing to withdraw from violence in order to give the new peace process time to develop, however, some violence and hostility have greeted the new ceasefire, with gunfire from an Israeli settlement which has reportedly critically injured a 22-year-old Palestinian man. The Israeli army said it is to check the report. The FBI has taken over a case covering several cities. Police found $250,000 in sealed bags, intercepted between Columbus, Ohio and Northeast Philadelphia. State troopers counting the cash became ill, and one was hospitalized. The cash is believed to be drug money.

Sources told CBS 3 tests on the cash counter revealed the presence of a toxin derived from the bacteria staphylococcus. There is speculation the contamination may have been deliberate to prevent the money being tampered with in transit.

FBI Spokesperson Jerri Williams said, “This is under investigation and we have no information to provide to the public at this time."

A warning has been issued recommending that officers should take extra precaution and wear protective masks when handling suspected drug money. Minor violent incidents and claims of Lebanese sabotage marked an unsteady start today for the Israeli-Palestinian truce, already threatened after militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced that they were not bound by the agreement.

Two Israeli motorists escaped uninjured in the West Bank today after coming under fire from Palestinian gunmen.

Elsewhere, Hamas militant Hassan Alami was found dead in the Khan Younis camp of Southern Gaza, killed while carrying out activities for the group. Although Hamas refused to be bound by the agreement signed yesterday in Sharm el-Sheik, it has promised to keep quiet at the request of Mahmoud Abbas.

Another Palestinian man is in a critical condition after being shot in the chest. The man, from the Rafah refugee camp, was shot near the Israeli settlement of Atzmona. The Israeli army, which has a garrison in Atzmona, is looking into the incident.

Meanwhile, Ramallah has accused Lebanese rebel group Hezbollah of attempting to sabotage the fragile peace agreement in the Middle East. The group, backed by Syria and Iran, are attempting to recruit Palestinian militants to engage in attacks of Israeli targets, claim Palestinian spokesmen. The charges mirror those made recently by Israel, which has long accused Hezbollah of bankrolling Palestinian violence in the region.

Hezbollah denies the charges, and claims to be honouring the ceasefire agreed yesterday. However, Palestinian officials claim to have intercepted bank records and email communications that prove that the guerilla group is recruiting militants in the West Bank. Abbas is shying away from any confrontation with the group at the moment, but has sent an envoy to Beirut to persuade Hezbollah to desist from its aggressive activities.

Despite the setbacks, Israel has begun to lift restrictions of travel and issue permits to 1000 Palestinians to work in Israel, as part of Tuesday's deal. Sharon has agreed to travel to Ramallah to continue talks toward peace in the region. January 17, 2005.
Several commemoration ceremonies were recently held for victims of the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995, mainly in Kansai region. The municipality of Kobe and supporting organisations held one such ceremony in the early morning of January 17. It was the biggest ceremony held that day. Over 5,000 people gathered in the East Playground in the center of city. Participants included surviving citizens and volunteers from around the whole country who had helped out. At 5:43 a.m., just 10 years after the earthquake first occurred, people lit candles in honor of the 6,433 victims. The victims included 133 people who died in the aftermath of the disaster, due to physical or mental difficulties caused by the heavy changes in their life.

The earthquake centered around Awaji Island, near the city of Kobe. It measured 7.3 on the Richter Scale, the biggest quake to hit Japan since World War II. Though a great earthquake could theoretically occur in any part of Japan, and scientists had warned of the possibility of earthquakes in the Kansai region, citizens and local government tended to be unaware of this possibility 10 years ago. The death and destruction caused by the quake gave a serious shock to the city's residents. One story of the Kobe city hall was totally destroyed, and a part of Meishin Highway between Nagoya and Kobe was ripped apart; a bus barely avoided falling from the broken highway. Engineers buttressed vulnerable city structures throughout Japan after the earthquake. Research revealed that architecture designed under national earthquake-proof standards had survived the earthquake. Many old buildings were rebuilt, reconstructed, or given structual support. Vulnerable city infrastructure was also attended to; in some areas water and fuel supply had been disrupted for over two months. Many municipalities reviewed their standards for civil engineering design.

The earthquake also revealed systematic vulnerability within the Japanese government. The prime minister at that time, Tomiichi Murayama, first learned of the earthquake from a TV news program two hours later, and not from a government report. He called his secretary, who also knew nothing of it. The government improved these weaknesses, and in the case of the Chuetsu Earthquake in October 2004, the prime minister's office was able to quickly deal with the accident.

After the earthquake, many people spent days in shelters. 104,900 houses were completely destroyed, and 144,256 only partly desroyed. The Hyogo prefecture and municipalities provided temporary shelters, called Kasetsujutaku. Such temporary houses had remained since 2000. Since those houses were provided to individuals and not to communities, many people found they were no longer with their familiar neighbors after moving. This caused serious problems among people, especially the elderly. Since 2000, around 200 people have died alone in such temporary houses, to be found only days later; this was considered a serious social problem. A word was even coined for this situation, Kodokushi (meaning "death in solitude" in Japanese), but some say no effective solution has yet been offered. 

The earthquake has also had a bright side. Before the earthquake, it was not popular to participate voluntarily in social activities in Japan. The earthquake moved many people to join such activities. Since it was close to the end of the Japanese schoolyear, many students could stay in the affected area for long days. And it has been not easy to have a vacation for Japanese workers, as many people took vacations from their company and went to the affected area to help out. This was not just a temporary movement, but influenced people to consider such social engagement as a regular activity (one can see a similar influcence in the case of the Chuetsu Earthquake). U.S. Medicare drug benefit cost estimates rise to $558 billion in latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates.

The CBO estimated that the Medicare Modernization Act, "would result in additional direct spending of about $395 billion over the 2004-2013 period." The estimate included $552 billion mandatory spending for Medicare Part D, offset by savings of $13 billion from changes to Parts A and B, and "estimated savings of $145 billion in Medicaid and other federal programs because the Part D benefit would reduce spending in those federal programs."

Although the projections only slightly modified the net costs, from $552 billion to $558 billion, the $158 billion in offset from previous estimates were completely removed with a limited justification. "The estimated savings to Medicaid and other federal programs are incorporated in our baseline projections and are not separately identifiable," the CBO said.

The $552 billion dollar figure is missing from the November 2003 estimates, with a total cost for 2004-2013 presented as single line item of $410 billion as "Prescription Drug Benefit (Title I)." Over the same period the current estimate, which is categorized differently, lists the total costs for the "Benefits and Mandatory Administrative Costs" as $779 billion, with Part D. Premiums and payments by States reducing the number by $221 billion to $558 billion.

The report presented two tables: one justifying the prior $395 billion figure, including itemizations for "Savings to Medicaid and Other Federal Programs" totaling $145 billion and "Other Spending Effects" totaling $13 billion, and another presenting the current estimate, which only listed "Savings to Medicaid and Other Federal Programs" and "Other Spending Effects"as being "Not Separately Identifiable."

"This just brings us back to the Bush administration's credibility gap," Rep. Charles Rangel of New York told the L.A. Times. Medicare is overseen by the House Ways and Means Committee, and Rep. Rangels is the senior Democrat on the committee. "How can we trust them on Social Security when they did not play straight with the facts on Medicare?" he said.

Dr. Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, disagreed, saying "there has been no significant change in the cost of the drug benefit" for the years 2006 - 2015 despite the numbers he brought forward having a cost of $1.2 trillion dollars. He points to a difference in years covered by his estimates as the reason, and that the numbers represented "gross costs" and did not reflect premiums paid by Medicare beneficiaries, compulsory contributions by states or savings to the Medicaid program. The new leader of Togo, the late president Gnassingbé Eyadéma's son, Faure Gnassingbé, pledged to hold "free and transparent elections which reflect the will of the people" as soon as possible, though he did not mention a specific timeframe, nor did he address international criticism of his ascession to power.

Togolese politics have become a subject of criticism by the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations after the death of Eyadéma late last week. Eyadéma was Africa's longest-ruling leader whose 38-year rule was marked by government-sponsored violence and the stifling of political expression.

The Constitution of Togo was amended to permit Eyadéma to retain power, to allow more than two five-year terms in office, and to lower the minimum age for a president from 45 to 35. The latter move was seen as a way to allow the succession of the presidency to Eyadéma's son, then only 35 years old.

When Eyadéma died on Saturday of a heart attack, the country's Constitution called for power to be transferred to the head of the national assembly. Instead, Faure Gnassingbé assumed power and the Constitution was amended to allow this, causing criticism from foreign commentators.

Faure Gnassingbé also promised reforms, and an open dialog with the opposition parties. However, with the opposition leader out of the country since an assassination attempt in 1992, and the presidential term not set to expire until 2008, it is not clear how much change these promises will bring in the near future. Google Inc. on Tuesday rolled out a test version of its mapping service — a type of service long offered by its rivals Yahoo and Microsoft. The web site, http://maps.google.com, is designed to let users display maps of locations around the United States and Canada, find businesses near those locations, and generate driving directions between locations.

Unlike the competitors' offerings, Google's mapping system shows bigger maps and does not require a reload of the web page when a user pans or zooms the map. The site uses the Google Local search to incorporate local businesses onto the map. Google uses mapping data from TeleAtlas and Navteq, according to information shown on the mapping site. The state-run Korean Central News Agency has released a statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry cancelling the ongoing six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapon development programs. The statement also declared for the first time that North Korea has nuclear arms, announcing that it plans to "bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal".

The statement declared, "We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and have manufactured nuclear arms for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK North Korean government."

"Nuclear weapons will remain a nuclear deterrent for self-defense under any circumstances," said the ministry. "The present reality proves that only powerful strength can protect justice and truth."

Previously, on February 4, the state-run Pyongyang Radio carried a reaction to the inauguration speech of US President George Bush: "In his inauguration speech, Bush trumpeted that 'fire of freedom will reach dark corners of the world.' This is nothing but a plot to engulf the whole world in a sea of war flames and rule it by imposing a freedom based on power."

Technical experts and politicians have advised though that this announcement might still need to be taken with suspicion, however, as North Korea has made large announcements before making large demands many times in the past as a form of bluffing. Because they have never shown any outside experts concrete proof of their having successfully extracted the plutonium from their reactors, nor that they have managed to perform the complicated chemistry and engineering necessary to develop a prototype nuclear weapon design, and have not performed the requisite first nuclear test, their nuclear status, though declared, is being viewed as somewhat ambiguous. It is also unknown whether their purported nuclear weapons are sophisticated enough to fit onto their missiles, a complicated task to achieve without testing or outside assistance.

A week earlier, new information about North Korean sales of nuclear materials had come out - including allegations that they had provided uranium to Libya's now-defunct nuclear program.

In the following days, President Bush's public rhetoric with respect to North Korea seemed to have softened, and his administration sent a new envoy to the Chinese, South Korean, and Japanese governments to discuss pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear arms development. The envoy, Michael Green (an Asia expert on the National Security Council), was sent to meet with Chinese president Hu Jintao with a letter from President Bush "written to underscore the greatly heightened urgency" of the situation. Green also met with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

This week, the Yonhap news agency reported (via AFP) that South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was also travelling to Washington, DC, to talk with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other US officials about North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Prince Charles, Britain's heir to the throne, has announced that he is to wed his lover of 34 years, Camilla Parker Bowles. In a press statement, the Prince of Wales said “Mrs Parker Bowles and I are absolutely delighted. It will be a very special day for us and our families.”

Mrs Parker Bowles will use the title "HRH The Duchess of Cornwall" after their marriage, and it is intended that following the Prince's accession to the throne, Mrs Parker Bowles will use the title "HRH The Princess Consort".

The pair are to marry on 8th April 2005 at a private civil ceremony in Windsor Castle, which will be an occasion primarily for friends and family. There will then be a service of prayer and dedication in St. George's Chapel, to be conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.

Queen Elizabeth II and Duke of Edinburgh also released a press statement saying: "The Duke of Edinburgh and I are very happy that The Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles are to marry. We have given them our warmest good wishes for their future together."

The proposed wedding is likely to raise many religious and constitutional questions, especially as Mrs Parker Bowles is divorced and her husband is still alive. However, the Archbishop of Canterbury said "I am pleased that Prince Charles and Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles have decided to take this important step."

The marriage will end many years of speculation spanning a relationship which has lasted since 1971. Following the death of the Prince's previous wife, Princess Diana, media speculation about the couple has increased. Pope John Paul II left Rome's Gemelli hospital today, having been treated for throat spasms brought on by flu. The 84-year-old Pontiff had been in hospital for 10 days.

Vatican spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said that the Pope had been "cured" from the breathing difficulties, which lead to his hospitalization. Navarro-Valls also said that the Pontiff had undergone a number of tests, including a CAT scan, which had ruled out any new illnesses.

The Vatican reports that the Pope has recovered his voice and that he will make his regular appearance for crowds in St. Peter's Square. The Vatican is also being quiet regarding speculation as to the Pope's successor, the BBC reports.

The Pope's last appearance was from his hospital window on Sunday (6th February). Since yersterday the Colombian National Army and FARC rebels have been fighting in the Department of Antioquia in Colombia. Recent reports account that 17 military and 11 guerrilla were dead during the combats until now.

Yesterday conflict occurred in the jungle, near the spring of the El Porroso river, rural zone of Mutatá, Uraba province of the Antioquia department.
The general Carlos Alberto Ospina, Colombian Military Forces commander, told the engagement began after they intercepted a FARC group in its path to a Indian community settled around the region.

A military officer and 16 soldiers of the Batallón de Infantería No. 46 Voltigeros died in the battle. A sub-official and a soldier got hurt. 11 guerrilla from the FARC were killed as well. Eight soldiers are still missing, according to report released by the Colombian Caracol Radio.

In another campaign soldiers of the Batallón de Contraguerrillas 41 Héroes de Corea de la Primera División dismantled a laboratory with chemicals used for the processing of narcotics in a FARC camp, located in the city of Vista Hermosa, Meta department. Nepalese opposition groups have taken to the streets of capital Kathmandu to protest against King Gyanendra's takeover of the government.

The first major protests started Thursday on the streets of Kathmandu, where protesters unfurled banners and shouted slogans. They were quickly arrested by police, who had caught wind of the plans and mobilized their forces on the streets.

At least ten arrests took place, sources say.

These protests were organized by the Human Rights and Peace Society (HURPES) and were announced earlier this week. The protesters are angry over King Gyanendra's decision to take over the government, censor the media, cut communications, ban dissent, arrest opposition leaders and place military on the streets.

Earlier in the week, Krishna Pahadi, the founder of HURPES, called for the protests.

"We would like to fill the jails of Nepal for the sake of democracy, human rights and the peace," he said. Saudis are voting today in the country's first municipal elections that have been held in the Kingdom. This is first time democratic elections have been conducted in the Kingdom and as many as 100 candidates have been put forward per seat in the capital, Riyadh. There has been rows over whether women should be allowed to vote or stand in these elections and if there will any major changes in policy as only 50% of seats are being contested. On Feb. 3, 2005, the Brazilian Minister of Education, Tarso Genro, opened the XIV International Fair of Books in Havana during his five day visit to Cuba. The fair is scheduled to continue until February 13, 2005.

Minister Genro opened the fair saying, "Cuba and Brazil have the same mixture and the same condition of sovereign nations." According to Genro, it was a honor for Brazil to be invited to the fair, where the country was the guest of honor.

At the fair, the Ambassador of Brazil in Cuba, Tilden Santiago, spoke in name of the Brazilian President, Lula, that the Fair of Books will help to strengthen the relatioship between both countries. "Between Brazil and Cuba there is a tradition of friendship which goes back to Cândido Portinari and Nicholas Guillén, Leo Brower and Egberto Gismont, and Alfredo Guevara and Glauber Rocha," he added.

The Brazilian delegation donated 400 complete book collections to Cuba. The Brazilian addition to the fair included lectures, handiwork, films, literature, music, poetry, art demos and shows, and information on politics and history.

Genro also met with Fidel Castro, President of Cuba. Among the subjects discussed were the interchanges between both countries in the educational field, relationships between universities, value of the Spanish language, Cuban methods of alphabetization, and Brazilian undergraduate students in Cuba. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said today that his country will never give up its nuclear development process.

Talking to foreign ambassadors in Tehran, he said, "We give our guarantee that we will not produce nuclear weapons because we're against them and do not believe they are a source of power, but we will not give up peaceful nuclear technology."

"Iran has achieved nuclear technology without the help of others, and it will never give up its right to use it under illegitimate pressure from others," Khatami said.

His remarks come as Iran faces increasing pressure to curb its nuclear activities. The United States and the European Union wants the country to give up enriching uranium, a key process in both nuclear power generation and weapons production. Iran claims to have suspended such enrichment—President Khatmi said that enrichment is "our clear right" but that Iran had suspended it only "to show our goodwill". The EU wants a permanent cessation.

Khatami also denounced, "the slanders of the American rulers against the Iranian nation and the establishment", saying they were aimed at "putting a cover on the failures of the extremist US policy".

Newly-appointed U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said while touring Europe this week that diplomacy with Iran must be given every chance to succeed, adding that no deadline had been set to take the issue to the UN Security Council. A report documenting the civil rights record of the Bush administration has been removed from the Commission's website. The report was submitted to the administration in December by a committee, chaired by Mary Frances Berry, who has served as chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for nearly 25 years.

The report, Redefining Rights in America: The Civil Rights Record of the George W. Bush Administration described setbacks to a range of civil rights issues from policies that have further polarized communities. One week after Berry submitted the report, the Bush administration forced her out, announcing her replacement before she had actually resigned. The new chair, attorney Gerald A. Reynolds, was quoted in a New York Times article as saying he believed traditional civil rights group "overstate the problem" of racial discrimination. His appointment has been termed "a disaster" by NAACP Board Chairman Julian Bond.

In an exclusive interview with Tolerance.org February 9, Berry warns of further erosion to civil rights, with a weakened Civil Rights Commission unable to press the Justice Department to enforce the laws. After a week of heavy rain and snow, the Shakidor Dam near the coast of the southwestern Pakistan province of Baluchistan burst around 6:00 pm local time. So far, at least seventy people have died after five villages were swept away. Many bodies have been recovered by Coast Guard vessels sweeping the sea off the affected area with fishing nets.

Provincial Minister Sher Jan Baloch announced troops have been called out for rescue operations. "The army has started rescue operations to try to save as many lives as possible." While over 1,000 have been rescued, possibly as many as 700 are missing - they may have been swept out to see, or may be seeking refuge on high ground or elsewhere. Alotogether, over 30,000 people have been affected.

President Musharaf has announced a million dollars for the victims.

The 148 m (485 ft) long Shakidor Dam near Pasni failed on Friday, sending thousands of people fleeing for safety. The dam, 800 km south of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, was built two years ago. Although the specific details are not known, it is believed the dam was overwhelmed by past week's heavy rains which have caused flooding in the region.

The flooding has cut off Pasni and other coastal regions, washing out roads and bridges. At least another 50 have died elsewhere as a result. Arthur Miller, the revered American playwright, has died aged 89 in Roxbury, Connecticut. The creator of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible had been suffering from cancer and pneumonia.

Miller's most famous play, Death of a Salesman, was first performed in 1949. Willy Loman, the central protagonist, became a symbol of the difficulties and frailties of the 'American Dream'.

Arthur Miller became embroiled in 1956 with the Communist hysteria which engulfed the United States as the Cold War began to take shape. When he refused to name friends and colleagues to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, he was held in contempt. The decision was later overturned, however Miller's experiences led him to write The Crucible, a thinly veiled critique of the McCarthyist witch-hunts.

Fans of Miller and his works worldwide paid tribute today to the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright. Zoe Caldwell, American actress who had appeared in Miller's "The Creation of the World and Other Business", told AP that Miller "was a big man and a deeply American man who was lucky enough to have extraordinary women in his life." Miller's fame was precipitated by his stormy relationship and subsequent marriage to Marilyn Monroe, which lasted five years.

"Mr Miller passed away at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, last night at 9.17pm of heart failure," his assistant revealed. Mr Miller leaves behind three children: Jane-Ellen, Robert and Rebecca Miller.

sv:Arthur Miller avlider 89 år gammal Yesterday, the French television authority – the CSA – ordered Eutelsat, a satellite television broadcaster, to stop transmitting the TV station Sahar-1, operated by the Iranian government.

The ban was motivated by Sahar TV broadcasting antisemitic fiction, as well as talk shows in which the existence of the Holocaust and the gas chambers in Nazi extermination camps was denied.

A recently aired show, For you, Palestine: Zahra's blue eyes, in the word of the French TV authority, systematically presented Israelis and Jews in a demeaning manner, as persons without scruples, ready to steal the eyes of a Palestinian child.

French law criminalizes incitation to racial hatred, as well as the denial of the Holocaust.

The government-controlled Iranian media, as the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp was approaching, published a number of columns in which the Holocaust was described as a "historical lie". Sahar TV has already come under the criticism of media watchdogs for antisemitic broadcasts.

France's broadcasting authority, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel or CSA, is an independent administrative authority. The nine members of the council are named one third by the President of the French Republic, one third by the President of the Senate, one third by the President of the National Assembly.

France has already moved on several occasions to stop the broadcasts on its territory of antisemitic foreign broadcasters. On December 13, 2004, the French highest administrative court, acting on the request of the TV authorities, issued an injunction ordering Eutelsat to cease broadcasting Hezbollah television Al Manar in France. Emergency centre officials expressed relief on 6 February 2005 (local time) that damage from Tropical Cylone Meena, a category 5 storm, was less severe than anticipated after the eye of the storm bypassed the main island of Rarotonga.

Over the previous 2 days, as the storm made its way through the island group, flights to and from both Rarotonga and the outlying islands had been suspended, planes put under cover or flown out of the area and tourist resorts evacuated in the face of forecasts of 270 km/h wind gusts and 10 metre storm surges.

About 200 tourist stranded at Rarotonga Airport, after leaving their tourist resorts ahead of the storm, had to be evacuated to a local emergency shelter. Some criticised Air New Zealand for not giving more warning it was cancelling their flights.

Although flights resumed only 15 hours after the storm passed to the east, there was significant local flooding caused by 15 m high waves. Iconic store Trader Jacks was inundated by the sea as were other parts of Avarua town and northern Rarotonga coast. Although the cleanup is expected to take several weeks, damage was nowhere near as severe as that caused by Cyclone Heta to Niue in January 2004. The 2005 British Columbia Throne Speech, read by Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo, included a pleasant surprise for the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research — a promise of $100 million in 2007.

The spark which led to the foundation of the Michael Smith Foundation was struck by Nobel laureate Michael Smith, who saw a need in British Columbia to pursue research funding and helped connect the key organizations and stakeholders in health research in the province. Working toward their vision of health research leadership, and their strategic objectives of health improvement, research funding and BC's knowledge economy, they have striven to increase provincial investment in health research.

The Liberal government in Victoria, which has set the next provincial elections for May 17, used the Throne Speech to announce a long list of spending initiatives — most of them dependent on their re-election to power. The Northern European country of Estonia is facing a boom in Internet usage due to low prices and a dynamic market. In recent years, the country has tried to emulate the Scandinavian model of technological infrastructure and is now considered to be the most technologically-advanced of the former-Communist countries of Europe. Estonia, which joined the European Union in 2004, has also exceeded other members and has become a leader in European internet usage.

The country is now one of the world's largest per-capita users of online banking, which has surged due to the growth in number of Internet leased-line connections. More impressively, the country is a European leader in terms of the number of permanent high-speed Internet connections. It is outstripped only by Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Finland and France, and thus ranks 7th in the 25-member European Union in terms of broadband Internet penetration.

Estonia's Internet boom has also been due in part of government policy. The government now wants to use the 450 MHz band to create a new digital wireless network that would cover the entire country. Edvard Saarma, the chief of the Communications Department at the Economy Ministry, said that, "In principle, this will be like a large Wi-Fi network that will cover all of Estonia." The stage has yet to be set, the lights haven't even been hung, but Juno fever is already starting to grip Canadians.

The 34th annual Juno Awards honoring Canadian music is scheduled to take place at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada April 3 and it appears that people want to be a part of the action.

Five hundred advance ticket packs that went on sale Friday at 10 a.m. (Canadian central time) sold out almost instantly. Tickets for the event will officially go on sale Saturday February 12, also at 10 a.m. Those tickets are expected to cost anywhere from CA$40 to CA$116, depending upon seating.

Tickets for the show have sold out quickly in previous years. The music awards show has gained popularity ever since private broadcaster CTV began broadcasting it live in 2001. Last year the broadcast attracted 1.51 million viewers, making it the most-watched show of the evening.

This year Brent Butt will host the show with K-os, Billy Talent, k.d. lang, Neil Young, and The Tragically Hip already confirmed to perform. Earlier this week when nominations were announced Avril Lavigne led the pack with five nods. The rebel pop star was followed closely by Diana Krall who received four nominations for her album The Girl In The Other Room. A drug-resistant and quick-acting form of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has been detected in New York City, according to officials.

Although diagnosed in only one man so far, this mutated version of the virus progresses to AIDS faster than other forms of HIV, officials said. Diagnosed with HIV in mid-October, the unnamed New York City man developed the full-blown form AIDS by mid-January. Normally HIV infection can take up to 10 years to develop into AIDS.

Dr. Ronald O. Valdiserri, the director of HIV/AIDS prevention at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), told the New York Times this new strain of virus is unique because of the rapid progression of the disease and its resistance to multiple AIDS drug regimens. Although the New York case appears to be isolated at this time, the CDC has sent a nation-wide alert to health departments in every state.

"It appears this individual has contracted a new, particularly virulent strain of HIV that swiftly advanced to AIDS in just a few short months," Charles Farthing, MD, AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Chief of Medicine said in a press release. "Unfortunately, it also seems that few of the AIDS treatments currently available today can be used in his case, as this particular strain of infection appears to be resistant to most known AIDS drugs."

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, urged all newly-diagnosed HIV patients to get tested to see if they have this new form of the virus. He also said all sexually active people should be tested for the HI virus.

New York health officials said they estimate that about 88,000 New Yorkers have HIV infection or AIDS and that an additional 20,000 are infected but unaware of their condition. New Zealand's Recorded Crime Statistics are now available online from Statistics New Zealand.

In an unheralded change to its website on January 20, 2005, Statistics New Zealand now provides the last 10 fiscal years of Recorded Crime Statistics for New Zealand. Using the Table Builder service, the country's Crime Statistics can now be examined and analysed online in unprecedented detail.

Although New Zealand Police has previously published Official Crime Statistics reports online, these statistics have only ever been available at a summary level, as a printed style document. This development allows detailed information, that was only ever available though an information request to Police, to now be seen immediately and desired statistics can be manipulated interactively.

Statistics are available either nationally or by each Police district and area for the each of the last 10 years or each of the last 24 months. Recorded Crime Statistics can be analysed down to the individual offence, with scene information for recorded and resolved crime. Offender apprehension statistics are also analysed down to the individual offence as well as the age, gender, ethnicity and resolution action taken with the offender.

The Recorded Crime Statistics also have a significant amount of accompaning metadata. Relevant legislation for each offence, together with caveats and interpretation notes for each parameter accompany these statistics. Users can now interpret these statistics for themselves, rather than relying on other agencies interpreting, or possibly misinterpreting, their requirements.

This innovation appears to be a leading edge breakthrough in publically available crime statistics. Although a number of jurisdictions place statistical reports and summaries of crime statistics on websites, these all are in the form of printed style documents. This move appears to be the first time that internet users can interact with a website to extract their own customised reports from the available crime statistics.

Internationally, crime statistics have been difficult to obtain, and even more difficult to compare. Interpol, the international policing organisation, for example, does not even make international statistics publically available on its website but restricts them to authorised law enforcement officials. Other countries present their statistics in detailed reports that need to be read and interpreted with care to understand them correctly. Different countries also count crime in different ways, often ignoring less serious offences or only counting the most serious of multiple offences occurring at the same time.

In New Zealand's case the basic data is now online. The analysis can be done by the user. After stagnation starting from 2001, the French economy grew at a rate of 2.3% in 2004, with growth picking up especially in the last three months of the year. However, the growth rate falls short of the 2.5% predicted by the French government. The seasonally-adjusted growth rate of 0.7-0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2004 is also the most solid growth since early 2002.

France, and the Eurozone as a whole, has faced economic stagnation since the September 11 World Trade Center attacks, which had profound effects on the global economy. Growth, however, picked up in 2004 and is expected to further improve in 2005. Unlike Germany and Italy, France's economy has shown to be more resilient, even though it too slowed down in 2001-2003.

The government's target for 2005 is 2.5% growth. While the rebound in output is good news for Europe's third largest economy, unemployment remains one of the highest in Europe at 9.9%. An elementary school in northern California has been testing a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag-based identification program on its 7th and 8th grade students since January 18th, 2005. According to the ACLU, this is the first time that public school students in the United States have been required to wear devices that enable automatic identification. RFIDs have previously been used to track students in Japan.

RFID tags contain antennas to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver, enabling identification of pupils when they are in the vicinity of the detectors.

Each student is required to wear an ID card on a lanyard around their neck. An RFID tag, manufactured by local Sutter corporation Incom, is attached to the card. The school has installed RFID detectors at the doors of seven classrooms as well as the bathrooms, though they claim that the bathroom units were not turned on, and subsequently been removed after complaints from parents.

While some parents have complained about the system, local high school teacher Tim Crabtree told the San Francisco Chronicle, "It's baffling why so many people are bothered by the district being able to tell them where their kids are at,"

On the other side, the San Francisco Chronicle quotes the 13-year-old daughter of Michelle and Jeff Tatro as saying:"Look at this. I'm a grocery item. I'm a piece of meat. I'm an orange." Another couple in Sutter, Michael and Dawn Cantrall, filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU. The complaint centered on the violation of privacy and concerns about safety. "Buy cheap Viagra through us - no prescription required!" Anyone with an active email account will recognize lines like this one. According to some reports, unsolicited advertisements (spam) for Viagra and similar drugs account for one in four spam messages. 

BACKGROUND

Spamming remains one of the biggest problems facing email users today. While users and systems administrators have improved their defenses against unsolicited email, many spammers now insert random words or characters into their letters in order to bypass filters. The Wikipedia article Stopping email abuse provides an overview of the various strategies employed by companies, Internet users and systems administrators to deal with the issue.

Ever since pharmaceutical giant Pfizer promised to cure erectile dysfunction once and for all with its blue pills containing the drug sildenafil citrate, spammers have tried to tap into male anxiety by offering prescription-free sales of unapproved "generic" Viagra and clones such as Cialis soft tabs. Legislation like the U.S. CAN-SPAM act has done little to stem the tide of email advertising the products.

Now Pfizer has entered a pledge with Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest software company, to address the problem. The joint effort will focus on lawsuits against spammers as well as the companies they advertise. "Pfizer is joining with Microsoft on these actions as part of our shared pledge to reduce the sale of these products and to fight the senders of unsolicited e-mail that overwhelms people's inboxes," said Jeff Kindler, executive vice president at Pfizer.

Microsoft has filed civil actions against spammers advertising the websites CanadianPharmacy and E-Pharmacy Direct. Pfizer has filed lawsuits against the two companies, and has taken actions against websites which use the word "Viagra" in their domain names. Sales of controlled drugs from Canadian pharmacies to the United States are illegal, but most drugs sold in Canada have nevertheless undergone testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is not the case for many of the Viagra clones sold by Internet companies and manufactured in countries like China and India. While it was not clear that CanadianPharmacy was actually shipping drugs from Canada, Pfizer's general counsel, Beth Levine, claimed that the company filled orders using a call center in Montreal, reported the Toronto Star.

For Microsoft's part, they allege that the joint effort with Pfizer is part of their "multi-pronged attack on the barrage of spam." As the creator of the popular email program Outlook, Microsoft has been criticized in the past for the product's spam filtering process. Recently, Microsoft added anti-spam measures to its popular Exchange server. Exchange 2003 now includes support for accessing so-called real-time block lists, or RTBLs. An RTBL is a list of the IP addresses maintained by a third party; the addresses on the list are those of mailservers thought to have sent spam recently. Exchange 2003 can query the list for each message it receives. A former employee of Google, Inc. has said he was fired after he made a series of unfavorable comments about the company on a publically-viewable blog. Mark Jen, formerly a Microsoft employee, began work at the Mountain View, California company on January 18. He then went on to make several observations about the company over the following week. In particular, some of the comments included information on the company's financial situation garnered from an internal conference and indications of the company's new products for 2005.

Nine days later, apparently of his own volition, Jen removed the comments from his blog. However, on January 28, Google fired him, an act which Jen attributes to his blogging. Google has not commented on his dismissal to other news sources, but has acknowledged that Jen no longer works at the company.

In his blog, on February 11, 2005, Jen appeared positive about his future. "I've actually viewed this as a great learning experience. Obviously, I've gotten a first-hand chance to learn about the power of blogging. I've also learned to be a little more analytical about situations, a lot more cautious and a lot less assuming." Hamas announced that it will continue its undeclared ceasefire while it considers whether to officially join a ceasefire with Israel declared this week by the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli Government at a conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas held talks earlier in the day with Hamas leaders at an undisclosed location, with the aim of persuading them to officially join the ceasefire. The BBC is reporting that Hamas is concerned about the pace of peace talks, worrying that protracted negotiations may lead to little benefit for the Palestinians.

Hamas (حماس), an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Arabic: Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas is also Arabic for 'zeal' or 'courage'), is a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary and political organization, regarded by some as a militant organization and by others as a terrorist group.

The United States, Canada, Israel and the European Union, among others, consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

Hamas was founded by Shaikh Ahmed Yassin (later assassinated by the Israelis) and Mohammad Taha in late 1987, inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Currently led by Khaled Mashaal, the movement is dedicated to fighting the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which, in Hamas' definition, includes all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The organization is highly popular among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It also has a following in the West Bank, and, to a lesser extent, in Israel, other Middle Eastern countries and throughout the Palestinian diaspora.

The movement's popularity stems from its paramilitary activities and its charitable operations; the provision of welfare and social services to the Palestinian poor.

Hamas is notorious for using the tactic of suicide bombing against Israel, particularly against civilians in busy city areas. On Friday thousands of Somalis made a peaceful protest in Mogadishu against the planned deployment of African Union troops into the country.

The Islamic Courts' Union, the Umbrella organisation of Islamic Clerics and the supporters of two warlords-turned-cabinet ministers, Husein Aideed and Osman Ali Ato organised the demonstration.

Many of the protestors claimed to reject the intervention of foreign troops on grounds of faith.

The African Union plans on deploying troops forming a Peace Support Mission to support the return of Somalians from Kenya. The country has been without government since 1991 when President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown, with various factions and warlords fighting for control since.

The new Transitional Federal Government, headed by President Abdullahi Yusuf, is due to take control on February 21.

Abdullahi Yusuf was elected President by Somalia's transitional parliament on October 10, 2004. He won the votes of 189 of the 275 members of parliament, with the election held in a sports hall in Nairobi, Kenya. His government is recognized by most western nations as the country's legitimate rulers Cordon-bleu chef Homaru Cantu has announced a technique which allows him to create dishes made of edible, inkjet printed paper. Cantu, a head chef at the Moto restaurant in Chicago, has modified an ink-jet printer with the help of computer specialists from local firm Deep Labs and loaded it with cartridges containing concoctions of fruit and vegetables. Using this modified printer Cantu then prints onto edible sheets of soybean and potato starch tasty images downloaded from the web.

“You can make an ink-jet printer do just about anything,” says Cantu. Once the items have been printed they are dipped into a powder made of soy sauce, sugar and vegetables before then being further processed by frying, freezing, or baking them.

Cantu has applied the technique to the printing of menus so that diners can further flavor their soups by ripping up the menu and adding it to the dish.

He hopes that his idea may find its way into popular media. “Just imagine going through a magazine and looking at an ad for pizza. You wonder what it tastes like, so you rip a page out and eat it,” says the chef who is working at perfecting the flavors and has applied for a patent on the technique.

Cantu also has plans for further culinary innovations. He plans to cook steak using a handheld laser that will sear the inside of the steak well done whilst leaving the outside medium rare. He also plans to use the laser to produce bread baked from the inside out thus producing a crust on the inside. Howard Dean was elected the chairman of the Democratic Party of the United States on Saturday. The former governor of Vermont and a presidential candidate in the 2004 elections was chosen by a voice vote of the 447-member Democratic National Committee. Dean replaces Terry McAuliffe as chairman of the committee.

The election of Dean to the post reflects the party's trust in his accomplishments during the presidential campaign. As a candidate, Dean mobilized support from across the country in his Dean for America campaign, using the Internet as a medium for organizing fundraising. According to MSNBC, the House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said "He has used the power of technology, the force of his personality and the depth of his ideals to bring new people into the party." Dean did not win the party's nomination, which instead went to John Kerry.

In his acceptance speech, Dean called for increased organization, and standing up for the party's platform. He said "Standing up for our beliefs, organizing, and transforming our party into a grassroots organization that can win in all 50 states: That's how we will rebuild the Democratic Party."

Dean's new position faces a mixed reaction from other politicians. The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ken Mehlman, said that "Howard Dean's energy and passion will add to the political discourse in this country and he will be a strong leader for his party." Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich has recently said that the Democrats should only elect Dean "if they have a true death wish." United Nations (UN) troops based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo face 150 allegations of rape including gang rapes committed against children as young as twelve.

The UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services reported these crimes which occurred even while investigators were in Congo. The Secretary-General of the UN, Kofi Annan has condemned the soldiers and has banned the peacekeeping troops (those deployed in Congo) from having sex with local residents.

The soldiers are believed to have bribed young starving children with eggs, milk or a few dollars to have sex. There are believed to be at least fifty different soldiers involved. Kofi Annan pledged personally to "root out this problem." The United Nations has 65,000 troops in 16 different locations, with 16,700 UN soldiers and other staff in Congo alone.

Annan also faces serious allegations of impropriety for the UN's $64 billion oil-for-food program which allegedly enriched Annan's relatives, senior officials within the Russian and French governments and deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The UN's own internal inquiry headed by former United States Federal Reserve Board chair Paul Volcker confirmed misconduct allegations leading to the termination of several senior UN officials. http://www.esa.int/export/images/KOU01-182614-pih_L.jpg

The European Space Agency's new Ariane 5 ECA rocket placed two satellites in orbit Saturday February 12, successfully completing its initial qualifying flight. The Ariane 5 ECA is to be the ESA's new workhorse launcher for injecting payloads into geostationary orbit.

Launched from the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana, the new rocket design carried three payloads: the X-TAR-EUR communications satellite, the Sloshsat FLEVO experimental satellite, and the Maqsat B2 which remained attached to the Ariane upper stage.

The Ariane ECA can carry up to ten tons of payload improving on the launch capacity of the Ariane 5 Generic by 4 tonnes.

This launch was the second test for the new design following a launch failure in December 2002. Iraq – The Shi'a United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) candidates have won at least 132 of 275 seats in the Iraq National Assembly, according to the results announced Sunday.

Capturing 48.1% of the national vote, the UIA is the largest single block in the Assembly. Yet even so large a block must create alliances with other parties to form a unity government. There has been ongoing speculation the UIA is in negotiations with the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan in advance of the poll results.

The union of the Khurdish parties garnered 25.4% of the national vote, equivalent to 71 seats, giving Khurds a vital voice in the National Assembly. The parties have reiterated their call for a Khurdish president or prime minister.

al-Qayimaal Iraqia, dominated by Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party, polled at 13.8%, and secured 38 seats.

Sunni voters stayed away from the election in droves, leaving them with very little representation in the Assembly. The Iraqis, the largest Sunni party in Iraq, received only 150,000 votes, less than two percent of the votes reported. The next largest, the Independent Democrats Movement, gained less than 0.1 percent.

The National Assembly vote on January 30 also included elections for governors, and the Khurdistan Assembly.

There are approximately 14.2 million eligible voters and 7,761 candidates in the Transitional National Assembly race. Approximately 58% of eligible voters cast their votes in the election, in line with pre-election projections. __NOTOC__
LONDON – The big-budget Hollywood movie The Aviator and the low-budget Brit flick Vera Drake have scooped the main prizes at the 2005 Orange BAFTA Film Awards. Four gongs went to The Aviator with the top ones being Best Film and Cate Blanchett for Best Supporting Actress. Vera Drake got three gongs with Best Director, Best Actress & Costume Design. Jamie Foxx got Best Actor with Ray and Clive Owen got Best Supporting Actor with Closer.

*The Aviator
*Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
*Finding Neverland
*Motorcycle Diaries
*Vera Drake

*My Summer of Love
*Vera Drake
*Dead Man's Shoes
*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
*Shaun of the Dead

*Jamie Foxx - Ray
*Gael Garcia Bernal - The Motorcycle Diaries
*Jim Carrey - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
*Johnny Depp - Finding Neverland
*Leonardo DiCaprio - The Aviator

*Imelda Staunton - Vera Drake
*Charlize Theron - Monster
*Kate Winslet - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
*Kate Winslet - Finding Neverland
*Ziyi Zhang - House of Flying Daggers

*Clive Owen - Closer
*Alan Alda - The Aviator
*Jamie Foxx - Collateral
*Phil Davis - Vera Drake
*Rodrigo De La Serna - The Motorcycle Diaries

*Cate Blanchett - The Aviator
*Heather Craney - Vera Drake
*Julie Christie - Finding Neverland
*Meryl Streep - The Manchurian Candidate
*Natalie Portman - Closer

*Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
*The Aviator
*Collateral
*Ray
*Vera Drake

*Sideways
*The Chorus
*Closer
*Finding Neverland
*The Motorcycle Diaries

*Mike Leigh - Vera Drake
*Martin Scorsese - The Aviator
*Michael Mann - Collateral
*Michel Gondry - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
*Marc Forster - Finding Neverland

*Amma Asante - Director/Writer (for A Way of Life)
*Andrea Gibb - Writer (for Afterlife)
*Matthew Vaughn - Director (for Layer Cake)
*Nira Park - Producer (for Shaun of the Dead)
*Shona Auerbach - Director (for Dear Frankie)

*Diarios de Motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries)
*Les Choristes (The Chorus)
*Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles (A Very Long Engagement)
*La Mala Educacion (Bad Education)
*Shi Mian Mai Fu (House of Flying Daggers)

*The Motorcycle Diaries
*The Aviator
*The Chorus
*Finding Neverland
*Ray

*Collateral
*The Aviator
*Finding Neverland
*House of Flying Daggers
*The Motorcycle Diaries

*Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
*The Aviator
*Collateral
*House of Flying Daggers
*Vera Drake

*The Aviator
*Finding Neverland
*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
*House of Flying Daggers
*Vera Drake

*Vera Drake
*The Aviator
*Finding Neverland
*House of Flying Daggers
*The Merchant of Venice

*Ray
*The Aviator
*Collateral
*House of Flying Daggers
*Spider-Man 2

*The Day After Tomorrow
*The Aviator
*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
*House of Flying Daggers
*Spider-Man 2

*The Aviator
*Finding Neverland
*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
*House of Flying Daggers
*Vera Drake

*Birthday Boy
*City Paradise
*Heavy Pockets
*His Passionate Bride
*Little Things

*The Banker
*Can't Stop Breathing
*Elephant Boy
*Knitting a Love Song
*Six Shooter

*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

__NOEDITSECTION__ The Hudson Valley Mall in Kingston, New York, U.S. is under lockdown after at least one man entered the building and opened fire. The mall is located about 90 miles north of New York City.

Police said that two people were injured. One of the victims received a serious gunshot wound in the leg. That victim, a 20-year-old Army recruiter, was taken by helicopter to an Albany hospital where doctors said the man may lose his leg. Another victim was hit in the hand by shrapnel.

Police took a 24-year-old man into custody. The suspect is currently being interviewed at the Ulster County Sheriff's Department. Police report that an assault rifle has been recovered at the mall.

Officials say that the man entered the Best Buy store and opened fire as he walked towards the entrance to the rest of the mall. When the gunman ran out of ammunition, he surrendered to a mall employee.

A Gap employee told a Fox News reporter that mall staff ordered shoppers into the back room of the store when the first shots were fired.

A shopper, Heather Craig, told CNN by phone that, when shots were fired, the numerous people filling the mall corridors were tripping over each other trying to exit the building, while some people stood dumbfounded. None of the frightened shoppers confronted the gunman before his surrender.

Officials said that the mall will not be reopened until at least Monday.
Police have locked down the mall as SWAT teams continue to search the building.

Earlier reports said that there were as many as three gunmen but police now believe that there was only one gunman. The Brazilian Regional Council of Medicine has protested against a Ministry of Education decision to accept the diplomas of Cuban medical school graduates without subjecting them to a more rigorous evaluation process.

Under the Brazilian 44045 Edict of July 19, 1958, all students of Medicine, Brazilian or non-Brazilian, who studied in a foreign institution must undergo a strict evaluation before their professional registration is granted. The law aims to ensure that the physicians who graduated at foreign universities are properly prepared for and familiarized with the particular medical conditions of Brazil. Some diseases like malaria and dengue for example are very rare in some countries but are more common in Brazilian territory.

However the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC) has come to an agreement with the Cuban government to allow medical students who studied in Cuba to go through a less rigorous examination. Furthermore the MEC wants to exempt the students from the Cuban Escola Latino Americana de Medicina (Latin American Medicine School) or ELAM located in Havana from the examination. Under the agreement, the diplomas of ELAM students would be automatically recognized as valid in Brazil. The Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the endorsement of this agreement last year during his visit to Cuba.

The Brazilian Regional Council of Medicine from São Paulo is opposed to the idea of accepting the Cuban diplomas and is to dispute the deal in Court. The council says the government decision is unfair and disadvantages Brazilian students. It also says that the decision puts the Brazilian community at risk because of differences between Cuban and Brazilian medical education. Cuban physicians are prepared for Cuban conditions and necessities in health which differ from Brazilian ones. Additionally the council argues that the decision is against the law because the Brazilian 44045 Edict demands that all medical students from foreign schools have to pass a careful examination.

The Cuban First Secretary of Technical and Scientific Collaboration in Health, Filisberto Perez, recognizes that both Brazil and Cuba have different models of apprenticeship in medicine. However he believes that Cuba and Brazil can recognize each other's diplomas without difficulty.

Early this year, a team of Brazilian inspectors visited the leading medical schools in Cuba to evaluate them so the degrees can be formalized.

The MEC's decision has angered some Brazilian students. "Why would I study for two years so I could get admitted to a Brazilian school if it would be easier to "buy" my diploma in Cuba?" asks Artur Oliveira Mendes in a email sent to a academic organization. He added: "...our schools of medicine are demoralized before the president's declaration."

The Brazilian students who are in Cuba were selected by the PT, PCdoB, and MST.

Senator José Agripino Maia (PFL) asked the Minister of Education Tarso Genro to explain before the Senate Education Commission why the students from Cuba are being favoured by the Brazilian government. Three U.S.-government sources have reported the existence of U.S. military drone flights made over Iran, carrying surveillance equipment and particle filters capable of detecting nuclear materials. Confusingly, U.S.-military sources denied the overflights.

Iranian military personnel said they were aware of them, and sightings had prompted a number of UFO reports in the area of Iranian nuclear installations. They viewed them as provocative and probably designed to trick the Iranians into turning on their radar so that the US could determine potential targets.

Because Iran does not have political ties with the US, it has formally issued its objections to the flights through Swiss diplomats. Gunmen murdered an American Catholic nun, Sister Dorothy Stang, 73, in Pará, Brazil.

The crime occurred Saturday, Feb. 12, at 9:00 a.m. Her attackers shot Stang six times: once in the head, three times in the back, while she was carrying a Bible. Another shot, at her neck, was fatal. The crime occurred in Anapu, Pará, inside the Amazon region.

Stang is from Ohio, United States. She had been living in Pará for about 38 years. She came to Brazil in 1966. She is a member of the Catholic group Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She was an activist and had been working at the region of Anapu. Earlier this year, the missionary received an "Honorary Citizenship of the State" from the state of Para.

Stang had been defending the Projeto de Desenvolvimento Sustentado(Project of Supported Development) or PDS for short. The Trans-Amazon development project was designed to generate jobs and income in Anapu. It supported the creation of an fruit processing industry, the construction of two small 500 kilowatt hydroelectric powerplants, and aided reforestation in degraded areas. According to Reuters, loggers, ranchers, and large farmers have been strong opponents of the project and of Stang.

Stang has already received death threats several times before. In March 2004, she asked for help from Brazilian Federal authorities, saying she and other persons were on a death list.

On another occasion, in August 2004, she said, "It is not my safety but that of the people that really matters. All of the Sisters of Notre Dame working in Brazil work very closely with our people and want to be a sign of hope. It is wonderful to be a part of this struggle and this is the contribution of Notre Dame."

The police requested the arrest of four suspects. Two are the alleged gunfighters Eduardo and Fogoió, one is a man called Tato who supposedly contacted the gunfighters and the other one is a farmer, Vítor Miro Bastos de Moura, known as Bida who is believed to have contracted the assassins.

The Brazilian police also found a body of another man 500 meters from the place were they found the body of the nun. The murdered man was identified as the peasant Adalberto Xavier Leal, known as the Cabeludo or the Hairy Man. He was working for a farmer who had already invaded the area of the PDS maintained by sister Dorothy.

The Brazilian police commissioner Marcelo Ferreira said the peasant was killed as a revenge for the murder of sister Dorothy. He received several shots from an armed group. According to the police the group would be connected to the missionary.

The funerals of sister Dorothy Stang will take place in Anapu and Altamira. She is scheduled to be buried on the morning of Feb. 16 in Anapu.

In the United States, a funeral mass is scheduled on March 19 at Mount Notre Dame Convent Chapel in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Brazilian government declared the resolution of the case a high priority. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sent two ministers and the federal police force to the region. Eight Ministers are scheduled to have an extraordinary meeting and discuss the case.

Rosana Gisele da Costa, a friend of Stang's from the Institute of Environment Research, told reporters that there must be a more active government presence in the region.

"Unfortunatelly this is not a isolated case", da Costa said.

She said other people will die if the Brazilian government does not start good political development of the region. She hopes the current actions by the government after the murderer of sister Dorothy will not be temporary. The Fiji Meteorological Service issued a severe weather warning for Samoa at 0835 UTC today. Forecasters are predicting damaging gale force winds, heavy rain, squally thunderstoms and heavy seas that may cause the flooding of low-lying land in the South Pacific island of Samoa within the next 24 to 36 hours.

The intensifying tropical cyclone Olaf is following in the footsteps of cyclone Nancy and the two storms are expected to interact in some way over the next 3 to 4 days. Some predictions indicate the two storms may merge. The 32-story Windsor Tower, located in the business district of Madrid, Spain, was devastated by the largest fire in the city's history.

The fire destroyed large parts of the building, completely gutting the top 14 floors. Parts of the structure collapsed during the blaze, which was extinguished on Sunday evening.

The 106m high tower is now extremely unstable, and experts believe there is a chance it could collapse in the next 24 hours. Surrounding areas have been evacuated, traffic diverted, and trains stopped on the three subway lines beneath the building.

The fire is believed to have been started by an electrical short-circuit on the 21st floor. No-one was in the building (which was undergoing refurbishment) at the time of the blaze; the only casualties being three firefighters treated for smoke inhalation.

The top twenty floors of the building housed the Deloitte & Touche auditing firm. The remains will be demolished at a future date. Iran nuclear program
Iran has rejected an offer by the European Union to supply a light-water nuclear research reactor.

Iran currently plans to build a heavy-water reactor at Arak in central in Iran, which could be used to convert uranium into plutonium, an element used to build atomic bombs.

The reactor design being offered by the EU would demand the use of enriched uranium, while a heavy-water reactor only requires natural uranium for fuel. Were Iran to take the EU reactor, their ability to use the reactor would be limited by outside supplies of enriched uranium—presumably allowing better regulation of their ability to use the civilian reactor for military purposes. With a heavy-water reactor, Iran would be able to presumably use uranium from its own uranium mines, and would be less dependent on Western technology or approval. According to GlobalSecurity.org, Iran has as many as 10 active uranium mines.

According to BBC News, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi rejected the offer saying "We intend to turn into an important and a major player in the nuclear fuel supply market in the next 15 years because there will be an energy shortage in the future."

The U.S. and the EU want Iran to cease all operations that could be used to produce weapons-grade nuclear material—namely uranium enrichment and the proposed heavy-water reactor operation. A passenger ship, the Voyager enroute between Spain's Balearic Islands to the Italian island of Sardinia, radioed a distress call earlier today after getting into difficulties in heavy seas. A huge wave shattered a bridge window, damaging control systems inside.

The Bahamian-registered ship is carrying 776 passengers and crew, 480 of them Spanish. Some sustained minor injuries when the ship sailed into the storm at 8am UTC today.

French and Spanish tugs have been dispatched to assist the vessel, and the British gas tanker Gimi has diverted to offer help and is relaying radio signals from the stricken ship. Voyager "is in a difficult situation but is not drifting", according to the French coastguard, with only a single propeller still providing force.

The ship was sailing from Tunis to Barcelona when she encountered the storm. The crew have restored power to two of her four engines and she is now diverting to Tunis, and is expected to reach port on Tuesday. WestJet Airlines is taking a CA$47.6 million charge on its books to retire 18 older airplanes. They will be replaced by 16 new 737 planes. Calgary based WestJet announced this Friday amid growing concerns about fuel prices. WestJet expects the new planes will save up to 30% more fuel.

The decision is expected to be a major hit to their profits and short-term growth potential. "It looks like the growth curve is going to slow down and fairly substantially through this next year," independent airline analyst Rick Erickson said Friday. "I won't expect that there's going to be very much in the way of new destinations for WestJet to serve." WestJet plans on reporting year end results next Tuesday. Electronics retailer Best Buy said today that it signed leases for 28 new stores. This is part of the company's plan to build 60 new stores this year. Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States, declined to discuss the terms of the leases but did say that the new stores will result in the addition of 3,500 more jobs to the corporate payroll. A large blast on the seafront of west Beirut, Lebanon has killed several people, including former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Current reports conflict on the total number of casualties, suggesting nine or ten people killed and around 100 injured. Hariri was travelling in a car in a motorcade when the explosion occurred around 1pm local time. His bullet-proof car was totally destroyed. The attack took place near the luxurious Saint George hotel, in a residential neighborhood.

The cause of the blast is currently unknown for certain but it is believed to have been a car bomb. Anonymous sources have said car containing 300 kg of TNT was used; however other reports have suggested the explosives were placed in a building. The explosion created a crater at least 10 m across and devastated the fronts of nearby shops and hotels, destroying several buildings entirely. Apartment windows within a 1km radius were blown out.

Only one group has claimed responsibility, a little-known organisation from Syria called Victory and Jihad in Greater Syria. There has been no confirmation that this group actually carried out the attack. Hariri's supporters see Syria as being responsible for the attack. Lately, Hariri had become a chief opponent of the Syrian military presence (14,000 troops) in Lebanon.

The BBC quotes the group has having said "We hold the Lebanese authority and the Syrian authority, being the authority of tutelage in Lebanon, responsible for this crime and other similar crimes."

Rafik Bahaa Edine Hariri (November 1, 1944–February 14, 2005) was a Lebanese self-made billionaire businessman, and was twice Prime Minister of Lebanon, before his last resignation from office on October 20, 2004. 'Baby 81', a four-month-old baby boy so named because he was the 81st admission into the hospital that day, has been confirmed to be the child of Jenita and Murugupillai Jeyarajah. He was lost during the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 228,000 people. Eight other families also claimed him to be their lost baby although no others filed a formal claim for the child.

DNA tests confirmed the Jeyarajahs as the real parents after the couple waited seven weeks for his return. The parents tried to get him back many times and were involved in a physical attempt at taking him. His father also said that he would commit suicide if authorities did not return his child.

"I am so happy, and I only have to thank God for giving my child back... We've got the results for all our hardships," Mr. Jeyarajah said after the ruling. On Sunday, February 6, 2005 the police officer Luiz Pereira da Silva was murdered inside a MST camp in the Brazilian city of Quipapá, Pernambuco. His colleague, police officer Cícero Jacinto da Silva, was captured and tortured. Another policeman, Adílson Alves Aroeiras, escaped. This week authorities from Pernambuco said they will strengthen the investigation.

The three police officers were from the 10th Batalhão da PM (Military Police Battalion). They were travelling in an unmarked police car. Members of the MST destroyed the car with scythes, and set fire to it.

The policemen were pursuing José Ricardo de Oliveira Rodrigues. Oliveira Rodrigues is accused of assaulting banks and robbery of goods transported by vehicles in the roads of the region. He hid at the MST camp known as "Bananeiras" (Banana tree). The peasants interfered with the arrest of Oliveira Rodrigues and got into a conflict with the police. Police officer Luiz Pereira da Silva was killed by three gunshots. Police officer Cícero Jacinto da Silva was captured, and later tortured. Officer Adílson Alves escaped. The MST activists disarmed the officers and took their bulletproof vests.

Later on Saturday (February 7, 2005), Police Commander Major Sillas Charamba negotiated the release of Jacinto da Silva. The policemen's pistols were returned, but the bulletproof vests could not be because they had been destroyed.

The MST says that the former MST leader Oliveira Rodrigues was already banished from the moviment. The MST says the peasants didn't know that the three men were policemen, that Oliveira Rodrigues deceived the other peasants, and that the policemen could not be identified as police officers. The MST say they have previously brought Oliveira Rodrigues to the attention of the police for the alleged theft of a motorcycle and beating of a woman.

The MST regional coordinator Jaime Amorim has been invited to go to the town Police Station and explain to the police that the MST has already denounced Oliveira Rodrigues. According to the Police Comissaire Antônio Carlos Câmara there are no recorded complaints concerning Oliveira Rodrigues from the MST at the police station.

The Regional Superintendent of the National Institute of Agrarian Development (Incra) in Pernambuco, Maria Oliveira, expects the arrival of a special federal task force this week (February 15, 2005). The force will assist in the disarmament of MST members from the Bananeiras camp.

The Secretariat of Social Defense of Pernambuco announced the backing of the investigations with the help of the Group of Special Operations and the Nucleus Specialized in the Verification of Multiple Homicides.

The Police requested that Incra provide more information about the MST members from Bananeiras camp, some of whom are suspected of murderer and torture, so they can be properly investigated. Fuxin city (阜新市; pinyin: Fùxīn shì) – An underground explosion in a mine in China's northeastern Liaoning Province has left over 200 miners dead.

Current figures say 203 miners were killed, and another 22 were injured with 13 miners still missing. The blast occurred at 3:49pm local time on Monday afternoon.

The explosion, 242m underground, is believed to have been caused by gas igniting.

This morning a rescue team arrived at the site in Fuxin to attempt locate survivors and treat injured.

China has a history of major mining accidents. Last November, 166 miners died in an explosion in mine in Chenjiashan mine in Shaanxi province. In 2004, a official figures show that 5,000 workers died in accidents in mines, 35% of the world-wide death toll in coal mines. Yahoo!, the internet portal, today announced it has chosen Dublin, Ireland as the location of its European Headquarters. Ireland beat off stiff competition from other European countries to win the investment. The move is expected to create over 400 jobs - two thirds of which are expected to be for graduates with skills in information technology, financial services, customer support and website editorial.

Earlier in the month, Ireland lost a potentially multi-billion euro investment by Dell for a new manufacturing facility to Scotland. This was a huge disappointment for IDA Ireland — the countries main development agency — which had offered heavy incentives to the US computer maker. This brought about fears that Ireland had lost its ability to attract high-value investments from foreign multinationals — the driving force of Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy.

Speaking about the investment, the Irish Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, said winning the Yahoo project was a "truly outstanding achievement for Ireland". Yahoo's Senior Vice President International, John Marcom, said the decision to locate its European operations headquarters in Ireland was influenced by a "number of factors" which included "the calibre and volume of graduates available in Ireland, the up to date cost competitive telecommunications and data centre infrastructure, and the assistance of IDA Ireland."

Yahoo is one of the world's largest internet companies. Its decision to locate in Ireland confirms Dublin's continued attractiveness to internet and technology companies - Google, Bell Labs, eBay, Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle all have significant Irish operations. A lack of thorough and consistent measures to pick the White House press corps members has led many to question the reason a little-known conservative reporter had access to sensitive documents and the President of the United States.

Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, has been operating under an assumed name while attending White House press briefings. Gannon/Guckert was a reporter for the news service Talon News, a website believed by some to be a branch of the GOPUSA, up until his recent resignation due to the incidents surrounding him.

The spotlight was originally cast on Guckert when called upon in a January 26 news conference. He asked President George W. Bush how he could work with Democratic congressional leaders "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality." Bloggers, seeing this as a "softball" question almost immediately began to question Guckert’s credentials and motives.

Guckert supposedly had access to classified documents that named Valerie Plame as a CIA operative as well, which adds more fuel to the fire of the Justice Department’s investigation of the release of her name.

Bloggers revealed James Guckert's real name, and that he was the registered owner of JeffGannon.com, Hotmilitarystud.com, Militaryescorts.com, and Militaryescortsm4m.com.

The accusations that Guckert has no degree in journalism, reports through a small organiztion funded by a larger conservative news outlet, operated under an assumed name, and is directly linked with pornographic domain names, have many questioning how exactly he received a press pass in the first place.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan, when questioned about this event, stated that Guckert did not have a regular White House press pass but was cleared on a day-by-day basis to attend briefings and used his real name. McClellan defended Guckert’s clearance saying that, "He, like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly and so he was cleared two years ago to receive daily passes just like many others are." The Tech Beat, an online extension of BusinessWeek magazine, posted a profile of Wikinews on Tuesday. Wikinews is an open content news source run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.

The review compares Wikinews to "a cost-free Associated Press or Reuters", noting the volunteer base of citizen journalists that collaborate in writing Wikinews articles. The Tech Beat cites the recent successes of Internet blogs as evidence that Wikinews has a bright future.

The recent offer by Google to host Wikipedia, an open content encyclopedia, was also mentioned to attest to the potential of Wikinews.

Wikinews was launched as a demonstration wiki in November 2004. At UCLA, a team of researchers has developed a harmless version of HIV that is designed to seek out, and potentially destroy, cancer cells.

In a laboratory-mouse experiment, the treated cells headed directly for melonoma and lung cancer cells, clustering around them with a surprising level of intuitiveness. Gene therapy for cancer has been at an impasse for the last 20 years, said the team, but now an effective carrier has been found in the most unlikely of sources. Essentially, one of the world’s largest health threats is now being considered to fight another.

Says Dr. Irvin Chen, from UCLA's AIDS Institute, "The disarmed AIDS virus acts like a Trojan horse, transporting therapeutic agents to a targeted part of the body, such as the lungs, where tumors often spread."

First the virus's coating is removed and the virus is reprogrammed so that it recognizes and attaches to the p-lipoproteins of a cancer cell, one of cancer's primary defenses. The retro-virus was also altered with a fluorescent protein for easy tracking within the lab mice. The next step will be to graft a cancer-killing gene onto the modified AIDS virus's genetic structure.

Currently, a case of melanoma skin cancer spreading to the lungs is a confirmed death sentence. Should this method of treatment improve into a workable treatment, both life-threatening cancers and the AIDS retro-virus could be effectively neutered. But the team cautions that the treatment is in the very early stages and will take several more years to develop. London Mayor Ken Livingstone has refused to retract a Nazi insult made to a reporter. The comments were made when Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold approached Mr Livingstone while he was leaving a party celebrating the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith becoming the first homosexual MP to “come out”, which he was attending as a private matter. Livingstone apparently saw the presence of the journalist as an infrigement on his private life.

Mr Livingstone is reported to have asked 'what were you before?' and then asked if Finegold was a German war criminal; he then compared the reporter to a “concentration camp guard.”

Ken Livingstone has headed the Greater London Authority since 2000.

Labour's Mayor is said to be “standing by” his remarks and at his weekly press conference on Tuesday ruled out an apology and said that his comments were not racist.

“If you think they are racist, I think you are wrong,” he told media representatives.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews has submitted an official complaint to the Standards Board for England which, if it decides to take action has the power to suspend or bar Mr Livingstone from office or alternatively may recommend that Mr Livingstone do something like attend race awareness meetings.

In separate moves the London Assembly passed two motions on Monday asking the Mayor to apologise for his comments.

The Mayor has said that his comments would not affect the 2012 Olympic bid made to the International Olympic Council, representatives from which arrived in London on Tuesday.

On the recording made by the reporter Mr Livingstone is heard to ask Mr Finegold if he is a “German war criminal,” to which Mr Finegold replies “No, I’m Jewish, I wasn’t a war criminal. I’m quite offended by that.”

The Mayor then went on to say “Ah right, well you might be, but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren’t you?” According to the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de São Paulo the body of a prominent Brazilian agriculturalist was found on the morning of Tuesday, February 15, in Anapu, Pará, Brazil.

The man, identified as the agriculturist Cláudio Branco who was also known by the nickname Mato Grosso, had received several gun shots to his chest. He was found in Anapu at Gleba Manduacari, on government property controlled by the agency Incra. The area was to be used by slain sister Dorothy Stang in a new project.

Branco's body was moved to Altamira for an autopsy. The Kyoto Protocol, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from developed nations, came in force on Wednesday at 6am UTC. The treaty has been signed by 141 nations who together account for 55% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

The treaty was proposed in December 1997 and requires signatories to reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by the year 2012 in an effort to reduce the impact of global warming. Each country has individual targets.

Of the major industrialized nations, the USA and Australia are notable absentees from the list of signatories. Both argue that the treaty is flawed and that signing the protocol is not in their national economic interests. The United States produces more CO2 emissions than any other single country in the world, both in total (5,410 million metric tons) and also per capita (20.1 tons per capita).

Despite this, the way was paved for ratification of the treaty after Russia signed up in November 2004.

Other criticisms of the protocol are that the treaty does not include India and China, or other developing nations.

Countries that ratify the treaty will have access to the emerging international market in carbon credits, estimated to be worth billions of dollars each year. This system allows individual countries to trade in their emission allowances - a country can buy credit from another that has cut emissions, and then increase their own carbon dioxide production. According to computer security expert Bruce Schneier, a widely-used cryptography algorithm, known as SHA-1, has been broken by three researchers at Shandong University in China. Designed by the US intelligence agency NSA, SHA-1 has been adopted as an official US government standard and has become widely-used in security applications worldwide, notably digital signatures. The three female researchers, Xiaoyun Wang, Yiqun Lisa Yin, and Hongbo Yu, have reduced the amount of time needed to find two documents with the same signature by a factor of more than 2000.

The SHA-1 algorithm is used to compute a short string of numbers, known as a hash, for any digital document. The algorithm is constructed such that small changes in the document cause the hash to change drastically. By this means, the hash can be used to verify that a document has not been tampered with.

The attack that Schneier describes is a "collision attack," rather than the more useful "pre-image" attack. In a pre-image attack, the codebreaker is able to find a document with different contents that matches an existing hash and so can claim an existing signature was on something else. In the somewhat less valuable "collision attack," the codebreaker is able to devise two documents that both have some particular hash. A adversary might use this to claim that an altered document is the original on the grounds that they have the same hash. A crafty adversary might also be able to trick someone into signing an innocuous document, one of a pair from a collision. The other document, which might not be as harmless, would then also appear to have been signed by the same person. If collisions can be found for SHA-1, then digital signatures will no longer vouch for a document's authenticity.

The attack, for now, is more of a theoretical than a practical kind: it would currently take thousands of years on a modern personal computer, and would still be slow even if a large number of computers were used in parallel.

Xiaoyun Wang is currently a professor at Shandong University, while Hongbo Yu is a doctoral candidate at the same institution. Yiqun Lisa Yin is currently a visiting researcher at the Princeton Architecture Laboratory for Multimedia and Security (PALMS). Last year, Xiaoyun Wang and Hongbo Yu also took part in breaking a series of similar algorithms, including the widely used MD5 hash, as documented in their paper presented at the Crypto 2004 conference.

Officials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have recently recommended dropping SHA-1 in favor of stronger, slower algorithms, such as SHA-256, Federal Computer Week reported on February 7, 2005, just 7 days before Schneier announced the SHA-1 break. Despite deprecating SHA-1, William Burr, the head of NIST's security technology group, said that "SHA-1 is not broken, and there is not much reason to suspect that it will be soon." U.S. retail-chain Wal-mart Stores will revise their "everyday low price" strategy at Seiyu supermarket in Japan. Seiyu's year-end loss in 2004 was 12.3 billion yen. The U.S. style low price selling did not appeal to Japanese consumers.

Wal-Mart bought a 6.1% share of the Seiyu company in 2002. At that time, Seiyu had lost money in 3 out of the previous 5 years. Wal-Mart introduced their "everyday low price" selling method to Seiyu, with lineup such as 900 yen fleece wear or jeans imported directly from China. Sales did not grow as expected, since consumers wanted a more varied range of products rather than just cheap prices. "We will adjust our bias to low priced items, and resume selling name-brand goods our customers like to see," says CEO Masao Kiuchi. Seiyu will go back to their previous way of marketing through inserted fliers showing the daily specials, quite the opposite of Wal-Mart way.
(The Nikkei) "Google Inc. has made a proposal to host some of the content of the Wikimedia projects." This small sentence has launched a thousand rumours, and not just in the blogosphere and on Slashdot, but in BusinessWeek and on ABC News as well.

The offer, as described on the unofficial announcement on Wikimedia's meta.wikimedia.org site, is less exciting than the speculation, however. The page simply says the board is discussing the offer, which does not require advertising, and plans to meet with Google via IRC in March.

For Google, flush with US$52 billion capitalization since its IPO in August 2004, an offer to host some Wikimedia Foundation content is a small expense. For Wikimedia, a non-profit with a bandwidth appetite doubling every four months, prowling for funds is constant.

The offer was met with howls of varying sorts, depending on where they emanated from online and business circles. John Dvorak seems opposed to any such deal, and his views have traction online, judging by comments on Slashdot after a link to his column appeared there.

Equally speculative calls from the other direction say Google and Wikipedia are destined to join forces. Unnamed analysts quoted on TechWack (and re-quoted on p2pnet.net) called it a response to Microsoft's re-entry, newly powered with its Encarta content, into the search engine market.

Blogs linked Google stock deals with the rumours of a hosting deal - and with the valuable commodity of social responsibility. The howls from within Wikipedia's community run the gamut of hopes and fears as well.

That such limited facts can raise the passions of the online and the business communities to such a pitch should impress both Google and Wikipedia with their status on the internet. The Tax Policy Center has published a table that states that taxpayers earning more than $10,000,000 in 2004 paid lower tax rates than taxpayers earning between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000. Among other things, it breaks down the average tax rate by cash income into various income tax categories.

According to the Tax Policy Center, the average tax rate paid by the 9,000 taxpayers earning over $10,000,000 in 2004 was 20.1%, more than 2% lower than the nearly quarter million taxpayers earning between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000. If taxpayers earning over $10,000,000 were taxed at 22.3%, the rate of those earning between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000, the federal government would have received an additional $4.8 billion in revenue.

Taxpayers who earned more than $10,000,000 paid a lower average rate than any category of taxpayer earning over $100,000. Although taxpayers in the $75,000 to $100,000 range paid 18.9% of their income in taxes, 1.2% less than those making over $10,000,000, taxpayers in the $100,000 to $200,000 range paid an average of 20.6%, or 0.5% more than those making over $10,000,000.

Original reporting
Furthermore, the Tax Policy Center's analysis is described by David Cay Johnston, New York Times columnist and author of Perfectly Legal as "understating the real economic gains of those at the very top, who have perfectly legal ways to defer reporting income for tax purposes."

The Tax Policy Center is a nonpartisian joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution and comprised of nationally recognized experts in tax, budget, and social policy who have served at the highest levels of government. The Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero visited Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay recently, in a effort to build a left axis in South America.

The cited countries' South American Presidents agreed to collaborate at international level, particularly in the United Nations, European Union and with Paris, Berlin and Madrid.

Zapatero visited the following cities in four days: Brasilia, São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile. According to official sources these visits are the last part of the project he began at the EU-Latin American Summit in Guadalajara, Mexico and pursued in the IberoAmerican meeting in Costa Rica in November. Google Inc. may offer hosting services to Wikipedia, a free community-built encyclopedia, and other projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Preliminary talks are scheduled to continue in March.

The steps of Google towards Wikipedia are not surprising. Google's competitors, such as Clusty.com, MSN Search, and Yahoo, already offer searching of encyclopedias as a dedicated search category. Clusty.com offers the English Wikipedia, MSN Search links to Encarta, and Yahoo has access to the Columbia Encyclopedia.

Wikipedia is often one of the top results of many searches. Anyone can distribute and even modify Wikipedia content in compliance with its license, called the GNU Free Documentation License. Besides attribution, the license requires that modifications are made available under the same conditions, a principle known as "copyleft" and most frequently applied to computer software such as the free operating system Linux.

How would a tight Wikipedia integration into Google look?
# A Wikipedia-specific search category like Google's Newsgroups Index Google Groups that even is editable. You can subscribe to Google Groups and post a response to a message thread.
# A Wikipedia-specific search category that is non-editable and links to the original project like Google Category that uses the Open Content the Open Directory Project.
#An inline feature that emphasizes Wikipedia results at the top of a search result. For details see Google Web Search Features.
The technical side of Google hosting also leaves various possibilities:
# Google could place a daily updated mirror of Wikipedia that is Google-owned and hosted as a subdomain like news.google.com. That option could be perceived negatively by the Wikipedia users. There is already a discussion on Wikipedia how to deal with Mirrors of Wikipedia that are listed in Google search results higher than the original content. Wikipedia:Send in the clones
# Google could offer some Web servers with unlimited bandwidth for the Wikimedia Foundation without conditions. That would have benefits for both sides: Wikipedia, that is currently in the Top 200 Web sites according to Alexa.com, would have no problems with delivering the content to the users. Google could index Wikipedia content instantly and would not be restricted to the limited number of requests to index it by Google Webspiders.

Here is an excerpt of a page about hosting posted on Wikimedia's "Meta-Wiki", which is used by the community to coordinate project organization:

"Google Inc. have made a proposal to host some of the content of the Wikimedia projects. The terms of the offer are currently being discussed by the board. The developer committee have been informed of some of the details via email. A private IRC meeting with Google is planned for March, 2005. Please note that this agreement does not mean there is any requirement for us to include advertising on the site." 

The original summary was written by Angela Beesley, one of the two elected board members of the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia and its sister projects. According to a message posted to a public Wikimedia discussion list by the second elected trustee, Florence Nibart-Devouard, Wikipedia founder and Wikimedia president Jimmy Wales met with Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin on February 10, "who were extremely enthusiastic about the whole project." The British Countryside Alliance has lost its legal bid to keep hunting with hounds after the High Court rejected their appeal, which had been made on the grounds that the Parliament Act 1949 was invalid. The High Court rejected this, ruling that the 1949 Act was valid. This means hunting with dogs for foxes, hares and badgers will be illegal from Friday 18 February in England and Wales in accordance with the Hunting Act 2004.

The Countryside Alliance has said it is challenging the decision in the House of Lords (the highest court in English Law) and the European Court of Human Rights.

The RSPCA has said the arguments were “wafer thin”.

However the CA as said that the police would have difficulty in policing the law. The League Against Cruel Sports has said it is setting up a “crimewatch service” to police the ban. Michael Gurian, psychologist and author of "What Could He Be Thinking?", has claimed to identify approximately one hundred structural differences between male and female brains in a recent study. Gurian comments:
:"Men, because we tend to compartmentalize our communication into a smaller part of the brain, we tend to be better at getting right to the issue, the more female brain (will) gather a lot of material, gather a lot of information, feel a lot, hear a lot, sense a lot."

One major structural difference that Gurian has made clear is that males generally have more activity in the mechanical centers of the brain, while women have more activity in centers of the brain dedicated to verbal communication and emotion. A clear example of this is the hypothetical situation of giving a child a toy. He explains it as such:
:"That doll becomes life-like to that girl, but you give it to a two-year-old boy and you are more likely, not all the time, but you are more likely than not to see that boy try to take the head off the doll. He thinks spatial-mechanical. He's using the doll as an object."

Another expert, Dr. Marianne Legato, says it all boils down to genetics, noting that the Y chromosome (which only males carry) has "at least 21 unique genes unique to males which control many of the body's operations down to the level of the cells."

Gurian agrees that culture is significant in brain development, but argues that biology plays an equally important role. He makes a point of how the MRI scans show that the female corpus callosum, the center of the brain which regulates communication between the brain's hemispheres, is larger than the male's. On the other hand, the scans also show that information flows more freely between the hemispheres of the male brain.

The exact role that brain structure plays in behavior, however, has been an area of considerable contention in science for literally hundreds of years. Early studies in craniometry conducted by Paul Pierre Broca were used to attempt to distinguish differences between human races, though have now been dismissed as scientific racism. The nature-nurture debate has raged for centuries in a variety of forms, without yet any clear resolution as to the role in which innate biological tendencies interact with environmental conditions or willed behavior. As such, studies relating to brain structure and claims to innate behavior often generate substantial controversy.

MIT anthropologist of science Joseph Dumit's study of brain imaging in his book Picturing Personhood: Brain Scans and Biomedical Identity, noted that the apparent "transparency" of such pictures (the appearance that they can be easily interpreted by laymen, when they are often the source of ambiguity and dispute by even highly-trained neurosurgeons) has led to their proliferation as indicators of objective truth in media and in courts of law, and that such conclusions are often knowingly exaggerated by the specialists creating the images for better visual effect.

The timing of Gurian's book comes on the heels of another controversy over gender differences sparked by comments made by Harvard president Lawrence Summers, who blamed low numbers of women in the sciences on genetic differences. Summers has been criticized by a large number of academics and scientists, as well as by many news publications, in the wake of what he was reported as saying during a conference on January 14. The Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on February 14, 2005 in Caracas, Venezuela. Brazil and Venezuela signed agreements of cooperation on many areas. According to the Brazilian government this was a strategical encounteur. This meeting is the first of three meetings that President Lula will have with South American Presidents in three days. The scheduled meetings are with the presidents of: Venezuela (February, 14), Guiana (February, 15) and Suriname (February, 16).

President Lula was accompanied by the following comitiva: the Minister of Development, Industry, and External Trade Luiz Fernando Furlan, the Minister of Finance Antônio Palocci, the Minister of Foreign Relations Celso Amorim, the Minister of Health Humberto Costa, the Minister of Mines and Energy Dilma Roussef, the Minister of Tourism Walfrido Mares Guia, the President of Petrobras José Eduardo Dutra, the President of National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) Guido Mantega, the President of Eletrobrás Silas Rondeau Cavalcante Silva and the Special Secretary for Aquaculture and Fisheries José Fritsch. In addition a delegation of executives representing enterprises from Brazil accompanied the President.

The Brazilian Ministry of External Relations told the trip aims the construction of a strategical alliance and commercial integration between both countries. The Brazilian Presidential Advisor Marco Aurélio Garcia said:"With this gesture, Brazil will consolidate one of its major political goals, which is the constitution of a South American community of nations". He added: "These agreements with Venezuela are strategical. We want this agreement as a model for other agreements in the region."

According to President Lula the integration of the Latin America is the priority number one of his government. Days before the arrival in Venezuela and commenting about the trip Lula said: "We're going to do the same thing in Colombia and in other countries in which integration is no longer a campaign speech but part of the way we deal with real things, day to day".

The integration of the Latin America is the politics repeatedly proposed by Lula during the meetings of the Foro de São Paulo. According to him and the others members of the Foro there must be a integration among all the left parties and governments of Latin America. The union aims to be an alternative and opposing force to the politics and influence of the richest countries, mainly the United States. Among the organizations which are usually participants of the Foro de São Paulo are: Communist Party of Cuba, Colombian Communist Party, Communist Party of Bolivia, Communist Party of Brazil, Workers' Party, Paraguayan Communist Party, Peruvian Communist Party, Socialist Party of Peru, National Liberation Army, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, Tupamaros.

On December 4, 2001 during the 10th edition of the Foro de São Paulo in Havana Lula said:"A shoal of small fish may mean the finishing of the hungry in our countries, in out continent. We should not think as the History ended on our journey by the Earth. Even it happens just once, or with one gesture, let's effectively contribute to the improve the life of millions of human beings who live socially excluded by this neoliberal model."

In Venezuela, once again, he brought out the integration wish:
"This is the biggest dream I am carrying, that we can negotiate collectively, not like one country, but like a set of countries so we can do that our people may have the chance to conquer the full citizenship."

President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and Ministers (Photo:Ana Nascimento/ABr).
Brazil and Venezuela signed agreements of cooperation in the sectors of electric energy, mining, exploration of oil and gas, science and technology, fishing and agrarian development, military, communication and Defense of the Amazon. They discussed about the creation of the South Development Bank and collaboration in the audio-visual diffusion.

PDVSA (Venezuelan Petroleum S.A.) and Petrobrás (Brazilian Petroleum S.A.) signed a intention protocol for the building of an oil refinery in Brazil. The investiment will be worth of U$ 2 billion and the expected production is 150 thousand to 200 thousand barrels. Another four agreements were signed covering petroleum exploration and production in Venezuela.

The National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) will liberate U$ 900 million to finance infrastructure projects in Venezuela.

Contracts worth of U$ 235 million were ratified. According to the superintendent of the BNDES's Area of Foreign Trade Luiz Antônio Araújo Dantas these U$ 235 million funds will be for the third line of the Caracas subway, the purchase of harvestors and other agricultural machinery and for the La Vueltosa Hydroelectric Plant.

Venezuela will support Brazilian candidacy to the United Nations Security Council.
Brazil and Venezuela signed agreements of technological and industrial cooperation for aerospace development and Amazonia monitoring.

Brazil will sell to Venezuela 26 attack airplanes type Super Tucano and 12 airplanes type AMX-T manufactured by EMBRAER (Brazil's Aircraft Company). According to the representant of EMBRAER in Venezuela Joany Kings the program will cost USS 300 million in two years.

The Venezuelan Air Force is using 20 old model Tucanos.
The new model Super Tucano is equipped with last generation technology and can carry up to 1.15 ton of bombs.
The AMX-T model is a two-seat advanced trainer AMX variant which can do strategical attacks from long distance using guided bombs.

Brazil will transfer technology knowledge to Venezuela with the goal to stimulate Venezuelan development in the military field and other areas. Olympic and World Record holder, Ian Thorpe, has decided not to swim at this year's World Championships in Montreal, Canada. The 22 year old Australian has designated 2005 as a training year and has no intentions to compete this year in order to focus on preparations for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

His decision not to swim will leave the 400m Freestyle event open to other swimmers for the first time in seven years. The 400m has been his event since 1998 when at just 15 he took the World 400m title in Perth, Australia. He went on to win the world title again at Fukuoka, Japan in 2001 and in Barcelona, Spain in 2003. Bill Gates announced in a RSA security conference that Microsoft will release major security changes to Internet Explorer and will release a new version prior to the release of Longhorn, the replacement for Windows XP expected any time after 2005.

Microsoft plans to include many features to increase security. These features are to protect against threats such as computer viruses, spyware, and phishing.

Release of a test copy of the new version is expected some time in the middle of this year. Also in the works is a Microsoft developed anti-virus program. This move puts pressure on other major players such as McAfee and Symantec. The anti-spyware product is currently planned for release to Windows users for free.

Analysts contend that these plans to rework Internet Explorer are likely due to increased competition from smaller browsers such as Firefox. AOL plans to release a new version of Netscape Browser with protection against phishing as well.

To further compete, more content related services may be incorporated into the browser. Martin Reynolds, a vice president of technology forecasting firm Gartner Inc., said, "I don't think we will see a whole bunch of new features. We will see the existing features of the browser tightened up so the security becomes more manageable." Israel's Knesset has voted to approve the compensation package for Israeli settlers who will be impacted by the proposed disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Eight thousand Israelis will be evacuated from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank removed.

MKs voted 59–40 to approve a series of measures that will compensate the settlers who face relocation under the plan, with five abstentions from Arab MKs. Prime Minister Sharon's Likud party was split, with 18 MKs voting for it and 17 against.

The $1bn plan will now go before Sharon's cabinet on Sunday, where it is expected to be passed. After that, the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip could begin this summer.

However Sharon's government faces collapse if his budget is not passed by the Knesset by the end of March. If that deadline is not met, elections will be called and the plan may well be stopped.

Last week, Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed a ceasefire after four years of violence. Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, today announced that the 2004/2005 season of the National Hockey League has been canceled. The announcement served only as official comfirmation of what was generally expected as wild speculation had raged during the past few days. The dispute centered around player pay caps, which where staunchly opposed by the players. The majority of NHL clubs have lost money over the last five years and as a result the clubs wanted to cap pay at a set amount. The club owners would not go above $42.5 million for any one club, whilst the players refused to go below $49 million. Speaking about the cancellation, Gary Bettman said "The shame of this is that our fans deserve better."

This will be the first year since 1919 that the Stanley Cup - the top prize in the NHL - will not be awarded. That year, a flu epidemic forced the finals to be called off. Two sets of remains, one a near complete set, the other just a skull, found in Ethiopia forty years ago, have been dated using potassium-argon dating, as the oldest human remains yet discovered at 195,000 years old. Remains from Herto, Ethiopia held the previous record of 160,000 years.

The findings, published in the February 17 issue of the journal Nature, show the remains Omo I and II, approach what geneticists believe is the age of the human race — 200,000 years. Due to geological activity in the region, this number may not be accurate; it is feasible that the fossils are as young as 104,000.

The uncertainty is due to the method by which they were dated from the known geological age of surrounding rock. The exact dig location where the fossil remains had been excavated in 1967 needed to be relocated.

It was determined that Omo I and II were buried in the lowest sedimentary layer, dubbed Member 1, of the 100-meter-thick Kibish rock formation, near the Omo River. By searching for datable material in that layer, and then dating it using the potassium-argon method, a research team was able to estimate an age for the fossils by association.

The date found agrees with findings from genetic studies on modern human populations, which use extrapolation to determine a date for the earliest modern humans.

In the same Member 1 sediment layers, were found additional Omo I bones, animal fossils, and stone tools.

"Those who believe that there is widely scattered evidence of 'modern' behavior going back 200,000 years in Africa will be delighted that modern human anatomy also goes back that far," according to study co-author John Fleagle, a physical anthropologist at Stony Brook University in New York.

When comparing the two sets of fossils, there is an anatomical difference between them. Omo II is much more primitive in appearance, while Omo I more resembles modern anatomy. Their existence in the same location in the same geological timeframe, may change the way scientists believe humans evolved.

Chris Stringer, director of the Human Origins Group at the Natural History Museum in London: "Given what we see in larger fossil samples from other regions, we may need to accept that African populations showed large physical-form variation at this time." A funeral procession several kilometers long wound its way through the Lebanese capital of Beirut for the former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri yesterday. Mr Hariri was assassinated three days ago, on the 14th of February, when explosives equivalent to approximately 300 kg of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St George Hotel in the Lebanese capital. The hundreds of thousands of mourners in the funeral procession were convinced that the assassination was carried out by the Syrian government and used the opportunity to voice their anger at the Syrians.

The funeral united the many Lebanese factions, with Christians, Druze, and Shia and Sunni Muslims marching side by side in the procession, accompanied by the tolling of church bells.

French President Jacques Chirac, a friend to Mr Hariri, was in Beirut yesterday and praised the work that Mr Hariri had done in his fight for Lebanese democracy and independence. He also offered his condolences to Mr Hariri's family.

The US House of Representatives has paid tribute to the former Lebanese Prime Minister and also called for Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon. Mr Hariri was described as a philanthropist who chose to put the future of Lebanon above political interests and used his own funds to assist the country's economic reconstruction after years of civil war.

Darrell Issa, a California Republican, said demonstrations by Lebanese calling for Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon underscore the key issue facing the country, "There is no proof that Syria was directly responsible for this assassination,” he said. “But there is no doubt that Syria has remained in Lebanon far longer either than their mandate, or than in the agreements under the Taif Accords of 1989."

Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat, also took to the floor of the House to denounce the killing. "It was a criminal act, it was a heinous act of terrorism, of those who don't have the courage to work through the political system or differences. I do not know who is to blame, certainly there are enough outside forces in the region that once again are looking to Lebanon to play their ugly, deadly games," he said.

The United States withdrew its ambassador from Damascus following the bomb attack, and has again demanded that Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon. Chubu International Airport, Japan's third major international gateway, has opened near Nagoya. Also known as Centrair, the 24-hour airport is on an artificial island 30 minutes south from the center of town and opens on time to serve Expo 2005, kicking off in March. The new airport replaces the existing Nagoya airport and also takes over its IATA code NGO. After five hours of meeting, the presidents Hugo Chávez from Venezuela and Alvaro Uribe from Colombia put a end to the diplomatic tension that had completed two months.
The crisis started with the alleged irregular arrest (according to Venezuela) of the FARC guerrilla Rodrigo Granda by Colombian authorities.

President Chavez said: "We have decided to turn the page so we can fix the things that were misadjusted, clarify the things that could be clouded and work together in the construction for the common people".

The meeting was scheduled for early this month, however it was postponed due to a disease of the Colombian president.

The encounter served both to finish the harshness between the two countries and to resume bilateral agreements and the activity in the border which were paralyzed as a result of the crisis.

Moreover Chávez insisted on Venezuela is not a santuary of guerrillas. Uribe admitted that the Colombian armed conflict is a problem which must be solved by his country despite the disturbances caused by subversive groups in the neighboring countries to Colombia.

As a result of the meeting, the presidents will organize a binational high level commission in the next weeks. The commission will evaluate the crisis's consequences, reinforce the integration between both countries and coordinate the future of the antiterrorist fight. The fight against terrorism will be done by security organisms of both countries by means of a rigorous legal adjustment in the actions which implies to cooperate so that the sovereignty is not affected and the sovereignty is respected, according to Uribe. RSPCA inspectors found about 500 cattle dead on a remote station in Western Australia. Water is being trucked in to care for another 2500 cattle on Windidda station, east of Wilun, which is leased to an Aboriginal corporation.

State Agriculture Minister Kim Chance says the propery was found abandoned and only two of the property's 13 watering stations were working.

"The lease is owned by an aboriginal corporation (but) the precise of identity of the corporation is somewhat obscure," Mr Chance said.

WA RSPCA spokesperson Kelly Oversby said they made the shocking discovery after an anonymous tip-off.

"Experienced inspectors have told us it is the worst case of animal cruelty they have ever seen," Ms Overby said.

"As well as the cattle, brumbies, camels, dogs and kangaroos have all perished." Yesterday the Brazilian police removed families who have illegally occupied an area in Goiânia, Goiás state, Brazil. The occupiers resisted and there was a conflict which resulted in 2 deaths, with at least another 45 injured and a further 800 arrested according to recent reports in Brazilian newspapers.

The occupation was coordinated by the regional branch of the Movement of Workers Without a Roof.
The occupied area was in Parque Oeste Industrial, in Goiânia. There were 2,862 families (men, women and infants) living there according to the government of Goiás and 4,000 according to the movement's leaders. The area had been under occupation since May 2004. The expanse is 891,000 m² as stated by the newspaper Diário da Manhã.
They named the area Condomínio Sonho Real (Real Dream condominium).

Failure by the occupiers to obey a court determination to leave the area resulted in the use of the police force to enforce the Law.

The serious conflict began yesterday (February 16, 2005) at around 9:20 AM when about 500 policemen from the Battalion of Shock entered the area to remove the families. The Battalion of Shock is a specialized Military Police unit set up to deal with activist conflicts.

The trespassers were expecting a frontal attack, however the police demolished a wall at the rear with the help of a front-end loader and surprised them. The resistance didn't last long and by 11:00 AM all occupiers had been removed.

Guerrilla tactics were used by the occupiers. They dug 70 cm deep trenches, prepared hidden traps with props of wooden and metal, built barricades with stacks of tires, stones and other materials. Some dwellings were incinerated and they used molotov cocktails and other self-made bombs. Scythes, hoes, machetes and guns were also used.

The police commander, Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Elias, said that lethal weapons were not used by the police. The shots which were heard during the conflict originated from the members of the movement gun's.

Pedro Nascimento, aged 22, and Wagner da Silva Moreira, aged 20, both died during the conflict. Police claim they were victims of friendly fire. The injured were transported to hospitals. Four of those hospitalized required intensive care.

The Secretary of Public Security of Goiás, Jônathas Silva, considered the operation a success. "We would not like that it had victims, but unfortunately the occupiers were armed," he said.

The police arrested two leaders of the occupation: Américo Rodrigues and Agildo Wagner Jaime. Another 21 leaders escaped and they are being pursued by the police. The United States' second attempt to test a ballistic missile defence system ended in failure on Monday when the interceptor missile did not leave the launch pad.

An unarmed ballistic missile was fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska, which was supposed to have been shot down by the interceptor missile. However the missile remained in its silo in the Ronald Reagan test site on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The test is the second straight failure of the system; in a test two months ago, the missile also failed to fire, that time due to a software fault. Initial investigations into Monday's failure blamed a malfunction in ground support equipment, rather than a fault with the missile itself.

The tests are the first in two years; in an earlier series of tests, the system intercepted five of eight target missiles launched.

The project, known as the 'son of Star Wars' (the cancelled 1980s Strategic Defence Initiative was known as the Star Wars program), was announced by President George W. Bush in 2002. The system was supposed to have been operationally deployed last autumn.

This year, $9.1 billion is to be spent on the development of the system. But in his budget for 2006, Bush has cut the spending to $7.8bn. Lance Armstrong has announced that he will attempt to win a seventh Tour de France crown in 2005.

The 34-year-old Texan announced his intentions in a statement on Wednesday, ending months of speculation.

Armstrong, who suffered from testicular cancer from 1996 to 1998, has won six straight Tour de France titles; a feat no-one else has achieved.

This season, Armstrong will be riding with the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, after US Postal Service ended their sponsorship of his team last year.

Five times Tour runner-up and 1997 winner Jan Ulrich said in response to the news, "It's good that he is there. The best should be at the Tour."

Armstrong will also be racing in two other road cycling stage races in France and the U.S. this spring, and will be in a one-day race in Belgium in April. There is the possibility of Armstrong competing in more races this season if he and his team manager believe he is fit enough. Boeing has unveiled a new ultra-long range version of its 777 airliner, capable of flying from London to Sydney non-stop.

The 777-200LR can fly for 9,420 nautical miles (17,446 kilometers) with 301 passengers onboard, giving it a range greater than any other airliner in the world.

The aircraft can fly from New York to Singapore and from Los Angeles to Dubai with a full passenger and luggage load non-stop, and has been named the Worldliner by Boeing to mark the fact it can connect almost any two cities on Earth.

Although it can fly from London to Sydney non-stop, the 777-200LR will have to break its return journey to refuel due to direction of the prevailing winds in the upper atmosphere.

So far, Boeing has received five orders from two customers for the 777-200LR since it was announced in February 2000. The first of the new airliner will be delivered to Pakistan International Airlines in January 2006. EVA Airways is the other launch customer.

First flight is scheduled in early March.

The 777-200LR will be the basis for an all-freight version of the 777, announced last November.

Boeing's European rival Airbus, which has out-sold Boeing since 2003, believes that the future of passenger flight is in very large aircraft like its new twin-deck A380 airliner flying up to 840 people between a relatively small number of large hub airports world-wide. Passengers would then take connecting flights to reach their final destinations.

Boeing, by contrast, believes passengers will want to fly direct between more local airports too small to handle aircraft like the A380. China is now the world's largest consumer of resources, passing the United States.

China's consumption exceeds the U.S.'s in grain and meat, coal, and steel, with the U.S. only still using more oil a year.

China uses more wheat and rice than the U.S. every year, with the U.S. only taking more corn. In total, China consumed 382 million tons of grain in 2004 while the U.S. used 278 million tons.

The world's most populous country also eats more meat, consuming 64 million tons a year compared to the U.S.'s 38 million, despite the average Chinese person eating 49 kg a year (the U.S. average is 127 kg).

However the U.S. still uses three times as much oil, consuming 20.4 million barrels a day in 2004 while China uses only 6.5 million. But China's oil consumption doubled between 1994 and 2004, while the U.S.'s only increased by 15%. Japan is the world's third largest oil consumer. Car sales doubled in China over the last two years.

China is rapidly heading to being the largest producer of carbon dioxide, the gas responsible for the greenhouse effect. Two-thirds of China's electricity is generated by burning coal, using 800 million tons a year.

China has a population of 1.3 billion people and its increases in consumption are being driven by a booming economy. However, the country only had an average per-capita income of $5,300 in 2004, one-seventh of the U.S.'s $38,000. The U.S., with its population of around 295 million being about four times less than China's, still consumes considerably more per person than does China, despite the differences in raw values.

The country now imports large amounts grain, soybeans, iron ore, aluminum, copper, platinum, phosphates, potash, oil and natural gas, forest products for lumber and paper, and cotton. In order to feed its demand for raw materials, the country has formed economic relationships for long term imports from major exporters such as Russia, Brazil and Australia.

The country is also growing rapidly in economic strength; along with Japan, it buys most of the U.S. Treasury's securities that allows the US to run its huge financial deficit. Australia has defeated New Zealand by 44 runs in the one off Twenty20 international match at Eden Park.

This victory, in the first full international Twenty20 match, gave Australia a unique treble having won the first ever test match and then the first ever limited overs international.

Batting first, Australia set a total of 214, with Australian captain Ricky Ponting top scoring with 98 runs from 55 balls, including 8 fours and 5 sixes. New Zealand's Kyle Mills led the bowling attack with 3 for 44.

In reply New Zealand were all out for 170. Scott Styris top scored for New Zealand with 66 runs from 39 balls. Australian paceman Michael Kasprowicz finished the match with figures of 4 for 29 from his 4 overs.

The New Zealand team had dressed in the 1980s beige uniform for the occasion. Many had also grown facial hair suiting the 1980s for the match.

The teams now go on to play a one-day series followed by a test match series. Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve has suggested that there will be more of the same in coming months from the Fed. In his speech during testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, Mr. Greenspan noted that the economic fundamentals of the U.S. appeared to be stable. On Thursday, Greenspan spoke before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services and when faced with questions regarding Social Security reform issues, he hinted that he was in favour of partial privatization of Social Security - but the general consensus on Wall Street is to expect more of the same.

However, economic advisors were somewhat disappointed that most of the testimony in both speechs was focused on the upcoming Social Security reform and did not address monetary policy as broadly as they'd hoped. Mike Moran, chief economist at Daiwa Securities America Inc, is quoted in the Investors Business Daily as saying "Chairman Greenspan provided few explicit insights into his plans for monetary policy."

Greenspan reiterated his concerns about market reactions to the burgeoning federal deficit. "We are not sure to what extent and how much the market will respond," he said.

Parsing Greenspan's reports to Congress is a Wall Street obsession, but the general consensus from his recent testimony is to expect little change in the current Fed policy. Economists expect "measured" hikes to the central bank's short-term interest rates from the next few meetings of Fed policy-makers.

"In my view the bottom line is that we are in for more of the same," said Steve Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital to the Associated Press. Foreign investors invested a record CA$53.2 billion into Candian securities in 2004, Statistics Canada says.

This was almost double the CA$18.5 billion recorded in 2003 and just beat the previous record of CA$52.8 billion in 1993.

Of the 53.2 billion, about 35 billion was put into stocks and 20 billion into various bonds.

"For the year as a whole, foreign investors picked up $20.2 billion in Canadian bonds; a substantial increase over the $7.0 billion purchased in 2003 but just half the high of 2001," the agency said.

Roughly half of the purchases were directly influenced by the acquisition of John Hancock Financial services in April which has created the largest North American insurer.

Canadians themselves were also buying foreign securities in record amounts.

"Overall for 2004, Canadian investors purchased $16.2 billion in foreign securities. Of this, outlays of $15.1 billion were made in foreign bonds - almost double the amount from the year before and by far the largest ever yearly investment by Canadian investors in the foreign bond market," Final figures from Baghdad today showed that the Shia United Iraqi Alliance has won a slight majority in the new Iraqi National Assembly. The party took 140 out of the 275 seats in the Assembly.

The major opposition party will be the Kurdish Alliance, which took 75 seats. The third largest party will be that of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party, which won 40 seats.

Reports in U.S. media say that many Sunni voters stayed away from the polls either because of a fear of violence or to support the call by some radical clerics to boycott the elections. As a result, the Sunni-led Iraqis Party won only five seats in parliament. The results are summarized in the following table:

Chief UN election adviser, Carlos Valenzuela, congratulated those involved with the election. He commented that "The elections were not perfect, they were never meant to be, but they were extremely successful."

There were fears before the election in international circles that a low turnout could jepordise the legitimacy of the new assembly. However, nearly 8.5 million Iraqis voted - 58% of the registered electorate. As noted previously, the turnout percentage did vary significantly among the various population groups. By combining the two different Shiite parties and comparing to estimated population groups in Iraq we find:

The Shiite and Kurdish groups had more than 80% turnout whereas the Sunni group had a turnout under 4%. The low turnout by Sunni voters resulted in much higher representative success for both the Shiite and Kurdish groups in the parliament. Paraguayan authorities have confirmed the discovery of the body of Cecilia Cubas
Gusinky, aged 31, daughter of the former Paraguayan President Raul Cubas. She
was kidnapped on September 21, 2004 in the outskirts of Asuncion.

The body was found inside a tunnel under a house which is located in
Ñemby, 29 km from Asuncion. Members of the
leftist party Patria Libre (Free Country) were believed to live there.

This kidnapping shocked Paraguayan public opinion because Cecilia was the
daughter of a former President and because two days ago it was discovered that
the kidnappers would have been advised by the Colombian
Communist insurgent armed group FARC.

The authorities claim the kidnappers were led by the Patria Libre member Osmar Martínez. He was exchanging emails with Trotador505
who according to Colombian police is Rodrigo Granda, FARC chancellor. Martínez was arrested in January in Caaguazú, 200 km from Asunción.
"We don't deny our fraternal relationship with this brotherlike organization",
Martínez said in relation to FARC.
He also told how he had photographs of himself with Fidel Castro, Brazilian
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, politicians of the People's Republic of China, Libya and Iraq and added: "I am proud of relating to the great men of universal history".

People are speculating on the possible participation in the crime by members of the Paraguayan police.

The advanced state of decomposure indicates Ms Gusinsky had been
dead for more than a month. John Negroponte has been nominated for the first National Intelligence Director
John Negroponte, United States Ambassador to Iraq, has been nominated
as the country's first National Intelligence Director by President
George W. Bush. The two-month-old directorate, created by Congress as part
of an intelligence community overhaul, will be one of the most
powerful positions in the federal government.

Negroponte will oversee 15 intelligence agencies, coordinating
operations and setting budgets. He will, as head of the new office,
report directly to the President.

"John brings a unique set of skills to these challenges," said
President Bush at a press conference this Thursday.

Negroponte has served in the American foreign service since the early 60's,
from Vietnam to the United Nations and now currently Iraq.

Lieutenant General Michael Hayden, director of the National Security
Agency was also announced as deputy to Negroponte.

Senate confirmation is still required before either can assume the
offices.

Negroponte has been a controversial figure in the past for his time as ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, when the United States under the Reagan administration was involved in violent conflict in Central America. Fearing that Central American governments were turning towards Communism, the Reagan administration assisted numerous rebel groups in attempts to overthrow left-wing governments, especially in the case of the Sandanistas in Nicaragua. Central American activists have accused Negroponte of ignoring human rights abuses by the Contras and their Honduran hosts, which the Reagan administration funded by secretly selling arms to Iran. (See Iran-Contra Affair) Engineer Russ Tedrake has designed a robot that is engineered to walk like a human. Tedrake did his work in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The robot uses a method called "passive-dynamics" to move, taking advantage of gravity and kinetic energy to move its limbs. This approach differs from standard motorized robots (such as the famed Asimo), and requires only a small fraction of the energy to achieve the same amount of locomotion.

These passive-dynamic robots have sensors that collect information two hundred times every second, constantly sending new instructions to the motors. The sensors also dictate the course of actuators that control tension in the robot's ankles.

The robots learn from their experience walking, getting a bit more precise with each step. Effectively, the robot will also learn to walk on different types of terrain, like going from grass to sand. Tedrake comments on this:
:"Every time it takes a step, it changes the parameters a little bit, based on its experience. It will walk on any surface and adjust the way it walks." The Italian government has criticized the Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) for their recently launched campaign called "Fri Television". One of the promotional films in the campaign refers to the media situation in Italy. The film says that president Sivlio Berlusconi was elected after a campaign on his own television channels and that he now also controls the state television, RAI.

The music theme of the campaign is a Mandolin version of the popular Italian song "O' sole mio".

The Italian government has said that this is a matter for Italy. Telecom minister Maurizio Gasparri said that the information is false. The Swedish ambassador in Italy, Staffan Wrigstad, was yesterday called to the Italian ministry of foreign affairs.

The CEO of SVT, Christina Jutterström, says that she doesn't have plans to stop the campaign. "This campaign is like Italian shoes. It's pointed and a bit uncomfortable", Jutterström said to the Swedish news program Rapport. Over £2m has been recovered by Gardaí ("Irish Police") in multiple raids in the Republic of Ireland. Seven arrests have so far been made in Cork and Dublin during a series of raids. Of the £2m found, approximately £60,000 was in Northern Bank notes. Forensic examinations are being carried out to see if the money is related to the £26m Northern Bank raid in December. The finds come on top of £175,000 which was surrendered to police in Dublin on Thursday night.

One of those arrested so far, an unnamed Cork man has appeared in court charged with IRA membership. Irish police chief Noel Conroy commented that several of those arrested are suspected members of the IRA.

After the revelation that the IRA were possibly involved in the December robbery, speculation has been mounting in the national media that the main Republican party, Sinn Fein, were aware of plans for the robbery. Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, who is currently in Spain said people should not be in a rush to blame republicans. However it is clear that he is under a lot of pressure as he has decided to return to Ireland early from his trip.

The December robbery is widely blamed for having ruined chances at a new peace deal in Northern Ireland. Unionist parties have called for Sein Fein and the IRA to be excluded from future discussions. Three children were killed Sunday in Vistahermosa, Meta, Colombia when a landmine exploded during a soccer game. According to residents the landmine had been left by FARC's guerrillas.

The children were identified as 4-year-old William Cardona, 9-year-old Javier Cardona and 8-year-old John Jairo Cardozo were buried on Tuesday in Maracaibo.

The deaths of the boys resulted in a peaceful protest by 1,500 students from local elementary and middle schools. The students walked the streets of the town along with their teachers, since most of the adults feared the retaliation by the armed groups of FARC.

Colonel Carlos Hugo Ramírez Zuluaga of the XII Brigada Móvil del Ejército said that there are about five thousand landmines in the region which is part of the old zone of distension where the insolvent dialogues of peace with the FARC were carried out between 1992 and 2002.

The NGO Campaña Colombiana contra Minas (Colombian Campaign against Landmines) denounced the deaths on Tuesday. Following pressure from African leaders, Togo's President Faure Gnassingbé has announced on Friday that new elections will be held within 60 days. Mr. Gnassingbé was selected as the successor of his father Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Africa's longest serving leader, who passed away two week ago.

"I have decided in the higher interests of the nation to continue the process of transition in line with the constitution of 1992 ... and organise the presidential election within the stipulated time of 60 days," Mr. Gnassingbé told in a televised address on a state channel. He said that he intends to remain in power until the elections.

Mr. Gnassingbé's selection with the army's help — in contrast to the process outlined by the Togolese constitution — has drawn sharp criticisms from world leaders and Togo's population. Despite his decision to hold elections the criticism continued. On Saturday Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the chairman of Economic Community of West African States, said that Togo faces "immediate sanctions" if Mr. Gnassingbé did not step down. According to the constitution in effect at the time when Gnassingbé Eyadéma died, upon the president's death power is transferred to the head of the national assembly. Russia announced Wednesday they were in negotiations with Syria for the sale of anti-aircraft missiles.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that he received a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he told him that Moscow will go ahead with the planned arms deal.

al Jazeera quoted Mr. Sharon saying "I wrote to President Putin but we got an answer saying they are going to sell that kind of weapon to the Syrians." There are conflicting reports among news agencies about what type of missiles are being sold—some have reported that they are SA-18 Iglas, while others have reported that they are Strelets. Iglas are shoulder-fired weapons capable of being carried by individual people, contrasted to Strelets which can only be fired when attached to vehicles, Reuters reported. The former would presumably be more attractive for terrorist proliferation.

In the past Russia had denied that it wanted to sell missiles to Syria. The United States and Israel have protested sales of the missiles, saying Russian arms supplies would aid terrorists in the Middle East.

There have been concerns that US-made Stinger missiles, similar to the Igla, have been acquired by terrorists in the Middle East and pose potential dangers for military and domestic flights when they are taking off. During the Afghan-Soviet war (1979–1989), the USA sold Stinger missiles to the mujahadeen fighters to use against the USSR. Various branches of the mujahadeen later became the Taliban and Al Qaeda, with whom the US has been engaged in the War on Terror since the 2001 World Trade Center/Pentagon attacks. A 6.5 magnitude earthquake has hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The tremor, lasting about 2 minutes, sparked panic in numerous seaside communities on the island. According to officials, no injuries have been reported but sea water levels have risen up to four meters in areas.

Though precise details of the earthquake are still unclear, the US Geological Survey has said the tremor just after 0800 local time (0000 UCT) was 10km (6 mi) beneath the sea bed. Local meteorological officials have reported to the Associated Press news agency the earthquake had been 37km (23 mi) under the Sea of Flores. A bus has crashed in Germany, between Ludwighausen and Kaiserslautern, killing 1 and injuring 7. The bus was carrying 34 people on a ski trip, the circumstances of the accident are not yet known.

The one death is a British citizen, has be confirmed by the Foreign Office in London, the several injured passengers have been taken to area hospitals. Apparently, the coach did not have winter tyres. Developing. The outgoing governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Ian Macfarlane, has warned that the Australian economy will probably begin to slow after over a decade of solid growth. Mr Macfarlane, in a speech to the House of Representatives, said that both interest rates and inflation were likely to rise. "We forecast gradual rises in underlying inflation, with it reaching 2½ per cent by end 2005 and 3 per cent by end 2006."

The Prime Minister, John Howard, responded to the news by saying that "We will never go back to the 17 per cent interest rates under this Government" and added that homeownership "should always be something which is kept within the reach of Australians on modest incomes." Xinhua quoted an unnamed North Korean spokesman as stating that "The DPRK North Korean government has no justification to take bilateral talks... on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula with the United States now." North Korea has demanded that the United States end its perceived hostile policy toward North Korea before talks can begin again.

Last week, North Korea claimed to have successfully developed nuclear weapons, and pushed for two-party talks with the US. The US and China have pushed for multiple party talks. Though North Korea has not provided any substantial proof for its weapons claims—and has not performed the ceremonious "first test" usually required by declared nuclear powers to demonstrate their capability—US intelligence agencies believe that North Korea may have produced anywhere from two or three such weapons (CIA's guess) upwards to fifteen (Defense Intelligence Agency's guess). The estimates were made on the basis of the amount of plutonium the North Koreans would have been able to recover from their nuclear reactors at Yongbyon. Airlines have attacked new EU legislation which will force them to pay greater compensation to customers in the event of overbooking, cancellations and delays.

Consumer groups have praised the new rules, which set the level of compensation between €250 and €600 depending on the circumstances and the length of the flight. "This is some comeback for passengers who have been inconvenienced," James Fremantle, industry affairs adviser for the Air Transport Users Council, told Reuters. Before this legislation came into effect, passengers "bumped" from a flight could claim between €150 and €300.

The new rules apply to all scheduled and chartered flights. Previously only scheduled flight operators were obliged to offer compensation in cases of overbooking— they did not have to extend compensation to travellers affected by flight cancellations. Low cost airlines have criticised the new compensation levels arguing that the compensation paid will exceed the price of the ticket.

The effort by the EU is to discourage airlines from deliberately overbooking flights, a practice which has become routine for most major airlines. Overbooking often leads to "bumping", where passengers who cannot be guaranteed a seat are moved to a later flight. In future when this happens airlines will have to offer compensation. Additionally, if flights are cancelled or delayed by more than two hours all passengers must be compensated. This will be the case except in "extraordinary circumstances", the definition of which may or may not include bad weather, security alerts or strikes.

"It's a preposterous piece of legislation, we among all airlines are fighting this," Ryanair deputy chief executive, Michael Cawley told BBC radio 4's Today programme. It has also been claimed that the advice may mislead customers by having them believe that they may be entitled to compensation if flights are delayed due to bad weather.

Marja Quillinan-Meiland, European Commission spokeswoman has said that there are "grey areas" but added "these are not as big as the airlines are making out." Disputed cases would be heard by national enforcement bodies which would decide if there is a case to answer.

European Regions Airline Association (ERAA) director of air transport Andy Clarke said "we reckon it's going to cost European air passengers – not the airlines, the airlines have no money, it has to be paid by the passengers – 1.5bn euros, that's over £1bn a year loaded onto European passengers. That's basically a transfer of money from passengers whose journeys are not disrupted to passengers whose journeys are disrupted."

These extra costs may also lead to carriers cancelling routes to areas that have been identified as problem destinations.

The European Low-Fares Association (ELFA) is mounting a legal challenge to the laws. ELFA and International Air Transport Association expect a ruling from the European Court of Justice in fall of 2005, until then airlines have said they will comply with the regulations. Some 500,000 people gathered today in Rome to march silently, demanding the liberation of Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter who was kidnapped on February 4 in Iraq.

Politicians, associations and citizens took part in the gathering, set up by the Communist newspaper Il Manifesto, Sgrena's employer. According to demonstrators there were 500,000 people, while the Police estimates a turnout of 200,000.

"The march is a way to say, loud and clear, that we want Giuliana Sgrena to be freed... to say no to terrorism and violence", Piero Fassino, leader of the Democratici di Sinistra (Democrats of the Left) party, said.

Giuliana Sgrena was kidnapped near Baghdad's University on February 4 while she was covering Iraqi elections for Il Manifesto. On February 15 Associated Press Television received a video showing Sgrena demanding help from Italian politicians and people, and asking for Italian troop's withdrawal from Iraq. Former Roman Catholic priest Paul Shanley was sentenced to 12-15 years in prison on Tuesday, February 15, 2005. The sentencing occurred at Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Shanley was recently convicted of multiple counts of child rape and indecent assault and battery against a child.

Shanley's conviction is part of the aftermath of what the Boston Globe called a series of "brutally damaging revelations about scores of priests who over a period of decades had kept their jobs despite raping, molesting, and groping children and adolescents." The revelations culminated in the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law, leader of the Archdiocese of Boston on December 13, 2002. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has confirmed that the £50,000 found earlier today in a leisure complex building was from Northern Bank Robbery. The leisure centre is used by serving and retired PSNI officers on the outskirts of Belfast and the find is believed by the police to be an attempt to distract them from the money laundering investigation currently taking place.

Meanwhile, it is likely that the £60,000 seized at a house in County Cork on Wednesday night is to be confirmed as having also come from the Northern Bank raid. Australia has defeated New Zealand in the first of five One Day Internationals between the two nations in Wellington, New Zealand.

Batting first Australia set a moderate total of 7 for 236. Opener Matthew Hayden showed a welcome return to form top scoring with 71 runs from 109 balls.

In reply New Zealand looked to be struggling at 5 for 113 but Hamish Marshall's innings of 76 from 69 balls brought them back into the equation, however the Australian pace combination of Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath took New Zealand's final 4 wickets cheaply in the 47th and 48th overs bowling the Kiwi's out for 226.

The series continues on Tuesday in Christchurch. Chinese President Hu Jintao is stepping up a government campaign to eradicate illegal gambling in China, detaining over 4,000 gamblers in an effort to clean up the public image of the Communist party.

Cadres and officials within the party have been caught using illicit funds, sometimes embezzled from local, state-run organizations, to gamble at casinos set up in border-towns within North Korea, in Macau, and in other popular gambling resorts outside of the direct control of the mainland government.

To assuage any fears that this latest campaign extends to ordinary working-class citizens, Deputy Public Security Minister Bu Jingfu has announced that ordinary citizens need not worry about being prosecuted for "friendly" games of mahjong. He did not specifically address whether mainland citizens should reconsider visiting the numerous mahjong gaming parlors which dot urban centers throughout the country.

"The whip that is used to beat wolves should not be used to beat sheep," stated Bu Jingfu.

China allows a "social welfare" lottery, for which citizens can purchase tickets that help to fund social programs. However, this legal form of gambling is mostly favored by lower-income players who don't have the opportunity to travel to the lavish gaming casinos frequented by the wealthier class of businessmen and party officials who can travel across the border on easily obtained one or two-day visas.

Despite relatively harsh penalties for those who are caught participating in illegal gambling operations, a number of provinces are well-known for hosting high-stakes gamblers in illegal, underground operations that are run on the mainland under the noses of local authorities. To combat these operations on a national level, the Public Security Ministry has sent 13 "inspection teams" to these provinces in an attempt to crack down on these operations.

One historian believes that China's government, which in its various forms has tried to stop avid gamblers for thousands of years, will have no better luck with its current campaign, than it has in the past.

"It is really hard to get rid of gambling," said Guo Shuanglin, a professor of history at People's University in Beijing.

Guo explained, "There were strict laws against gambling in almost every dynasty in China. Take the Song Dynasty, for example, when gamblers were sentenced to death. In the Ming Dynasty, gamblers' hands were chopped off. Even in the period of the Republic of China, they had a very strict anti-gambling law."

As far away as Las Vegas, casino operators are seeing a shift in demographics for their most elite players, called "whales", who are known to bet upwards of US$50,000 a hand. Since the 1980s, Las Vegas has seen a shift from Japanese businessmen to Chinese players, who now make up over 50% of the high-end clientele at some Las Vegas casinos.

Shen Mingming, a Beijing University expert on Chinese gambling, is skeptical that China's government can sustain a long-term campaign against gambling.

"It means long hours for the police, and it cannot be sustained," he said. "When the campaign is over, these organizations just quietly come back to life. Can you keep doing these campaigns every few months?"

However, this time China's government has set up a special telephone number, to encourage citizens to turn in government officials who are embezzling government funds for illicit gambling runs.

China has recently conducted a series of high-profile arrests of corrupt officials who are caught gambling with public funds, two of whom used tens of millions of dollars to fund their gambling lifestyle.

The government has also made one special arrest to show that even high-level officials are not immune to prosecution due to their party position. Cai Haowen, who had been groomed by former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, was arrested this month on an overnight train in Jilin (吉林; pinyin: Jílín) province, while fleeing authorities for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars and losing it all while gambling.

Finally, China is starting to crack down on the easy visa programs which have permitted so much traffic to gambling emporiums outside of mainland government control. The new visa program requires that records be kept of the identity of the visa holder. This new visa requirement has started to have a noticeable effect on some border-town casinos, leaving a number of properties with idle employees and few Chinese customers. Thirty fans were arrested and five officers were injured Saturday night in Liverpool following Manchester United's 2-0 win at Everton in an FA Cup match up.

Officers in riot gear were called out to the Everton Valley section of the city to separate the rival fans of the teams. It is believed that Ill-feeling marking Wayne Rooney's return to Goodison Park erupted outside the ground into what Merseyside Police called "large-scale disturbances". Officers were hit by rock, bottles, and other projectiles, several needed to be taken to area hospitals for treatment of their injuries.

During the match, a missile from the crowd struck United keeper Roy Carroll. Everton have vowed to ban for life the fan who threw the projectile, believed to be a coin, which injured Carroll. Police also reported recovering a mobile phone which was thrown onto the pitch during the game. Madrid - Spain today will be the first of the European Union nations over the next few years to vote on the treaty establishing a EU constitution. The referendum being held, one of 9 confirmed by member countries, is expected to draw 40 to 50% of Spain's 35 million voters.

Polling stations have been opening since 0800 UTC, with a small stream of people casting their ballot. The question on the ballot paper is:

"¿Aprueba usted el Tratado por el que se establece una Constitución para Europa?" ("Do you approve the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe?")

It is expected that a yes vote will come from the referendum, though the referendum is non-binding, with parliament having the final say.

However, despite constant media bombardment, as many as 90% of Spaniards are unsure of the content of the constitution, according to a government poll.

Spain has been a member of the European Union since 1986 and has received large amounts of development grants and subsidies. Since joining, it has grown into one of biggest economies in Europe and the world.

According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, all of the ballots being casted 77% have said "sí" (yes) to the treaty establishing a EU constitution. However turnout has been low with only 42% of the voters voting in this referendum.

The results of the referendum, 77% say sí (yes), 17% say no, and 6% of the ballots are estropeado (spoilted). The Chinese government is rebuffing a joint statement issued by the United States and Japan, which has broken new diplomatic ground by declaring that Taiwan is a shared strategic security concern for the two nations.

Beijing's opposing statement read, "Chinese Government and people resolutely opposes the United States and Japan in issuing any bilateral document concerning China's Taiwan, which meddles the internal affairs of China, and hurts China's sovereignty."

China's Foreign Ministry also, "urged the United States to see to their respective commitments toward Chinese people concerning Taiwan, and refrain from doing things that affect peace and stability in Asia and Pacific."

The US-Japan statement also asked China, "to improve the transparency of its military affairs".

The joint statement was issued after a US-Japan meeting, attended by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, and Japan's defense chief Yoshinori Ono.

On the US-Japan relationship, Rumsfeld declared, "I can't think of a time when the relationship has been closer or more constructive".

Rumsfeld also noted that China, which is in Asia, is, "increasing its military capabilities in a fairly significant way".

"It (the Taiwan Strait) is seldom, if at all, referred to in a formal document," said a US official.

Diplomats pointed out that the joint US-Japan statement was a first in the 50-year alliance between the two countries.

Former Pentagon official Dan Blumenthal believes Taiwan will welcome this statement.

"China has been investing very heavily on ballistic missiles that they deploy across the Taiwan Strait as a tool of coercion and intimidation. They have some five- to six-hundred missiles pointed at Taiwan, but it concerns other regional actors as well, not just Taiwan," he said.

Bilateral discussions between US and Japanese officials at the cabinet and ministerial levels of their respective governments have not been held since December, 2002. The Real Madrid midfielder and captain of the England national team David Beckham and his ex-Spice Girl wife Victoria have given birth to a baby son called Cruz Beckham. The baby delivered by Caesarean section in the Hospital Ruber Internacionalon in Madrid, Spain, Spain at 1040 CET. Cruz is the third child of the Beckham clan together with his older brothers Brooklyn and Romeo. He weighed on arrival at 3.2kg (7lb). A flash of energy from across the galaxy on December 27 was 100 times larger than any previously seen. The x-ray burst was powerful enough to affect our ionosphere in the same way a solar flare does.

According to astronomers at the NRAO, the enormous energy burst from a remote magnetar was likely caused by an abrupt adjustment, or "starquake", in the outer layer of the magnetar, causing a "catastrophic" disruption of its magnetic field.

More energy was released in a tenth of a second than our sun has emitted since the dawning of the human race.

The magnetar, known as SGR 1806-20, is 50,000 light years away in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. That places it on the opposite side of our Milky Way galaxy, which is roughly a disk 100,000 light years across.

Magnetars are a rare type of neutron star with unusually strong magnetic fields. SGR 1806-20 is only 20 kilometers in diameter, rotates once every 7.5 seconds, and has a mass comparable to our sun.

Neutron stars are stars which have exhausted their nuclear fuel and collapsed. There are no electrons or atoms in the cores of these massive objects, just neutrons packed tightly together.

An article from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will be published soon in Nature magazine. An outbreak of pneumonic plague has killed 61 people as of February 15 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The deadly disease has struck in Ituri district, Oriental province, in the northern part of Congo. While 61 deaths have been confirmed, the total number of cases is not known.

Samples have been taken from 40 patients and sent to laboratories in Kinshasa for analysis. So far, all the victims have been suffering from pneumonic plague, with no cases of bubonic plague detected.

All the victims are workers at a diamond mine employing 7,000 people. The mine was re-opened on December 16 last year, and the first cases were reported four days later.

Teams from Médecins sans Frontières, WHO, Medair and the Ministry of Health have gone to the region to assess the situation, while a multi-disciplinary team flew to the area yesterday.

If access is possible, the team will assist in treatment, surveillance, and in the tracing of people who have possibly been exposed to the disease.

Pneumonic plague is a highly infectious disease which has caused many epidemics and pandemics in history. Pneumonic plague differs from bubonic as it specifically infects the lungs.

The infected lungs raise the possibility of person-to-person transmission through respiratory droplets. The incubation period for pneumonic plague is usually between two to four days, but can be as little as a few hours. The initial symptoms of headache, weakness, and coughing with hemoptysis are indistinguishable from other respiratory illnesses. Without diagnosis and treatment the infection can be fatal in one to six days; mortality in untreated cases may be as high as 95%. The disease can be effectively treated with antibiotics.

It is primarily a disease of rodents. Human infection most often occurs when a person is bitten by a flea that has previously fed on an infected rodent.

Globally, the World Health Organization reports 1,000 to 3,000 human cases of plague every year. Professional cyclist Matt Decanio was fired in January from the Ofoto/Sierra Nevada cycling team for breaking what the team spokesman Josh Kadis called "ground rules" about what materials Decanio would be permitted to post on his anti-doping website, according to a report by VeloNews. The websites at issue are Stolen Underground and Mattdecanio.com. Decanio's anti-doping stance started with his admission to the use of EPO in the summer of 2003 in preparation for the Housatonic Valley Classic in Connecticut, USA. Thirty-nine people have received treatment and 30 taken to hospital after a suspected gas leak at Melbourne's Tullamarine airport.

Passengers and employees in the Virgin Blue terminal took ill early morning, reporting vomiting, nausea and difficulty breathing. Around 10 a.m. hundreds were evacuated from the terminal as a precaution.

At this stage the source of the leak has not been identified. American author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson found dead in his Aspen, Colorado home of an apparent suicide. His son, Juan Thompson, told the Associated Press that his 67-year-old father shot himself at the Aspen, Colorado residence.

"On Feb. 20, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado. The family will shortly provide more information about memorial service and media contacts. Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement issued to Aspen Daily News. The death was confirmed by Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis.

Hunter S. Thompson was best known for his 1972 book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". He was recently married and had emotionally supported his friend John Kerry's candidacy. The Romanian Government has made plans and identified its aims for the next privatisation program which will end in 2006. By the end of next year, the government hopes to sell all of its shares in Romtelecom, Romania's largest telecommunications company, which is currently owned by Greece's OTE but which the government maintains a 47% share in. The full privatisation will occur in two phases, with some of the government's existing shares being sold on the Bucharest Stock Exchange this year, and the remainder being sold in 2006.

By 2006, the government also wants to sell its share in Postelecom, another telecommunications operator, and complete the privatisation of the Radiocomunicaţii, the national radio communications company.

The Government also wantes to begin analysis and consulting into the privatisation of Poşta Română, or Romanian Post, the full privatisation of which is set to be completed by 2009 at the latest.

Romania has embarked on a quite comprehensive program of privatisation since 2000, having privatised a part of Romtelecom, as well as full privatisations of several energy distributors and the nation's largest banks, in addition to other smaller companies. However, these privatisations are dwarfed by that of Petrom, Romania's national oil company, which was bought by Austria's OMV in 2004 and is the largest Romanian privatisation ever.

The current Liberal-Democrat governing coalition in Romania has privatisation and economic liberalism as one of its main policies, having also introduced a 16% flat tax rate for personal income and corporate profits at the start of 2005. The largest multiplex cinema complex in Southeastern Europe opened on Friday in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. The cinema is operated by Movieplex Italy and is located in the Plaza Romania shopping centre. Robert Longhi, the general manager of Movieplex, said that the value of the investment reached 4.7 million euro. It is estimated that, during the first year of activity, the cinema will attract one million customers.

Plaza Romania is one of the newest shopping centres in Bucharest, having opened in October 2004 after a 45 million euro investment by Anchor Group, a Turkish company, which also invested in the Bucharest Mall, another large shopping centre in the Romanian capital. __NOTOC__
As the bicentennial anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birth approaches in 2009, renewed interest is resulting in a new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois in the United States of America – the town he called home.

Extrapolating out of a long-neglected set of interviews conducted by William Herndon, Lincoln's partner in law for 16 years, scholars have found that Lincoln seemed to have a soft side. Within a few years of his arrival, Lincoln fell in love with a local tavern keeper's daughter – Ann Rutledge. Herndon was surprised to hear about her, but of 24 people Herndon interviewed to who knew Lincoln and Ann at the time, 22 said he courted her. But in August, Rutledge contracted typhoid fever and died.

From then on, Lincoln would resemble the stoic man celebrated today. However, he was not without depression upon the death of his lover. One witness remembered, "He made a remark one day when it was raining that he could not bear the idea of its raining on her grave." Lincoln's exceptional reaction, to the point that many worried that he would commit suicide, had more to do with his own past – the death of his mother when he was but nine years old.

Lincoln would court again, this time to Mary Todd. After a guilty one year and still no commitment, Lincoln wrote to James Speed, a friend with whom he lived for more than four years, that he was racked with the "never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul." Upon a hasty marriage, "the debilitating episodes of 'hypo'"—as Lincoln called his depressions—"did not recur," and henceforth, Lincoln was known for his resolution, a matter of necessity to actually initiate and carry out the Civil War, and to emancipate the slaves.

In a his book, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln (0743266390) (published posthumously), published last month, the late psychologist C.A. Tripp asserts that Abraham Lincoln was "predominately homosexual". Most historians, however, disagree, pointing out that Tripp is applying 20th century social mores to a 19th century context. They have noted that many men slept in beds together in the 19th century, and that Tripp is wrong when he states that Speed is the only one to whom Lincoln signed letters "Yours forever" – he signed notes to at least a dozen other people this exact way. Historian David Herbert Donald writes, "I simply cannot believe that, if the early relationship between Joshua Speed and Lincoln had been sexual, the president of the United States would so freely and publicly speak of it."

In his 20s and 30s, Lincoln was more subversive than people acknowledge. As a member of the Whig Party, he published anonymous letters in local newspapers deriding his party's political opponents, the Democrats. This practice was not uncommon at the time, but Burlingame, a historian who is writing a four-volume biography of Lincoln, has come across more than 200 such letters he believes were penned by Lincoln. During the presidential elections of 1836 and 1840, he accused the Democratic candidate, Martin Van Buren, of supporting black suffrage—what he seemed to suggest as an unforgivable sin.

However, through writing a mockery of the Democratic state auditor, James Shields, for being, "a fool as well as a liar," being challenged to a duel by Shields, and the two men barely being persuaded by their seconds to call it off, "Lincoln may, for the first time, have understood 'honor' and honorable behavior as all-important, as necessary, as a matter of life and death," writes Wilson.

Four years after his squabble with Shields, Lincoln was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. However, his 1846 two-year term was uneventful—he passed no bills and his only notable speech criticized the ongoing Mexican War, making him seem disloyal at home. Upon the elections of 1848 he merely went back home and got to work in his law practice. He was incredibly successful – he probably handled over 5,100 cases over his career – and earned perhaps twice the money historians previously thought. His supporters made him out a simple backwoods man, but Cullom Davis, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois–Sprinfield, commented that, "by the mid-1850s, you'd have to say he was enjoying an upper-middle-class lifestyle."

Again, he was a heroic man who would not only take clients whose cases he philosophically agreed with, Lincoln represented all people across all spectrums – from murderers to adulterers, farmers to doctors. In 1847, Lincoln even defended a Kentucky slave owner who wanted to keep some slaves in Illinois, where slavery was illegal. Lincoln lost.

Fortunately, Lincoln's large law practice gave him national recognition, and when push came to shove, despite being moralistically human, Lincoln tackled, head-on, the most vexing issue of at least one and one-half decades. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, which created future states such that voters could decide for themselves whether slaves would be allowed in their area, completely undermining the Missouri Compromise, gave Lincoln the inspiration he needed, along with an enduring and haunting image of shackled slaves on the Ohio River, "like so many fish upon a trot-line."

And so Lincoln leapt into the fray, denouncing slavery, although he undoubtedly found its guarantee entwined in the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln, however, would once again show his capacity to rise and meet the challenge; before leaving Illinois for the White House, he told a group of journalists, "Well, boys, your troubles are over now; mine have just begun." As part of the confidence-building measures in the newly agreed ceasefire being brokered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel has released 500 Palestinian prisoners into Palestine.

The release is the largest mass release of Palestinian prisoners for nearly a decade, since the release of 800 prisoners in 1996, and comes within a package of measures agreed by the Palestinian and Israeli governments at the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheik.

"Releasing prisoners is a very good step," said Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian security chief.

Abbas and the Palestinian Authority expressed disappointment that Sharon has refused to release larger numbers of the more than 8,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Israel has promised to release an additional 400 prisoners in the coming months, with the names to be determined by a joint Palestinian-Israeli committee.

Israel is very concerned that the former prisoners not jeopardize the peace initiatives, and has required each to sign a pledge not to return to violence.

The Israeli cabinet approved Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and the evacuation of Settlers from the West Bank on Monday, Feb. 21. A simple saliva test can predict whether children will get cavities, how many cavities they will get and which teeth are most vulnerable.

Developed by researchers at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the test quantifies the genetic component of tooth decay, spotting the risk when something can be done about it.

"When we apply this to young children, it allows us to predict what might be their future caries history—the number of cavities that they'll get by, say, their late 20s or early 30s," says researcher Paul Denny.

Called the Caries Assessment and Risk Evaluation (CARE) test, the test measures the relative proportions in saliva of different types of sugar chains called oligosaccharides. The same sugar chains are present on tooth surfaces.

The effect of sugar chains on teeth's resistance to disease is analogous to the effect of "good" and "bad" cholesterol on blood vessels. "Good" sugar chains tend to repel bacteria that cause cavities while "bad" allow bacteria to bond to teeth and start the decay process. Unlike cholesterol, however, sugar chain makeup in humans is 100% genetically determined.

Denny and colleagues have found that the sugar chain makeup in saliva can predict a child's future cavity history to plus or minus one cavity with greater than 98% confidence.

The findings suggest that in developed areas of the modern era genes play a more significant role in tooth decay than in former times or third world nations where gross malnutrition and negligent oral hygiene held the greatest impact on dental health. Avalanches following the worst snow in two decades have killed over 100 people south of Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, with many more still missing and remote areas still isolated. Forty-five tourists have been rescued, and the death toll is expected to rise as rescuers--including a large number of Indian troops--deal with the 4.5 metres of snow that have fallen since last Friday.

The crisis has cut off electricity in Srinagar for three days and is not affecting the water supplies. There are queues for cooking gas, and helicopters have been bringing in additional supplies. Spain today became the first European Union member to ratify the new EU Constitution by a referendum. With a vote of 77%, the Yes camp, lead by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, was the winner. Speaking about the result he said, "Today has been a great day for all Europeans".
The No campaigners, who achieved 17% of the vote, were eager to point out the low turnout of 42%.

With the referendum, one in three Spaniards gave a yes vote. This is in stark contrast to the 90% of the Spanish Parliament that voted yes for the Constitution.

Despite the apparent enthusiasm by Spaniards for the new constitution, a recent government poll indicated only one in ten actually knew anything about its contents.

The official campaign was mainly dedicated to ask for the yes vote, without explaining the contents of the text. Very popular faces of singers and footballers were used for this campaign.

Although a Yes vote is a welcome start for the constitution - which must be ratified by all 25 member states by November 2006 - Spain was seen by many political commentators as an easy win. It is expected that of the twenty-five countries, Britain is the most likely to vote No. An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 hit Iran yesterday. The earthquake was centered around the southeastern town of Zarand, about 440 miles away from the capital, Tehran. Early reports indicate at least 40 villages with a combined population of 30,000 people have been damaged, with 420 deaths and slightly less than a thousand injured.

Earthquakes are nothing new to Iran, with one in the nearby desert city of Bam killing 31,000 people in December 2003. Heavy rain and bad visibility have made early relief efforts difficult; despite this some 1,500 members of the Iranian Red Crescent have begun organising camps for the newly homeless. Australian prime minister John Howard has admitted this week's decision to commit an additional 450 troops to Iraq is a policy backflip.

During the 2004 election campaign Mr Howard indicated that there would be no major increase in the number of Australian troops in Iraq. However yesteday's announcement is set to more than double the number of Australian troops on the ground in Iraq.

Mr Howard justified the reversal of policy as being in the "broader interests of democracy in the Middle East". He also explained that the decision came in response to requests from British and Japanese leaders.

The commitment of extra troops comes as a result of the Dutch government's decision to withdraw 1400 soldiers from Iraq, in response to political pressure in Holland.

The Australians will be deployed to the Iraqi province of Al Muthanna to provide military support for Japanese engineers working on reconstruction projects. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, has publically-approved the accession of candidate countries Bulgaria and Romania, which are set to join the EU on January 1, 2007. The approval comes after Bulgaria and Romania completed accession negotiations in June and December respectively, and the text for the Accession Treaty was completed earlier this month.

The next step before accession will be the approval of the Accession Treaty by the European Parliament on April 13, before the document is expected to be signed on April 25.

Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, who is from Finland, said that the EC's approval marks a new stage in the relations between the EU and the two candidate countries, and gives a clear message that the Commission welcomes Bulgaria and Romania into the European family.

However, Rehn also said that the two countries have a lot left to be done until their accession in less than two years. The release states that, "The Commission will continue to carefully monitor whether the two countries respect their engagements and obligations until accession and will support the two with all the instruments at its disposal."

Another important mention was that of the safeguard clause, which means that if any of the two countries do not meet their reform fulfillments and there are serious problems with their progress respecting their obligations, the EU can postpone accession by one year, to 2008.

The Romanian prime minister, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, responded to the approval by saying that, "The EC approval for the Accession Treaty confirms Romania is fulfilling its commitments and that the country is on schedule with the integration process." The leu, Romania's national currency, continues to appreciate against the euro and the US dollar after it reached high levels a few days ago. Yesterday, one euro could be bought for just 35,844 lei, down from 36,133 lei two days ago. These rates are also significantly stronger from the period in mid-2004 when the euro was worth more than 40,000 lei. Last week, the leu reached such a high rate against the euro that the National Bank of Romania had to intervene and restore the exchange rate back to around 37,000 lei per euro. The leu's growth also had an impact on global exchange rates, weakening the US dollar worldwide by 1%.

The National Bank, however, is hesitant to intervene in the marketplace once again due to the positive effects of the leu's appreciation on importers, who can now get products for lower prices, and for consumers, who now have higher purchasing power for imported goods. Romanians are also pleased that their currency, which has faced long periods of fairly sharp depreciation in the 1990s due to high inflation, is finally picking up again and strengthening against other currencies.

The leu's appreciation, however, isn't all positive, because it is putting a great deal of pressure on exporters. Other countries are finding Romanian exports more expensive, and therefore less competitive, due to the leu's appreciation, and this could widen the already large account deficit in the country.

Analysts predict, however, that the leu's surge cannot be stopped and it will continue strengthening against the euro, reaching a rate of 34,000 lei for one euro in the next week.

The current leu will be replaced in July 2005 with the New Leu (RON), with 10,000 old lei = 1 New Leu. The revaluation is expected to prepare Romania for adoption of the euro in 2012. Starting from next month, all Romanian prices must be shown in both the old currency and the new currency. The National Bank of Romania has said that it expects the exchange rate between the New Leu and the euro to hover at around 3.5 RON = 1 euro when the RON is introduced. Astronomers claim they have discovered the first galaxy made entirely of dark matter.

The galaxy was found 50 million light years away using the University of Manchester's Lovell Telescope in Cheshire and confirmed with the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico.

While it contains mass that rotates like a normal galaxy, it contains no stars. Rather, it appears to entirely comprise dark matter, mysterious matter that differs greatly from the normal (baryonic) matter with which we're familiar.

The discovery came from a five-year project to study the distribution of hydrogen atoms throughout the Universe. Hydrogen gas releases radiation that can be detected by radio telescopes.

In the cluster of galaxies known as Virgo, an international team from the UK, France, Italy and Australia led by researchers at Cardiff University found hydrogen atoms amounting to 100 million times the mass of the Sun.

They have named the find VIRGOHI21.

The find is considered incredibly important because cosmological models suggest that dark matter is five times more abundant than baryonic matter in the Universe yet is difficult to study from Earth because of the planet's proximity to the Sun.

"The Universe has all sorts of secrets still to reveal to us, but this shows that we are beginning to understand how to look at it in the right way," says Jon Davies of Cardiff. "It's a really exciting discovery." On Monday, at 10.14 pm UTC, the Wikimedia server cluster experienced a total power failure, taking down Wikipedia, Wikinews, and all other Wikimedia websites.

The servers are housed in a colocation facility (colo) in Tampa, Florida, USA. They occupy two racks, with each rack receiving electricity from two independent supplies. However, both supplies have circuit-breakers in them, and both opened at the same time, leading to a total power failure. All computers immediately went down. It's normal for fire safety regulations to prohibit uninterruptible power supplies in colos, with the colo providing its own UPS and generator instead. The circuit breakers were on the computer side of this emergency power system, so none of the computers continued to receive power to survive the breaker trip or shut down safely.

The actual reason why the circuit breakers tripped is currently unknown.

When power was restored, it was discovered that most of the MySQL databases that store the data which makes up Wikipedia et al had been corrupted. The main database and the four slaves had all damaged the data on their hard disk drives beyond the ability of the auto-correction to repair. Only one copy survived safely, on a machine that is used for report generation and maintenance tasks, which remained 31 hours backlogged while catching up after an unusually heavy update load during the previous week.

Volunteer Wikimedia engineers worked through the night rebuilding the databases from the sole good copy onto the other servers. The Wikipedia database is over 180Gb in size, making the copying process last 1.5 - 2 hours for every server it was performed upon.

Regular back-ups of the database of Wikipedia projects are maintained - the encyclopedia in its entirety was not at risk. The last database download was made on February 9; all edits since then could only have been laboriously rebuilt from logs and recovered from the damaged database requiring much more time and effort.

Limited read-only service was established late Tuesday afternoon, with editing becoming possible 24 hours after the power failure. Final repairs continue now, as well as upgrades to prevent similar issues in the future. Server-intensive features, such as categories and 'watchlists' that display recent changes to selected articles to registered users, remain disabled to ease the load on the recovering systems.

The process which led to the damage originated with the operating system, disk controllers, or hard drives failing to flush the data correctly.

If the power to a database server is cut mid-write, the database may be corrupted and unreadable, however the operating system, hardware, and software are designed to make this very unlikely. In a previous incident in 2004 power was also lost to a server but the database was undamaged.

To avoid such damage, each database server saves a copy of an edit to be applied to the database on a separate storage system before making the actual update to the database itself. This so-called 'write-ahead logging' should ensure that in the event of a system crash, the database can be rebuilt from a 'last-good' state by replaying the edits saved in the log.

Earlier this year popular blogging site LiveJournal suffered a similar power failure when another customer at their colocation facility pressed an Emergency Power Off button, intended for use only by firefighters. The company suffered database corruption similar to that seen at Wikimedia.

LiveJournal are now fitting UPS to their servers to ensure that they have time to shut down safely in the event of a power failure. Wikimedia was said to be investigating the possibility of fitting similar equipment at the time of this failure.

Several pundits have suggested that the use of another database, such as the proprietary database Oracle or the free PostgreSQL, would have avoided the database corruption seen at the server cluster. A post-mortem of the incident show the failure was in the operating system, or the hardware, or some combination of the two. LiveJournal, which also uses MySQL, reported similar database corruption after their power cut.

The Wikimedia foundation only allows the use of free software on its systems, and future versions of the Mediawiki software will support the PostgreSQL database.

Users are reminded that during times of system failure or excessive demand, they can still search Wikipedia using Google. The articles may be viewed using Google's cache. London, Dublin - The illegal food dye Sudan Red 1, derived from chillies and banned in the EU since 2003, due to an associated risk of cancer has been found in several hundred products on European shelves. Products containing the illegal ingredient range from crisps, pizzas, casseroles and various chicken products to dozens of seasonings and sauces. The Italian food authorities found the illegal dye over routine checks, and thus alerted the British and subsequently the Irish authorities.

The dye found its way into the European food supply as a primary ingredient in a batch of Crosse and Blackwell Worcester Sauce ingredient manufactured in Britain by Premier Foods, which was then used in all of the affected food products. As a result of the find over 400 products have been withdrawn in the UK and Ireland. The financial cost of recalling all the affected products in Britain alone is expected to top £100m, €145m.

Despite the recall many industry experts are trying to calm the public. One common analogy in use is, "Just like one cigarette is unlikely to cause cancer on its own, one meal containing Sudan Red is also unlikely to cause cancer." The problem is, if people regularly consume the dye, then the risk of cancer is greatly increased.

Several lists have been published by the UK and Irish food standard authorities. All products on the following lists contain the dye and should either be thrown out or returned to the shop where purchased:

* Food Safety Authority of Ireland - List of Irish Products affected, February 21, 2005
* UK Food Standards Agency - List of UK Products affected, February 23, 2005 A compound in the common daisy-like plant feverfew kills human leukemia stem cells and could form the basis for newer, more effective drugs for the disease.

American researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York say that it could take months to develop a useable drug from the compound, parthenolide.

However, they are working to do so with chemists at the University of Kentucky who have identified a water-soluble molecule with the same properties. The US National Cancer Institute has also accepted the work into its rapid access program, which aims to speed experimental drugs into human clinical trials.

"This research is a very important step in setting the stage for future development of a new therapy for leukemia," says Rochester researcher Craig Jordan. "We have proof that we can kill leukemia stem cells with this type of agent, and that is good news."

Parthenolide appears to target the roots of myeloid leukemia, stem cells, while current treatments including the relatively new drug Gleevec don't. So, "You're pulling the weed without getting to the root," says Jordan.

Used for centuries to fight fevers, inflammation and arthritis, feverfew earned interest from the Rochester researchers after other scientists showed that it could prevent skin cancer in animal models.

So the researchers investigated how a concentrated form of the plant component parthenolide would affect leukemia cells and normal cells.

Comparing the impact of parthenolide to the common chemotherapy drug cytarabine, they found that parthenolide selectively killed leukemia cells while sparing normal cells better.

While the findings suggest that parthenolide is a good starting point for new drugs, people with leukemia aren't being encouraged to take high doses of feverfew as they could not take enough of the remedy to halt the disease.

The research is reported in the journal Blood. Pope John Paul II has been re-admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital with a relapse of influenza which saw him hospitalised earlier this month.

He was wheeled into Gemelli Hospital on a partially elevated stretcher, and was waving to people as he entered the clinic.

Later, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls announced that the pope had undergone a tracheotomy to assist his breathing.

The Pope's re-admittance again raises questions about how long his papacy will last. One of his close aides refused to rule out the possibility of the Pope retiring saying it was up to his "conscience". The Pope has recently indicated that he has no intention of retiring by saying that the call "to guard his flock" was "particularly alive in him".

The operation lasted around thirty minutes, and Navarro Valls said to media that it was a success. The former Finnish rally driver and current Member of the European Parliament for Grand Sud-Est France, Ari Vatanen, harshly criticised Finnish President Tarja Halonen and the current Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja for having an anti-American stance and maintaining old-fashioned ideologies about defence strategies that hark back to the 1970s, in an article in the Wall Street Journal Europe.

The UMP member, born in Finland, said that considering that 94% of the nations in the EU are NATO members, it does not make sense for Finland to not join.

According to Vatanen, when the MEP first tried publish the piece in the Helsingin Sanomat, the newspaper refused to publish it.

Accondingly Helsingin Sanomat, 57% of Finns are against joining NATO, while 23% are in favour.

Helsingin Sanomat is the main newspaper of Finland and the biggest daily subscription-based newspaper in Scandinavia. The paper is independent and non-aligned. A paste containing synthetic tooth enamel can seal small cavities without drilling. Kazue Yamagishi and colleagues at the FAP Dental Institute in Tokyo say that the paste can repair small cavities in 15 minutes.

Currently, fillers don't stick to such small cavities so dentists must drill bigger holes. Hydroxyapatite crystals, of which natural enamel is made, bond with teeth to repair tiny areas of damage.

Yamagishi and colleagues have tested their paste on a lower premolar tooth that showed early signs of decay. They found that the synthetic enamel merged with the natural enamel. The synthetic enamel also appears to make teeth stronger which will improve resistance to future decay. As with drilling, however, there is still the potential for pain: The paste is strongly acidic to encourage crystal growth and causes inflammation if it touches the gums.

The paste is reported in the journal Nature. The Russian oil giant Yukos (Юкос) has lost its bid for Chapter 11 protection by a Texan court. Yukos sought Chapter 11 protection, to prevent the forced sale of the subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz by the Russian authorities.

Judge Letitia Clark said that the oil company didn't have a strong enough presence in America to warrant Chapter 11.

The sale was made to pay Yukos' US$27.5 billion tax bill, Yuganskneftegaz was originally sold for US$9.4 billion to a little known company Baikalfinansgroup (Байкалфинансгруп) which was later bought by the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft (Роснефть).

Yukos was started by the Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is in prison for fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion charges that he denies, saying his arrest is politically motivated by the Russian president Vladimir Putin. At least eight UN peacekeepers have been killed in an ambush by militiamen in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The attack happened in the morning and it is believed that the Lendus ethnic militia known as FNI are likely to be behind the attack. The peacekeepers are all believed to be from Bangladesh and are in the Ituri area of the Congo along with 4,800 other peacekeepers from several contries including Pakistan, Morocco and Nepal.
A UN spokesperson has said "There are at least eight dead and some still missing" indicating that it is possible that more have been killed or injured. The spokesperson has added that "Lendus are not people that take hostages, they just kill." The British Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced that the minimum wage is to go up from GBP 4.85 (EUR 7.03) per hour to GBP 5.05 (EUR 7.32) per hour in October and GBP 5.35 (EUR 7.76) per hour in October 2006. The minimum wage for 18-21 year-olds, the development minimum wage will also go up from GBP 4.10 (EUR 5.94) per hour to GBP 4.25 (EUR 6.16) per hour. The rises was a recommendation by the Low Pay Commission, a government organisation responsible in the minimum wage said that the minimum wage has increased the amount of jobs in the market.

The minimum wage started in the UK in 1998 as one of the election proposal of the Labour government and it started at GBP 3.60 (EUR 5.22) per hour.

The Trade Union Congress said they welcome the rise, however they want the minimum wage to go up to GBP 6.00 (EUR 8.70) per hour. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) called for a "pause year" on the minimum wage to assess the above inflation rises

Political speculators are says the announcement is to coincide with a possible general election in May this year. A genetic mutation has been linked with typical, late-onset Parkinson's in a step towards new drugs that target particular forms of the disease.

American and European researchers led by neuroscientists at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida discovered the mutation in a recently identified gene called LRRK2 that previous studies have already linked to some forms of Parkinson's.

The mutation, dubbed G2019S, is the first, the researchers say, to be associated with typical, late-onset Parkinson's.

"From a research point of view, this is the first time we could identify what appears to be typical Parkinson's disease cases before people develop symptoms," says Mayo Clinic neuroscientist Matthew Farrer. "We know if someone inherits the mutation they are going to get Parkinson's disease."

The mutation was discovered by sequencing the LRRK2 gene in families with Parkinson's from the US, Norway, Ireland and Poland.

It was found in 22 of 42 family members of people with Parkinson's while it was absent in more than 2,000 healthy controls.

All people with G2019S mutations shared a genetic pattern indicating a common, ancient ancestor.

The finding shows that the most common form of Parkinson's disease, which was thought to be sporadic, has a genetic component.

While it's a small number of cases, says Farrer, the finding should help in the creation of Parkinson's models.

Farrer and colleagues are also starting to examine the cellular role of the LRRK2 protein and why the mutant gene causes disease.

"It's an exciting time in the study of the genetics of Parkinson's disease," says Farrer, who notes that there are already clinical trials of drugs called mixed-lineage kinase inhibitors that may be targeted at the form of the disease linked with the mutation.

The research is reported in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Four are dead and fifty injured after a suicide bomber set off an explosion at a nightclub in central Tel Aviv. The blast was in the queue going into the club, Stage, on the main promenade. The bomber had been stopped from entering the club by security guards just before the explosion.

At first the militant groups Hezbollah, al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Islamic Jihad and Hamas all denied involvement, but according to the BBC the Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility for the blast. A spokesman for the group stated that "Israel has not abided by the pacification period. This is the main reason that led to this operation".

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas released a statement after a meeting with his security chiefs:

:The Palestinian Authority will not stand silent in the face of this act of sabotage. We will follow and track down those responsible and they will be punished accordingly.
:What happened tonight was an act of sabotage toward the peace process and an attempt to ruin the efforts to establish a state of calm.

The swift condemnation and call for action by the Palestinian leader has caused Israeli officials to declare that the attack, the first since an informal truce began early this month, would not derail the peace process. It was also the first suicide bombing in Israel in almost 4 months, during which pullbacks from occupied territories have been announced, and Palestinian prisoners have been released. The three British soldiers in the centre of an Iraqi abuse scandal have been jailed for between 140 days and two years and all three have been dismissed from the army. L/Cpl Mark Cooley, 25, Cpl Daniel Kenyon, 33, and L/Cpl Darren Larkin, 30, assaulted a number of Iraqi prisoners in Camp Bread Basket, near Basra.

Gen Sir Michael Jackson said that he wanted to, "place on record how appalled and disappointed I was when I first saw those photographs at the outset of the trial", and has said he apologised "to those Iraqis who were abused" and to Iraq as whole.

The men said they felt they were scapegoats as they felt they were other soldiers in the abuse and one of the men's lawyers said there was, "a significant number of other soldiers, including many senior to him, some of whom have been promoted, were involved in the mistreatment of Iraqis that day".

In a separate court martial last year, the soldier who took the photos used as evidence in the trial, Gary Bartlam, admitted taking photographs of the Iraqis simulating sex acts. He was sentenced to 18 months in a youth detention centre and disgracefully discharged from the British Army. A last gasp effort is underway to prevent the deportation of Montserratian refugees from New York City, U.S.A., to the disaster-stricken volcanic island they fled ten years ago.

Representative Major Owens (D, NY), of Brooklyn, is hoping the outpouring of support for victims of the Asian tsunami will save the refugees from returning to an island with an active volcano that is at constant risk of a further catastrophe.

Until last year, the Department of Homeland Security had allowed the families to stay in the United States under a special designation called “Temporary Protected Status”. But in July, secretary of homeland security, Tom Ridge, withdrew the status—not because it was safe to return to Montserrat, but because the volcano would remain active for decades to come and therefore was no longer a “temporary” danger. On February 27, the city’s estimated 100 Montserratians and their families will be forced to leave or risk deportation. A further 200 families, many of them living in Boston, are also under threat.

Earlier efforts to win a reprieve for the Montserratians were blocked by anti-immigrant forces in the House of Representatives, led by congressman Tom Tancredo, of Colorado, Rep. Owens said. But he added that a new bill, which he introduced at the end of last month, might be more popular in the wake of the Asian disaster.

"We hope that the approaching emergency situation plus the drama of the tsunami will help change some of the attitudes about this," Rep. Owens said. "And some of the people who opposed this legislation on the basis that they opposed immigration, will see that it is not about immigration but about coming to the relief of people who have been victims of a natural disaster."

Meanwhile, New York’s tiny Montserratian community must wait and hope. For those not fortunate enough to have married a US citizen or to have found an employer willing to sponsor them, the coming weeks are crucial.

Pearl Ryner, 40, a refugee who works as a medical technician at the King’s County Hospital in Brooklyn, said she refused to get married just so that she can stay in the United States. But she is a single mother with four children and she does not want to uproot her family and start over again.

“I worry. I cry. I am still hoping,” Ms. Ryner said. “What do I do? Where do I begin? How do I pick four kids up and take them away? If I buy a plane ticket, where do I go? These are questions that I do not have an answer for.”

The Department of Homeland Security has suggested that because Montserrat is a British overseas territory, Montserratians should go to the UK. But the refugees say they have no relatives or friends they can stay with in the UK, and that they have made homes and started careers and lives in the United States.

If the refugees are deported to Montserrat it will be to a 35 square-mile island, two-thirds of which is buried beneath volcanic rubble and ash. The capital, Plymouth, in the south east of the island has been abandoned, and there is a housing and employment shortage.

The Soufriere Hills Volcano erupted in 1995, but the British Foreign Office website warns that the volcano remains active. Heavy rain can cause mud-flows, and people suffering from breathing problems risk airborne dust and volcanic ash. The collapse of a lava dome in 2001 spewed clouds of ash that affected Puerto Rico, a self-governing territory of the United States, 200 miles away.

Moreover continued volcanic activity is triggering landslides that have caused two tsunamis in Montserrat during the past ten years. The first, on December 26, 1997, created a wave three meters tall, which rolled northwards along the coast. The second, in July 2003, measured about four meters and traveled to Guadeloupe 30 miles away.

Sherry Coriette, 28, who works for a major retail company in New York, said that she still has not decided what to do. "I have a good job, I pay my bills," Ms. Coriette said. "Eight years ago I left with nothing and now I am having to face starting all over again."

Matthew Dunn, chairman of the New York Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said that as long as there was a potential for danger, the United Sates should offer the people of Montserrat a safe haven.

"I would argue that is what our country is all about: helping and protecting people," Mr. Dunn said. "But the biggest shame in all of this is that because there is so few of them, they do not have a big enough voice." Afghanistan is the #1 producer of opium in the world — responsible for 87% of all illicit opium production — according to reports from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and its opium production has accelerated since the coalition invasion in 2001.

The November 2004 annual reports put out by UNODC show that Afghanistan opium production has been increasing each year since the coalition invasion. The UNODC report for 2004 shows a 64% increase over the previous year in the area of opium production, and a 22% increase in export value for the year(US$2.8 billion).

"It could be brought under control with a good dose of law enforcement, which at the moment is lacking," Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of UNODC, said in an interview in 2003 when reports showed an increase in hectares under production of 8% over the previous year. "I believe that the war against terrorism, leaving aside addiction, will not be won unless we control the opium economy of Afghanistan."

Doug Wankel, Counter Narcotics Coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, said the opium industry in Afghanistan is financing terrorism in an interview with USA Today. "It's financing subversive activities. It's financing warlordism. ... And if it's a threat to the government of Afghanistan, it's a direct threat to the national security interests of the United States."

Calling the data "disheartening," UNODC reported that Afghanistan now produces three-fourths of the world's opium. The report estimated revenues from growing and trafficking to be half of Afghanistan's gross domestic product. Analysis of sediments taken from hundreds of metres beneath the ocean floor
has shown them to contain living microbes. According to a study produced
by a team of researchers supported by the International Ocean Drilling
Program, this is the first time that microbes have been found in abundance at such depths.

Scientists have long speculated about how much of the bacterial content of
the sediments is biologically active. Techniques used to stain the bacteria and
identify them could not previously discriminate between live and dead
cells. For this study a new technique that could distinguish between alive
and dead cells was used.

The results were surprising. The sediments, some of which had been
collected from up to 800 metres from beneath the sea floor and
are said to be up to 16 million years old, contained between 10-30% living
bacteria. Scientists estimate that between 60-70% of all bacteria are
living deep beneath the surface, far from any sunlight.

"We didn't have clear evidence that bacteria there were alive until now,"
said ecologist and team member Lev Neretin of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Biology
in Bremen, Germany. According to calculations,
the populations of bacteria multiply at the same rate as their surface
cousins and contribute significantly to the balance of greenhouse gases,
consuming and producing CO2. They also contribute methane via a metabolic
process that does not require oxygen.

"Because they play such a major role in the biochemical processes in the
subsurface, clearly they are driving lots of reactions that produce the
chemical steady state on Earth," said Dr John Parkes, one of the original
co-authors of the paper which appeared in Nature magazine, "possibly we
might not have oil and gas formations without them."

How could these bacteria get so deep beneath the ocean floor? "The only
reasonable way is for them to be buried there," says Bo Thamdrup, a
microbiologist from the University of Southern Denmark, Odense. The
extremes of temperature and pressures tolerated by these bacteria add
weight to the assertion that microbes may flourish in the extreme
conditions of other planets.

"It is well known that bacteria living in deep oceans have special
adaptations to help them survive," says Thamdrup. "I'm sure these bacteria
have special adaptations too." A full genetic analysis may soon reveal
them. Wichita Police today arrested Dennis Rader, who is suspected of being the BTK killer. BTK, an acronym for "Bind, torture, kill," was the name the serial killer gave himself after killing eight people between 1974 and 1986 in that manner. The killer was thought to have disappeared for 25 years before he resurfaced in March of 2004. He was later linked to two unsolved murders, which took place in 1985 and 1991. Police Chief Norman Williams publicly announced the guilt of Mr. Rader prior to any trial preparations when he said to reporters "The bottom line, BTK is arrested."

The commander of the task force investigating the BTK killings, Lt. Ken Landwehr, said Rader had been arrested after being pulled over in a routine traffic stop. Authorities had questioned a "person of interest" Friday, which led them to a Park City home just outside Wichita and eventually to the identity of BTK.

BTK was notorious not only for his brutal way of killing people, but for taunting police and other investigators with letters throughout his 12-year killing spree. Investigators had run out of leads until police received a letter from BTK in March of last year.

Police have said they charge Rader with eight counts of first-degree murder and two other homicide charges. According to CNN, police were able to use Rader's daughter's DNA to find Rader. DNA of close family members has been used in a few previous cases to identify suspects, through a new technique known as familial searching. According to Ryan Walsh, editor of the websites for both the Princeton Journal of Science and American Foreign Policy, internet news service Wikinews was the topic of a report by Federico Baradello in a Princeton University course on mass media and public policy. The course, offered through the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, studies "the impact of policy on the content, presentation, influence, and technology of a rapidly-evolving 21st century news media," according to the school.

Walsh, currently a junior at Princeton, characterized the report in an email to Wikinews user Pingswept as "great" and added that "everyone in the class seemed to enjoy learning about Wikinews, and Federico was a great speaker."

According to an email from Baradello, the report, which took place on Monday, 21 February 2005, provided a "basic overview of its history (evolution), ownership, viewership, and position in the news market." It included a live demonstration of adding new content to Wikinews. The barebones content provided in the demonstration was developed into this article.

Baradello's report is available on the course's blog. His final course paper on the decentralization of news gathering includes a case study on Wikinews with commentary from Jimmy Wales and will be available in PDF form by late May. The founder of Amnesty International, Peter Benenson, passed away last night after suffering for some time from a serious illness. At age 83, it is forty four years since he founded Amnesty as a result of reading an article about the imprisonment of two students in Portugal who had drunk a toast to liberty.

Amnesty International said they will be holding a public memorial service and there will be private ceremony for family members however there will be no funeral service. Amnesty International's current Secretary-General, Irene Khan, said after his death: "Peter Benenson's life was a courageous testament to his visionary commitment to fight injustice around the world."

The organisation was initially formed in 1960 for "a one-year campaign for the release of six prisoners of conscience." Today Amnesty has over 1.8m members and campaigns for human rights on a global basis. Mr. Benenson was originally trained as a lawyer before he dedicated his life to the promotion of human rights. One of the biggest domestic banks in the United States, Bank of America, has admitted to losing computer tapes containing 1.2 million federal employee accounts, including the accounts of several U.S. senators, in a statement by the bank. According to the Pentagon, most of the accounts belong to staff and civilians in the Department of Defense. The bank said the tapes were lost in December 2004 as they were being transported to a data back-up centre by a commercial plane.

Currently, the U.S. Secret Service are looking in to the matter, a federal agency whose brief includes investigations of serious financial crime such as this. All parties concerned are worrying about possible identity theft as it contained valuable information such as bank account numbers, names and addresses. 6.6 million tourists visited Romania in 2004, marking an 18% increase over 2003, announced the National Authority for Tourism (ANT). This was one of the highest rates of tourism growth in Europe. However, it remains slightly below the number of Romanians who spent their holidays in other countries throughout 2004 - a figure of 6.9 million.

Carmen Moraru, the promotion and marketing director at ANT said that many tourists came as part of holiday packages or tours, organised around the regions of Maramureş, Transylvania, Moldova, the Prahova Valley and the Danube Delta.

In 2005, the number of tourist arrivals is set to rise further, mainly due to a Romanian promotion campaign launched across Europe. The country's tourist revival is mainly due to its diversity - it is home to Europe's largest delta, the Black Sea Coast with its resorts, the Carpathian Mountains with their skiing and winter activities, Transylvania with its ecotourism, agritourism and beautiful landscapes, as well as the medieval history of cities like Sibiu and Sighişoara. The planning board of Cambridge, Massachusetts voted in unanimous approval of Harvard University's plan to build a 410,000 ft² (38 090 m²) science center at 24 Oxford Street, according to the local newspapers, the Harvard Crimson and the Cambridge Chronicle. More than half of the space in the building will be constructed underground.

The Northwest Science Building, as it will be called, will house the laboratories of roughly 30 Harvard science faculty members, as well as a chilled water plant and an electrical substation. The building was designed by Craig Hartman, an architect in the San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who also completed Harvard University Master Plan in 2002, according to the firm's website. Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill also designed such notable buildings as Chicago's Sears Tower and the recently completed international terminal at the San Francisco airport.

The vote to approve the plan occurred at the February 15, 2005, meeting of the Cambridge Planning Board at the City Hall Annex, 344 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. In what the Harvard Crimson called a "departure from the norm," there were no comments from residents at the hearing. The Crimson reported that the Harvard officials at the meeting took this as "a signal that the community was well-informed about the project prior to the presentation." The sign advertising the hearing can be seen at right.

In related news, the Director of Urban Design for Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill's New York office, Vishaan Chakrabarti, will be speaking at the Harvard Graduate School of Design on March 1, 2005. Ireland has beaten England in a very close game of rugby at Dublin's Lansdowne Road in today's Rugby Union Six Nations Championship clash.

Ireland got off to a perfect start, despite having to play against the wind; with a drop goal by Ronan O'Gara putting the homeside 3 points up after just four minutes. But due to some awful defence by the Irish, England too the lead with a try by Martin Corry and Charlie Hodgson had no trouble converting to put England ahead by four points. Ronan O'Gara quickly got another 3 point from a drop goal to bring the score to 7-6 in favour of England. Two minutes later England went behind after a successful Irish penalty. England went ahead again at twenty five minutes with a penalty from Hodgson after a dry spell of fifteen minutes for the visitors. Ireland earn't a hard fought drop goal just after the half hour mark by Ronan O'Gara.

At half time, Ireland were just marginally ahead at 12-10. Eight minutes into the second half, Ireland missed a chance to go five clear when an O'Gara penalty went wide. Hodgson got his third score with a drop goal at fifty seven minutes to bring England anhead by one point. However their lead was short lived as a Brian O'Driscoll try and subsequent conversion by Ronan O'Gara put the Irish ahead 19-13. Despite numerous strong attacks in the last fifteen minutes, England failed beat the Irish defense.
Ronan O'Gara was the RBS Man of the Match An Egyptian baby, born with two heads, is recovering after a successful operation to remove the second head in Cairo on Thursday.

The ten-month old baby was suffering from a condition known as Craniopagus parasiticus, which is a medical condition where an undeveloped, parasitic twin head is attached to the body of a developed twin.

The second head was said to be able to smile and blink, but was not capable of independent life.

Manar Maged underwent a thirteen hour operation to have the head removed. There have only been eight cases of this condition recorded. A baby suffering from it underwent a similar operation in the Dominican Republic in February 2004 but did not survive.

Baby Manar is doing well and shows no signs of paralysis. It is expected that she will remain in intensive care for at least a week. Nine people were rescued by helicopter from the roof of a blazing skyscraper in Taiwan on Saturday.

The people were dining in the rooftop restaurant when a fire broke out lower in the 25 story Golden Plaza Tower. The fire is said to have started in a disco on the 18th floor at about 4pm local time.

Four people died in the fire, including two employees of the tower. The body of a security officer was found on the 18th floor with another body found nearby. Two more were found in an elevator. Two or three people suffered minor injuries after inhaling smoke.

The building in Taichung, Taiwan's third largest city, houses offices, shops and schools.

Those fleeing the building at ground level had to cover their heads to protect themselves from falling glass and other debris. Fire fighters extinguished the blaze after an hour and a half. Pope John Paul II made a surprise appearance at the window of his 10th floor hospital suite at Gemelli Hospital in Rome and waved to onlookers, shortly after he missed the weekly Angelus blessing for the first time in his 26-year papacy. It was his first public appearance following his tracheotomy on Thursday.

Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, substitute Secretary of State of the Vatican, performed the weekly Angelus blessing in the Pope's absence. He also read a message written by the Pope. "I ask you to continue to follow me with your prayers," it said.

The pope's appearance was broadcast worldwide on television and was shown on a giant screen in St. Peter's Square. thumb
The 77th Annual Academy Awards were held on February 27th, 2005 and broadcast live across the world. Some of the more poignant moments included a tribute to Johnny Carson, frequent host of the Awards, as well as a video tribute to many people involved in the movie industry who died in the past year, including Rodney Dangerfield, Ossie Davis, Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, and Ronald Reagan, set to the music of Yo Yo Ma.

Million Dollar Baby
:Other nominees
* The Aviator
* Finding Neverland
* Ray
* Sideways

Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby

* Martin Scorsese, The Aviator
* Taylor Hackford, Ray
* Alexander Payne, Sideways
* Mike Leigh, Vera Drake

Jamie Foxx, Ray
:Other nominees
* Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda
* Johnny Depp, Finding Neverland
* Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator
* Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby

Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby
:Other nominees
* Alan Alda, The Aviator
* Thomas Haden Church, Sideways
* Jamie Foxx, Collateral
* Clive Owen, Closer

Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby
:Other nominees
* Annette Bening, Being Julia
* Catalina Sandino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace
* Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
* Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Cate Blanchett, The Aviator
:Other nominees
* Laura Linney, Kinsey
* Virginia Madsen, Sideways
* Sophie Okenodo, Hotel Rwanda
* Natalie Portman, Closer

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
:Other nominees
* The Aviator
* Hotel Rwanda
* The Incredibles
* Vera Drake

Sideways
:Other nominees
* Before Sunset
* Finding Neverland
* Million Dollar Baby
* The Motorcycle Diaries

The Sea Inside
:Other nominees
* As It Is In Heaven
* The Chorus
* Downfall
* Yesterday

The Incredibles
:Other nominees
* Shark Tale
* Shrek 2

The Aviator
:Other nominees
* Finding Neverland
* Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
* Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera
* A Very Long Engagement

The Aviator
:Other nominees
* House of Flying Daggers
* The Passion of the Christ
* Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera
* A Very Long Engagement

The Aviator
:Other nominees
* Finding Neverland
* Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
* Ray
* Troy

Born into Brothels
:Other nominees
* The Story of the Weeping Camel
* Super Size Me
* Tupac: Resurrection
* Twist of Faith

The Aviator
:Other nominees
* Collateral
* Finding Neverland
* Million Dollar Baby
* Ray

A Series of Unfortunate Events
:Other nominees
* The Passion of the Christ
* The Sea Inside

Finding Neverland
:Other nominees
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
* Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
* The Passion of the Christ
* The Village

Al Otro Lado Del Rio, from The Motorcycle Diaries
:Other nominees
* “Accidentally in Love”, Shrek 2
* “Believe”, The Polar Express
* “Learn to Be Lonely”, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera
* “Look to Your Path (Vois sur ton chemin)”, The Chorus

Ray
:Other nominees
* The Aviator
* The Incredibles
* The Polar Express
* Spider-Man 2

The Incredibles
:Other nominees
* The Polar Express
* Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man 2
:Other nominees
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
* I, Robot

Mighty Times: The Children's March
:Other nominees
* Autism is the World
* The Children of Leningradsky
* Hardwood
* Sister Rose's Passion

Ryan
:Other nominees
* Birthday Boy
* Gopher Broke
* Guard Dog
* Lorenzo

Wasp
:Other nominees
* Everything in this Country Must
* Little Terrorist
* 7:35 in the Morning
* Two Cars, One Night The construction of the oil pipeline linking Constanţa, Romania with Trieste, Italy could commence as soon as 2007, claims Eugen Tapu, the Romanian State Secretary in the Economy and Trade Ministry. The exact date will depend on how fast the countries involved in the project can sign the project.

The pipeline will run from Constanţa, Romania's largest port on the Black Sea, through Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia before ending up in Trieste, northern Italy. Tapu named Chevron Texaco, British Petroleum and OMV among the companies interested in the project.

The oil pipeline is expected to cost Romania 1.9 billion euro. The Romanian Finance Minister Ionuţ Popescu has responded to public fears of a rise in value added tax (VAT) by saying that Romania's VAT will remain at 19% and will not increase. He rejected rumours that the value added tax, which is applied to most goods and services, will increase due to negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and a need to boost government revenue.

After introducing a low flat tax rate of 16% on January 1, 2005, which applies to both personal income and corporate profits, the government has had to fund the tax cuts through alternative means, including increases in other types of taxation, to avoid running a high budget deficit. For example, from April 1, the government will increase excises as well as a range of other taxes. Despite the increase, Romania continues to have one of the lowest fiscal burdens in Europe due to the new 16% flat tax rate. The Romanian Black Sea ports of Constanţa, Midia and Mangalia were closed on Saturday due to heavy fog. The Danube-Black Sea Canal was also caused due to reduced visibility. The canal, which runs for 64 km, is an important part of the European shipping channel that links the North Sea to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

The port closures left 54 ships in the harbour or stranded at sea, said Alexandru Mezei, the director of shipping navigation at Constanţa Port, the largest port in Romania. However, he claims that the closure was necessary to prevent accidents from occurring, as the fog had reduced visiblity below safe levels. A gene has been discovered that turns stem cells into cancer killers, promising new treatments that boost the body's ability to destroy tumors.

South Korean scientists from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology in Daejeon say that the gene, Vitamin D3 Upregulated Protein 1 (VDUP1), spurs stem cells to become natural killer cells.

These components of the immune system can eliminate virus-infected and cancerous cells. Research leader Inpyo Choi says the team observed that VDUP1 plays a decisive role in causing stem cells to become natural killers.

The discovery was made by examining mice bred to lack the gene. The mice had a dramatic reduction in the number and activity of natural killer cells.

Besides determining the gene's importance to the immune system, Choi and colleagues have developed technology needed to spur the creation of natural killers from a person's own bone marrow stem cells.

Choi calls this "the first step toward developing new treatments using our own immune system to fight cancers and other serious diseases."

The research is reported in the journal Immunity. A rare antibody has yielded insight into creating an effective AIDS vaccine.

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California and several other institutions say that the neutralizing antibody broadly defuses HIV.

Neutralizing antibodies are secreted into the bloodstream following exposure to a virus, where they bind to viral particles, prevent them from infecting cells and spur their destruction. Because neutralizing antibodies attack viruses before they enter cells, they could form the basis for effective AIDS vaccines if present before exposure to HIV. But while the body makes many antibodies against HIV, they are usually unable to neutralize the virus. Some people, however, do produce effective neutralizing antibodies for HIV.

Dennis Burton of Scripps and colleagues have now described the structure of one of these, called 4E10. In tests, the antibody neutralized nearly 100 strains of HIV from around the world.

Isolated about a decade ago from an HIV-infected person by study coauthor Hermann Katinger of the Institute for Applied Microbiology of the University of Agriculture in Vienna, Austria, the antibody shows what type of structure can neutralize HIV.

It appears that 4E10 targets an area on the HIV surface protein GP41 that the virus uses to fuse its membrane to a human cell's membrane during infection.

Because the antibody's structure shows what this area on HIV's surface looks like, it provides scientists with a template for reverse-engineering components for AIDS vaccines.

The research is reported in the journal Immunity. The Lebanese Government has resigned amid a protest by 10,000 people in Martyrs Square. The Syrian-backed government lead by Prime Minister Omar Karami was under pressure in recent weeks, particularly after former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was killed earlier this month.

The protests were demonstrating over Syria's large military presence in Lebanon. Syria has over 14,000 troops in Lebanon.

Announcing his resignation, Karami said, "Out of concern that the government does not become an obstacle to the good of the country, I announce the resignation of the government I had the honour to lead." In response to the governments decision to resign, opposition leader Walid Jumblat said, "The people have won."

The Syrian Government, which backed the government of Mr Karami said that the matter was "an internal affair" for Lebanon. A suicide car bombing in al Hilla, south of Baghdad, has killed 125 people, mostly Iraqi applicants for police and army waiting for medical exams becoming the worst single event since the initial invasion. At nearly the same time another car bomb exploded in Musayyib, 30km north of Hilla.

The attack occurred about 8:30 a.m. local time Monday, in a crowd of mostly Shi'a recruits applying for positions with the country's security forces, and as citizens were arriving at the nearby outdoor market.

The recruits were waiting for required medical exams at a clinic across from the mayor's home and the market. Shoppers in the market, men, women and children, were among the dead from the blast.

There are conflicting reports regarding the Musayyib explosion, with some reports indicating only the bomber died and others suggesting a police officer also dying from the blast.

Babil province police released a statement regarding the blast, reporting several arrests were made after but not elaborating further.

Attacks by the insurgency forces appear to have increased in deadliness. Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said Monday at a news conference in Baghdad "the number of casualties is much more than before."

al Hilla was the scene of a major battle in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with several hundred Iraqi forces reported to have been killed in fierce fighting. The city is now included in the Polish military zone under the occupation of Iraq. The Mozilla Foundation recently released an update to Mozilla Firefox. According to the developers, Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 patches 17 security flaws and improves stability. The update is available from Getfirefox.com by clicking 'Download Now' or ' Other Systems and Languages'.

Windows users should currently be seeing a small icon on the menu bar of the browser indicating that an Automatic Update to the new version is now available for installation.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 is available at the time of writing in US English, French, Spanish (Latin American), German, Italian, Dutch, Finnish and Polish, among many other languages.

However the updated Windows version has a flaw affecting anyone who previously installed Firefox as a 'zipped' build, rather than using the standard automatic installer method. (Zipped builds are often customized versions designed for increased speed or development work). If version 1.0.1 is installed over a zipped build, users are reporting that the browser crashes when attempting to enter text into the location or search boxes.

Anyone encountering this problem is advised to delete their Mozilla Firefox folder in 'Program Files', then re-install. Their bookmarks, extensions etc will not be affected. Hidroelectrica, Romania's largest hydroelectricity company, has introduced a new flood warning system, according to the Romanian Ministry of the Economy and Commerce. The system will be installed at the hydroelectric power station in Bistriţa, and will include 52 sound flood warning stations on the Bistriţa River Valley. They will warn individuals by code signals in case of a flood alert. The system will be tested on in the following two days.

Especially in the Bistriţa region, floods continue to be quite a frequent problem, even though they are not particularly severe. The number of businessmen from the United Kingdom who intend to invest in Romania has doubled this year in comparison to 2004, showing that the country is becoming an increasingly attractive destination for British investors.

Quinton Quayle, the UK's ambassador in Romania, said at a conference held by the Romanian-British Chamber of Commerce that there are approximately 20 British companies investing in Romania this year, but would not reveal more information.

Brian Davies, president of the British company Sanders Polyfilms, which currently has operations in Romania, claims that investors from the UK come to the country not only for the local market, which is the second-largest in Central and Eastern Europe, but also because Romania could be a great export centre to other markets in the region.

Other factors that make Romania attractive are a low flat tax rate of 16% on personal income and corporate profits, as well as a skilled, English-speaking workforce.

So far, companies from the United Kingdom have invested $1.2 billion in Romania. Romania's total foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2004 was 4.1 billion euro. Besides the UK, other large investors in Romania are Austria, Italy, Germany and France.

Relations between the UK and Romania have been boosted recently as a result of the Romanian president, Traian Băsescu, making a visit to London earlier in the year. During his election campaign last year, Băsescu said that he wanted to create a London-Bucharest-Washington axis, accenting the importance of Romania's relationship with the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Romania's ties to the UK are also important as the UK will hold the EU's rotating presidency from July to December 2005, at a crucial stage of Romania's preparations for EU accession, which is expected to occur in 2007. The Arsenal F.C. midfielder Jermaine Pennant, currently on loan to Birmingham City, has today pleaded guilty to drink-driving, driving while disqualified, and driving without insurance by Aylesbury magistrates court. Pennant received a sentence of three months imprisonment. Pennant's lawyer, Bary Warbutton, has said that the footballer will appeal against the severity of the sentence.

The incident occurred on January 23 of this year, Pennant was arrested after crashing teammate Ashley Cole's car into a lamppost. The 22-year-old claimed that he crashed the car after attempting to operate the car's Satellite navigation system.

Despite the claim by Warbutton that imprisonment "could completely destroy his career", Birmingham City have said that they will stand by the player, and help to rehabilitate him. Arsenal released a statement saying that the sentence would not impact the player's future with the club; his contract with club expires in the summer, at the same time as his loan-spell with Birmingham ends. An analysis of melatonin studies has upheld the controversial supplement's effectiveness as a sleep aid.

The analysis, which included 17 peer-reviewed scientific papers, was aimed at determining whether supplements of the hormone can improve sleep among insomniacs, older adults and others.

"A meta-analysis essentially tells 'yes' or 'no'—that a treatment does or does not have a significant effect," says Richard Wurtman of MIT, the study's principal investigator. "When a meta-analysis says 'yes,' there should no longer be any controversy about whether the treatment works."

Previous studies by Wurtman and colleagues showed that small doses of melatonin, about 0.3 milligrams, are necessary for restful effects. The researchers found, however, that commercially available melatonin pills can contain 10 times the effective amount.

At that dose, says Wurtman, the hormone's effects end after a few days because melatonin receptors in the brain become unresponsive when exposed to too much of the hormone.

Such inadvertent overdosing, say the researchers, has contributed to controversy over melatonin's efficacy.

But the new meta-analysis shows that melatonin does indeed have positive effects on sleep—even though some of the analyzed studies also involved high doses of the hormone.

The research is reported in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews. UK —
Green tea may protect against damage from heart attack and stroke.

Researchers from the UK Institute of Child Health have shown that a chemical in the tea reduces cell death following such incidents, which in turn could fight tissue death and organ failure.

Led by Anastasis Stephanou, the researchers showed in heart cells that the chemical epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) inhibits cell death, apparently by blocking the action of a protein called Star 1.

This protein is activated in cells after a stressful event and contributes to inducing cell death.

EGCG also appears to speed recovery of heart cells to spur tissue recovery.

Stephanou says that while the researchers are "extremely encouraged" by the findings, more research is necessary before people are advised to drink green tea after heart attack or stroke.

The research is reported in The FASEB Journal. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled today, in Roper v. Simmons, that it is unconstitutional to impose capital punishment on those who committed crimes while juveniles. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion to overturn the death penalty for juveniles, which was also supported by Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Dissenting were Justices Antonin Scalia, William Rehnquist, and Clarence Thomas, with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor providing a separate dissent.

Christopher Simmons received the death sentence for brutally kidnapping and murdering Shirley Crook as part of a burglary. The case worked its way up the court system, with the courts continuing to uphold the death sentence. However, in light of a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in Atkins v. Virginia, that overturned the death penalty for the mentally retarded, the Missouri Supreme Court reconsidered Mr. Simmon's case. It concluded that "a national consensus has developed against the execution of juvenile offenders" and sentenced Mr. Simmons to life imprisonment without parole.

The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, where it was argued on October 13, 2004. The constitutionality of capital punishment for juveniles was put into question, citing the Eighth Amendment that protects individuals from cruel and unusual punishment.

Previously, a 1988 Supreme Court decision Thompson v. Oklahoma barred execution of offenders under the age of 16. In 1989 Stanford v. Kentucky brought into question the constitutionality of execution for those under age 18. At the time the Supreme Court upheld the possibility of capital punishment for offenders who are 16 or 17 years old when they committed the capital offense. The same day in 1989 the Supreme Court ruled it was permissible to execute the mentally retarded in Penry v. Lynaugh. However, in 2003, the decision was reconsidered in Atkins v. Virginia citing that decency standards had evolved and execution of the mentally retarded was now considered to be cruel and unusual punishment and thus unconstitutional.

Roper v. Simmons brought the age issue to the table again. In question is whether it is Constitutionally permissible to execute an offender who committed a capital crime while under the age of 18. As in the issue of executing the mentally retarded, the Supreme Court has now decided that society’s standards have evolved since the 1989 case and that it is indeed cruel and unusual punishment to execute a juvenile, under age 18.

Supporting this ‘’evolving standard’’, is the body of scientific and sociological research1 that finds juveniles have a lack of maturity and sense of responsibility, compared to adults. Adolescents are overrepresented statistically in virtually every category of reckless behavior. In recognition of the comparative immaturity and irresponsibility of juveniles, almost every State prohibits those under age 18 from voting, serving on juries, or marrying without parental consent. Juveniles are also more vulnerable to negative influences and outside pressures, including peer pressure. They have less control, or experience with control, over their own environment. They also lack the freedom that adults have, in escaping a criminogenic setting.

Another key basis to support the “national consensus” on the death penalty for juveniles, is the increasing infrequency that it is applied at the state level. While 20 states have the juvenile death penalty on the books, only six states have executed prisoners for crimes committed as juveniles, since 1989. And, just three states have done so in the past 10 years: Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia. Furthermore, five of the states that allowed the juvenile death penalty at the time of the 1989 case have since abolished it. Thus, the execution of juveniles is indeed becoming increasingly unusual in the United States and a “national consensus” has developed.

In evaluating whether penalties violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, the Supreme Court has taken guidance from the law of foreign countries and international bodies. Since 1990, only seven other countries – Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and China – have executed juveniles. Since then, however, each of those seven countries has either abolished the death penalty for juveniles or made public disavowal of the practice. Now, one finds the stark reality that the United States stand alone, as the only country in the world that continues to allow execution of juveniles. Furthermore, only the United States and Somalia have yet to ratify Article 37 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (September 2, 1990), expressly prohibits capital punishment for crimes committed by juveniles.

In drawing the line at 18 years of age for death eligibility, the Supreme Court considered that is also where society draws the line between childhood and adulthood for a multitude of other purposes.

Both the Scalia dissent, joined by Rehnquist and Thomas, and Justice O’Connor’s separate dissent put into question whether a “national consensus” had indeed formed among the state laws. In addition, Scalia also objects to taking guidance from foreighn law in interpreting the Constitution.

Implications of this ruling, are particularly felt in the State of Virginia, where it is now most certain that Lee Boyd Malvo will not face the death penalty. He is responsible in-part, along with John Allen Muhammad, for the DC Sniper Attacks that terrorized the Washington, DC area in October 2002. He had already been spared the death penalty in his first trial, for the murder of FBI employee, Linda Franklin, outside a Home Depot store in Falls Church, Virginia. However, Mr. Malvo is also set to face trial in Prince William County, Virginia for another murder, and yet to face trial in Louisiana and elsewhere for other killings. In light of today's Supreme Court decision, the prosecutors in Prince William County may not pursue the charges against Mr. Malvo, after all. The primary reason for extraditing these two suspects from Maryland, where they were arrested, to Virginia, was in fact the differences in how the two states deal with the death penalty. While the death penalty is allowed in Maryland, it is only applied to adults, whereas Virginia had also allowed the death penalty for juvenile offenders. Élan, the largest Irish pharmaceutical company, and its US partner Biogen have withdrawn the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri from clinical trials after the death of a patient. The drug was seen by many as a possible blockbuster drug with the potential to alleviate much of the suffering of the millions of multiple sclerosis suffers worldwide. However it is now quite unlikely that it will ever make it to market.

The news has seen the shares of both companies fall steeply, with Élan having lost almost 70% of its value after Monday's announcement. Two years ago Élan was the largest Irish PLC, with a value in excess of $20bn, but an accountancy scandal saw its shares fall from over €73 to €1.50 within a few weeks. Since then the stock had risen back to trade between €16 and €18 a share on the back of good restructuring news. However the withdrawal of Tysabri leaves Elan with almost no potential future revenue streams.

Biogen shares which had hit a 52 week high of $70 just two weeks before the announcement have since fallen to just $41.26. Combined equity losses on Monday for the two firms was over $17.8 billion.

The paitent who died had been taken in combination with another drug - Avonex - for the last two years. If it emerges that the death was as a result of taking Avonex, then it is possible Tysabri could be re-introduced to the market. However for the moment rivals will be seeking to steal a lead in the potentially lucrative MS drug market. The government of the United Kingdom has unveiled their strategy to deal with any future influenza pandemic in their Pandemic Influenza Contingency Plan.

The document, based on the World Health Organization's framework for responses, explains how the UK would respond to a major outbreak of flu.

Any flu pandemic would differ from the seasonal outbreaks of flu observed worldwide every year. While seasonal flu kills 12,000 Britons annually, a pandemic would affect far more people and could result in the deaths of up to 50,000 people in the UK if there were no medical intervention.

The government will have the power to cancel events where large numbers of people gather, such as football (soccer) matches. It could also advise travel restrictions to and from areas of high infection, but would not be able to enforce any such measures.

Schools might be closed in the event of a flu pandemic, and infected people would be asked to remain at home, although again no quarantine measures could be imposed by the government.

Further plans include education of the public to recognize symptoms of the flu and how to avoid infection.

Measures will be made to maintain basic services in the event of a pandemic despite staff absences through illness.

A major cornerstone of the plan is the prescription of oseltamivir, an oral neuraminidase inhibitor drug that combats influenza. The drug is currently marketed by Hoffman La Roche under the trade name Tamiflu®.

The UK Department of Health intends to stockpile 14.6m courses of the drug over the next two financial years, giving enough to treat one in four of the population - the ratio recommended by the WHO.

Canada and Australia have also bought the equivalent amounts of anti-viral drugs. The U.S. has also bought large amounts of similar drugs.

The total cost of the acquisition was not published by the government, but the BBC estimated the cost to be £180 million.

Unlike a vaccine, oseltamivir can be used to treat any strain of the influenza virus. Many new variants of the influenza virus are seen every year, and combined with the long lead times associated with the development of vaccinces, mass vaccination is frequently impractical.

Some parts of the newly-revealed plan already exist. The UK government recently gave £500,000 to the WHO for survellience of so-called 'bird flu' in South East Asia, a possible source for any future pandemic. The Department of Health will also continue to monitor flu-like cases seen by doctors and hospitals.

Influenza is an extremely variable disease; similar viruses are found in pigs and domestic fowl. In areas where there are high concentrations of humans, pigs and birds in close proximity, such as parts of Asia, simultaneous infections across species enable genetic material to be exchanged between the various strains of flu. This appears to be the principal method by which new infectious strains arise.

It is believed that sooner or later, a recombination may occur to produce a strain as lethal as the 1918 virus. In late 1997, a new strain of avian influenza (also known as bird flu) originating from chickens infected 18 people in Hong Kong, of whom 6 died. This strain did not appear to be readily transmissible from human to human, but such a high mortality rate, and the possibility of a further recombination to make it more infectious, meant that the risk was considered so great that all domestic poultry in Hong Kong was slaughtered. Avian influenza transmissible to humans resurfaced in January 2004 in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

There were several serious outbreaks of influenza in the 20th century. The most famous (and the most lethal) was the Spanish Flu pandemic (type A influenza, H1N1 strain), which lasted from 1918 to 1919 and is believed to have killed more people in total than World War I. Lesser flu pandemics included the 1957 Asian Flu (type A, H2N2 strain) and the 1968 Hong Kong Flu (type A, H3N2 strain).

Although there were scares in New Jersey in 1976 (the Swine Flu), worldwide in 1977 (the Russian Flu), and in Hong Kong in 1997 (Avian influenza), there have been no major pandemics subsequent to the 1968 infection. Increased immunity from antibodies and the development of flu vaccines have limited the spread of the virus and so far prevented any further pandemics. White supremacist and Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel was expelled from Canada and arrived in Germany today. A Federal Court judge ruled that his anti-Semitic activities were "not only a threat to Canada's national security, but also a threat to the international community of nations."

In a press release given by B'nai Brith Canada, executive vice president Frank Dimant said that "For decades Zundel has spewed his venom and imbued his brand of hate in a new generation of white supremacist groups that had made him a hero ... Zundel's day of reckoning has finally come." Canadian Jewish Congress National President Ed Morgan was quoted as saying that “this is a significant day for the Jewish community (of Canada) and for all those who treasure tolerance in a multicultural society ... Zundel’s departure demonstrates Canada’s abhorrence for those who would propagate Holocaust denial and antisemitism. It brings closure to our efforts to bring this man to justice."

Zündel's Toronto lawyer, Peter Lindsay, said Zündel is "very disillusioned about the process and about being the victim of a secret trial, and now being deported based on evidence he's never seen."

Upon arriving in Germany, Zündel, 65, was immediately taken into custody by authorities on the grounds that he was running a web site denying the existence of the Holocaust, which is a crime in that country. Prosecutors in the city of Mannheim have issued a warrant for his arrest according to the Associated Press. A spokeswoman for the federal Justice Ministry, on condition of anonymity, said authorities were able to open a case against Zundel because his Holocaust-denying site can be accessed in Germany.

In 1977, Zündel founded a small press publishing house called Samisdat Publishers which issued such pamphlets as The Hitler We Loved and Why and Did Six Million Really Die? by Richard Harwood aka Richard Verrall (a British neo-Nazi leader) as well as booklets claiming that UFOs were actually Nazi secret weapons operated from secret Nazi military bases in Antarctica. Zundel lived in Canada for 42 years as a landed immigrant. His last two years were spent in a Toronto jail, where he was held under the Canadian security certificate law. The law was passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, and allows the Canadian government to hold suspects of terrorism without charge, based on secret evidence that does not have to be disclosed to a suspect or his defense. The city centre of Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is set to get a major facelift due to a real estate project called Esplanada (The Esplanade), which will be constructed by TriGranit Development Corporation. The total investment in the project will be greater than 800 million euro and aims to build a modern commercial pedestrian area in downtown Bucharest, with several shopping malls, office buildings, hotels and dwellings. It will be the largest real estate program in Romania since the fall of Communism in 1989.

Bucharest is currently looking at possibilities to improve its appearance and rebrand itself as a lively, creative and vibrant city. Many initiatives have sprung up to improve the city, including the organisation of CowParade later this year. Additionally, the old town centre will be restored. Due to Romania's current economic boom, several other major construction projects are taking place.

Bucharest City Hall has blocked traffic in the city center due both to the old town restoration and to the Esplanada project. On Monday, February 28, 2005, Jambo OpenOffice.org, the first Swahili office suite, was released at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The office suite was translated from the English version of OpenOffice.org, an open source suite based on Sun Microsystems' StarOffice. Jambo OpenOffice.org was translated by a multinational team including Swedish and Spanish programmers, as well as linguists from the University of Dar es Salaam. Monday's release included builds for Linux and Windows.

The office suite has four components: a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation creator, and a drawing program. The translation effort required translating 18,000 English strings, made up of one or more words, many of which have previously had no direct Swahili equivalent. As part of the translation, the team developed a glossary of 1500 technical words in Swahili. The office suite also includes a spellchecker with a lexicon of 70,000 words.

Swahili is not the only African language into which OpenOffice is being translated. According to Ethan Zuckerman, a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, OpenOffice is being translated into nine official languages of South Africa by Translate.org.za. The same organization is also supporting translation efforts to bring the software into the Rwandan language Kinyarwanda, and Hausa, a language spoken largely in Nigeria.

Swahili is spoken by approximately 55 million people worldwide, predominantly in East African countries, including Tanzania and Kenya.

Interview with the project coordinator

Replies to questions from Pingswept by Alberto Escudero-Pascual, March 3, 2005

 1. Is the suite 100% translated to Swahili now?

The suite contains more than 99% of the strings in Swahili. The ones
that are left in English (less than 100 strings out of 18,000) will
be worked out in the next release. Yes, this release is fully functional
in Swahili.

 2. What would people who speak only Swahili
 do before Monday's release if they needed a
 word processor? Are there any alternatives?

No alternatives. This is the first ever release of a word processor in Swahili.

 3. How widely do you expect the suite to be distributed?
 What sort of IT infrastructure exists in East Africa?

I "expect" the software to get installed in all the primary schools of
the country. I also expect the software to be installed in the main
universities of the country and colleges. We have postive feedback
from them but this is a rather "political" decision out of my (our)
control.

The secondary schools have compulsory English so they might not want
to install it.

East Africa, ufff that is like asking what IT infrastructure is in the
whole Europe :-D
If you mean connectivity, all is satellite VSAT upstreams. Most of
the local loops in Dar are based on IEEE 802.11b. It is expensive for
most of the locals. But there is an Internet Exchange already in Dar es Salaam
where the ISP peer together. Things will always get
better. The software is placed in the IX.

The software will spread slowly, but I am sure that will spread.

 4. What next? How many words are there to translate
 in a small Linux distribution like Knoppix?

The Tanzanian team will start translating OOo training documentation,
and next they will work with Firefox. A Linux desktop might come next
year.
I have no idea what will it take to translate Knoppix, but the
priorities should be in getting first a couple of good tools as
OpenOffice and Firefox and do loads and loads of training material in
Swahili.

 5. How will future versions be compiled once you
 return to Sweden?

I have developed an almost automatic version to update JambOOo 1.1.3 in
Kiswahili. The UDSM has access to one of the build servers. I expect a
new release of JambOO, maybe 1.1.4 with all the bug corrections in six
months. The next step is to migrate to OOo 2.0, I have no clear
picture of how that will happen.

 Will it all come through one copy of Visual Studio
 in Dar es Salaam?

Nope, the Win32 version was developed entirely in Sweden and Spain during
Christmas 2004 . The new build system does not require Visual Studio
to "update" the Swahili strings.

 6. How was the project funded? How can people contribute to this
 project, or similar projects in the future?

SIDA (Swedish International Cooperation Agency) has funded the
University of Dar es Salaam and the Institute of Kiswahili Research
for one full year. My company IT+46 also was funded by SIDA to support
the project technically.

IT+46 has contributed 50% of its working-time at no cost to the project.

 7. What is the plan for IT +46?

Our plan was to be in Tanzania only six months and handle all the
technology and the training back to the university as we want them to
keep on with the development by themselves. Now, we are trying to find
similar projects that need support. There are many languages out there
after all. Senior Canadian officials said Tuesday that U.S. president George W. Bush has not returned a telephone call Paul Martin made to him last week, due to the Canadian government's decision to not participate in the U.S. missile defence initiative.

The Prime Minister was hoping explain Canada's reasons for saying no.

Although the White House has formally stated it's "disappointment" on the decision, it also stated that Bush would likely talk with Martin on the issue when the two meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox on March 23 to discuss the future of NAFTA, the North American free trade agreement.

A Martin spokesperson told the Toronto Star that "the decision to not participate (in ballistic missile defence) ... was Canada's alone to take ... The Bush administration, while disappointed in the decision, recognizes that fact and is not seeking apologies." The CanWest News Service reported that another Martin spokesperson, Melanie Gruer, played down the reports by saying that "The President has been travelling," and that Prime-minister Martin's aides acknowledge the pressures on busy leaders' schedules.

U.S. officials had mentioned that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's decision to postpone a visit to Ottawa was in response to the non-participation decision. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew spoke twice to Ms. Rice, finally ensuring that she will come to Canada as planned, despite concerns it was cancelled over the disagreement.

Martin, orgininally backed the missile defence initiative and committed to closer co-operation with Washington when he came to office in 2004. This position was reversed last week The green paper of the future of the BBC has asked for the Board of Governors to be scrapped and replaced by two boards, one representing the public and an executive board. The proposals were announced by the British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell in the House of Commons.

Other things she has asked for is the licence fee be kept, currently at GBP 121 (EUR 176.26) per householder, more independent television to be made on the BBC, currently 10% must be made by independent television companies & to stop chasing ratings, mainly by copycating programmes from other channels.

She said that the board of governors was “unsustainable” and lacked “clarity and accountability”. Shadow Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said that the green paper did “not go far enough” countining saying that they were “largely cosmetic changes to the structure and oversight of the BBC”.

The green paper was made as the Charter that is the basis of the BBC is to reviewed in 2007 as required by law. A compromise put forward by the Conservatives that would have allowed easier passage through the Commons of the proposed new anti-terror legislation has been rejected by Prime Minister Tony Blair. The bill proposes new "control orders" for terror suspects which include house arrest, curfews, tagging and bans on internet and phone use. The bill will replace current powers that allow the detention of foreign terror suspects without trial which has been ruled against as a breach of human rights by the law lords.

The Conservatives wanted a "sunset clause" inserted into the bill which would have allowed ministers to revisit it in November. MPs from all parties have severely criticised the way the bill has been seemingly "steamrollered" through the Commons with only two days to debate the plans before a vote is called.

Conservative leader Michael Howard said in the Commons that it would be "far better if the whole of the legislation was subject to a sunset clause so Parliament could consider it all in a proper way instead of it being ramrodded through."

Mr. Blair said that the new house arrest powers were already going to be subject to a sunset clause because it was annually renewable. "I believe they are a proper balance between the civil liberties of the subject and the necessary national security of this country that I will not put at risk," he added.

Opposition to the bill by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have already won concessions this week. Home Secretary Charles Clarke has backed down and allowed judges to have the first say in the most severe control order cases, however, this may not be enough to ensure a smooth ride through the Lords. It is expected that the bill will face tough opposition and demands for a radical re-draft.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten has urged the Conservatives to "stick firm? There's a lot of talking left. I would be uneasy about supporting a very bad bill even if it was just for eight months," he said.

A spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch said that it was a "basic principle" that people should only be punished after a fair trial. "Having a judge impose those punishments does not sanitise them either," she added. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld faces a federal lawsuit brought today by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First, filed in his home state of Illinois. The suit charges that he bears direct responsibility for the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of eight men who were subject to torture and abuse at the hands of U.S. forces under Secretary Rumsfeld's command. The parties seek a court order declaring that Secretary Rumsfeld's actions are in violation of the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes and international law. Steve Fossett, piloting the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, has set the record of being the first person to fly around the world unrefueled, solo. He is also got the record for longest unrefueled flight of a jet aircraft.

Steve departed from Salina Kansas 18:47 CST on Monday and has successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean, Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Southern and Central Asia. He then crossed the Pacific moving from Japan to Hawaii, then went on to Southern California. From there her crossed the Southwest United States, and landed back in Salina Kansas at 13:50 CST on Thursday.

One major problem has been encountered during this trip. Somewhere in the first several hours of the flight 2600 pounds of fuel was lost. The engineers have two theories on what caused this loss. One is an extreme case of the fuel evaporation. It was expected to evaporate, but not at anything approaching this rate. The other possibility is that there was a leak or other type of error in the plumbing. Because the aircraft had never been flown fully fueled before, there was no previous data on what could be causing this.

Steve Fossett is already in the record books for being the first to pilot a balloon around the world. He has also been unsuccessfully attempting to achieve a record altitude for a glider for the last four years.

The aircraft was built for Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Atlantic Airways. It was constructed by Burt Rutan. Burt also designed the Voyager airplane which was piloted by his brother Dick Rutan and Jenna Yeager on the first unrefueled flight around the world. Burt is also the designer of Space Ship One, the first private craft to enter space. Margaret Wilson was appointed as Speaker of The House of Representatives. She becomes New Zealand's first female Speaker of the House. She also rounds out the top positions within New Zealand being taken by women. All four of Governor-General, Prime Minister, Chief Justice and the Speaker of the House are female.

Wilson was voted in with 64 votes. Clem Simich (National MP) received 37 and ACT MP Ken Shirley got five votes. The position has usually been appointed unopposed, but the other two candidates stood to protest at the lack of consultation by Prime Minister Helen Clark.
Wilson takes over from Jonathan Hunt, who leaves to become the High Commissioner for New Zealand in London. Hunt will remain in the backbenches until early next month. Wilson was previously Attorney-General, a position that Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Michael Cullen now holds. The state owned telephone monopoly in Costa Rica, the Costa Rica Electricity Institute, (ICE) has called for VoIP Internet to be made a criminal offence. In Costa Rica it has been illegal for anyone other than ICE to offer telephone services. With a reputation for preventing any rivals from challenging its monopoly, but also for providing an efficient service, ICE has recently seen its monopoly dented with as many as 20% of calls being routed through Skype and other VoIP service providers.

On the other hand those who seek to promote the software industry in Costa Rica, which already has a dominant 78% share of the market in Central America and the Caribbean, have reacted by saying the proposal would be disastrous both to software development and the country's ability to outsource work. The ICE claims that its telephone structure is being used by VoIP service providers, which is almost certainly true given that Skype offers calls from the Internet to phones in Costa Rica for 8 US$ cents per minute. Ex-Ontario premier Mike Harris has allegedly made some comments that may link him to the violence that happened in a police action in 1995 which left a native activist killed.

Kettle Point chief Tom Bressette testified on Tuesday that he was warned just 12 hours before OPP officers marched on Ipperwash Provincial Park and killed native protestor Dudley George to "get those fucking Indians out of the park even if you have to draw your guns to do it". The warning was allegedly on the telephone by Bob Watts, a former employee of the Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat, on Sept. 6, 1995, just hours before OPP officers marched on Ipperwash Provincial Park.

Bressette claims that Watts told him Harris, who was premier of Ontario at the time, had made the comment in "some kind of cabinet meeting". Harris has always denied that he had nothing to do with the police action at the park. Peter Downard, his lawyer, says that his client will "absolutely" deny the allegations. and that his reputation has been tarnished with "very low-grade quality information that ordinarily would never have seen the light of day in a legal proceeding."

The inquiry is finding out how George was killed during a confrontation between Ontario Provincial Police officers and three dozen people protesting that ancestral burial grounds had been desecrated in Ipperwash Provincial Park. Acting Sgt. Kenneth Deane has already been convicted of criminal negligence causing George's death. The inquiry continues today. Steven Fossett (60) landed safely back on US soil earlier this evening to claim the world record for flying non-stop by himself around the world. He landed at 7.49 pm UTC in Kansas after what had been a nerve racking last few hours.

Having left with over 18,100 pounds of fuel on board the futuristic single seater GlobalFlyer, it emerged that 2,600 pounds of fuel had "disappeared". This meant that had the winds gone against Fossett, he would have run out of fuel before the finish line. Luckily however, he was able to conserve fuel due to strong tail winds throughout the last few thousand miles of the journey. Take-Two, the company behind the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, has reported a 74% rise in quarterly profits. The company also revealed that sales of its bestselling product; Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas had surpassed 12 million copies.

The company stated that profits were $55.2m up from $31.8m in the same quarter last year. Per share earnings were $1.19, comfortably ahead of analyst expectations of $1.09 a share. Sales also rose substantially, from $375.5m to $502.5m.

Despite the news shares in Take-Two drifted $0.45 lower to $37.42 due to the company forecasting a loss of 20 cents a share for the coming quarter. The American domestic diva Martha Stewart was today released from prison after a five-month stint at the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. She will continue the rest of her sentence with an electronic tag for the next five months under house arrest.

Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison, a further five months under tag and fined US$30,000 for charges of conspiracy and obstruction stemming from insider trading in ImClone shares after the company's wonder drug Erbitux lost its FDA licence. Yuri Kravchenko, a former Interior Minister in Ukraine, has been found dead in his home just hours before questioning for the case of murdered journalist Georgiy Gongadze. Early reports indicate that he committed suicide, but the circumstances of his death will most likely result in further investigation by the authorities.

Yuri Kravchenko was the Ukraine's Interior Minister in 2000 when Mr. Gongadze was murdered. Mr. Gongadze's headless body was buried in the woods near Kiev but his head was never found. Nobody has yet been arrested for the murder, but it was believed that Mr. Kravchenko's evidence could have led to an arrest. Simply massaging low birth weight babies with sunflower seed oil can protect them from potentially fatal infections.

Infections and complications from preterm birth cause more than half of all neonatal deaths, and very low birth weight babies are particularly vulnerable.

Preterm babies have immature skin that lacks a protective film called vernix that has antimicrobial properties.

In some countries, such as India, newborns are routinely massaged with mustard oil.

But mustard oil, says Gary Darmstadt of John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, can delay recovery of the skin barrier and have a toxic effect on skin.

Seeking an alternative low-cost product, Darmstadt and colleagues experimented with sunflower oil and an ointment called Aquaphor that comprises petrolatum, mineral oil, mineral wax and lanolin.

The researchers tested the treatments on 497 newborns (72 hours old or less) and preterm babies (less than 33 weeks gestation) between 1998 and 2003 in Bangladesh.

They applied the treatments to the entire body besides the scalp and face three times daily for the first 14 days and then twice daily until discharge.

Babies treated with sunflower oil were found 41% less likely to develop infections than controls.

"Evidence is emerging that the skin is much more important as a barrier to infection than previously recognized, particularly in preterm infants whose skin is underdeveloped," says Darmstadt. "The good news is that treatment is available to strengthen the function of the skin as a barrier in these vulnerable newborns." Giuliana Sgrena was freed from captivity in Iraq today. The Italian journalist was abducted in Baghdad exactly a month ago while she had been reporting for Il Manifesto.

The Islamic Jihad Organisation had taken her hostage on the 4th February with the demand that Italy withdraw all of its troops from Iraq. On February 16, a video was released with a clearly distraught Mrs Sgrena begging for Italy to withdraw from Iraq. However despite the video, the Italian Senate voted to extend its miltary forces' stay in Iraq.

The reason for her release is unknown. Some Italian journalists have suggested that the Italian government paid a ransom.

Later on Friday, Sgrena's newspaper reported that U.S. forces fired at a car carrying the reporter shortly after her liberation, killing an Italian secret service agent. The editor of Il Manifesto newspaper, Gabriele Polo, was reported by Reuters as saying that Sgrena's car was fired on as it made its way to Baghdad airport. "This news which should have be a moment of celebration, has been ruined," Polo told Sky Italia television.

"An Italian agent has been killed by an American bullet. A tragic demonstration which we never wanted that everything that's happening in Iraq is completely senseless and mad," he added. Bill Gates, founder of the software giant Microsoft, has been made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his business skills and work on poverty reduction. He received the title on Wednesday, March 2, at a private meeting with Queen Elizabeth.

Now at age 48, Bill Gates is the world's wealthiest man, according to Forbes Magazine. Bill Gates rose to fame in the early nineties as the CEO of Microsoft, the maker of Microsoft Windows 95, the world's best selling computer operating system at the time.

Though Mr. Gates has now been knighted, he cannot use the term Sir since he is not a citizen of the United Kingdom. He can instead place the letters KBE after his name. If he chooses to become a subject of the Queen in the future, he can have his title upgraded to Sir. The New York Public Library launched a new website that offers over 275,000 historic images culled from the library's collections. The images have been digitized by the library's Digital Imaging Unit with assistance from outside contractors, according to a press release issued by the library.

Most of the images are over 100 years old, and many have entered the public domain. Despite the public domain status of the images, the library will be charging for reproduction rights for the images. The images are freely downloadable for "personal use." The library's FAQ notes that, "This use is solely for one’s private study or display, and the image(s) are not to be disseminated."

In an email to a Wikinews reporter, Tom Lisanti, the library's Manager of Photographic Services & Permissions noted that, "The usage fee is not a copyright fee. You are free to obtain a copy of these images from a source other than NYPL. Usage fees help ensure that the Library is able to continue to acquire, preserve and provide access to the accumulated knowledge of the world."

The issue of whether the library is creating a new work with a new copyright when it scans in the public domain images has not been resolved, according to Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig.

In an email to the same Wikinews reporter, Lessig writes, "This hangs on a tough, unresolved question: whether the digitization produces a 'thin' copyright around the public domain work. That copyright would not forbid you from extracting the public domain component, though how you would do that is hard to see (and hence this is a hard question)." The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF) have released figures showing that world-wide, deaths from the disease measles have dropped by 40% over the last five years.

In 1999, 873,000 people died from disease, while that number fell to 530,000 in 2003 - a drop of 39%. The largest drop was seen in Africa - 46%.

Just ten years ago a million children a year died from the disease and another 30 million were affected, often being left with long-term disabilities such as brain damage and blindness.

WHO/UNICEF started a drive to cut measles deaths in 1999, with the aim of halving deaths by the end of 2005. Governments around the world began implementing their proposals.

The main aim was to achieve the vaccination of at least 90% of all children born (around 130 million a year). A second aim was to ensure that all children between nine months and 14 years old receive a second chance for immunization, either through routine health care or special initiatives. The special initiaves have proved especially effective, vaccinating 350 million children from 1999 to 2003.

An indirect benefit of the drop in measles cases has been the releasing of money previously used for measles treatment for other health care projects. For example, in Togo, 95% of children under five now receive vaccinations against measles and polio, mosquito nets to guard against malaria, and de-worming tablets. A U.S. State Department report was released on Friday, March 4, officially detailing the extent to which opium production has soared in Afghanistan since the U.S invasion three years ago. The report made its way to U.S. Congress via Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Although the scope of study is large, investigating the status of illicit narcotics in almost every country during 2004, attention has focused on Afghanistan. With more than 510,000 sprawling acres of the impoverished country (three times the amount in 2003) utilized for Opium poppy cultivation (the raw material for heroin), the report warns that the country is becoming a "narcotics state" like Colombia for cocaine.

In addition, the report indicated that Afghanistan's opium production soared to 5,445 tons last year, producing 17 times more of the raw drug material than second-place Myanmar. The report stated that the explosion of narcotic production in Afghanistan is "an enormous threat to world stability."

To combat this issue, the Bush administration has proposed US$780 million to institute a plan that works on two levels: to promote alternative crops to farmers and to increase military interdiction for finding and destroying heroin labs and storage facilities. At the time of publishing, the U.S. government has already committed US$1.2 billion to counter-narcotics activities for 2005. John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyła) 1920-2005

After months of failing health, His Holiness Pope John Paul II passed away today, April 2, at 9:37 p.m. local time (19:37 UTC). He was 84 years old. An email message to journalists from the spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls from The Vatican confirmed the death at 20:00 UTC.

The Pope had a tracheostomy earlier this year to help him breathe, and then lost his ability to speak last week. On Thursday March 31 he developed a urinary tract infection that led to septic shock and cardiovascular collapse. A nasogastric feeding tube was inserted to help him regain strength. The Pope elected not to return to Rome's Gemelli hospital, but instead to stay in his own apartments where he was tended to by his personal doctors and Vatican medical staff.

The same night, he was administered the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick also known as the last rites. On Friday April 1, the Vatican said he was having difficulties with both his heart and his kidneys.

Italian news agency Agenzia Giornalistica Italia reports the pope's final message was "I am happy, you be happy, too. Let's pray together with joy. I entrust everything to the Virgin Mary with joy".

A description of the last moment of the holy father from father Jarek Cielecki, director of the Vatican service news and of the Italian TV catolic Tele Padre Pio, tells us the last moment of life of this great man. "The Holy father died looking at the window, gathered in prayer. As such he was conscious. Just before dying, the Pope raised his right hand in a sign of blessing, as if he was aware of all the people gathered in prayer. Then, as soon as the prayer ended, the Pope did a huge effort, said the word 'Amen' and died."

The Vatican has announced that the funeral will take place on Wednesday, April 6 and that the Pope's body will lie in state from Monday, April 4.

Many have paid tribute to the Pope and his more than quarter-century reign:

* Nancy Reagan in an interview with Larry King compared the lives of the late Pope and of her late husband Ronald Reagan, saying, "He and Ronnie had so much in common. They were both actors." Noting other similarities between their lives, including their shared interests in outdoor activities and the fact that attempts were made to assassinate them both in 1981, she concluded by saying, "It's amazing how their lives crossed."
* Paul Martin, the Prime Minister of Canada, said, "What the Pope really stood for is the bringing of all faiths together."
* Ann Widdecombe, British MP, in an interview with the BBC said, "It's being talked of already, not only by Catholics but by the world, as a great Papal reign," adding from her personal experience of having met the Pope, "I felt I was in the presence of God just for being in the presence of that Pope."
* His Eminence Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, in an announcement to ITV News in front of Westminster Cathedral, described the late Pope as "One of the greatest leaders of our modern world; one of the greatest Popes in the Church's 2000 year history." Clearly moved, he concluded his remarks saying "The Church will miss him; the world will miss him; and I will miss him."
* In a public statement, George W. Bush, President of the United States, said "All Popes belong to the world, but Americans had special reason to love the man from Krakow." He stated that "We will always remember the humble, wise, and fearless priest" and concluded by describing the late Pope as "a son of Poland who became Bishop of Rome and a hero for the ages".
* Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the President of Italy, said "All the Italians, me too, are mourning for the Holy Father... I'll never forget extraordinary events like the Jubilee meeting. John Paul II has left a mark in the history, he'll be remembered as one of those men who indicated a way... the overcoming of the divisions between East and West, a world order sustained by the peace. ... We have admired the Pope for the strength of his ideas, his courage, the extraordinary opening to the dialogue with all the religions. It will keep on living in our hearts."
* Buckingham Palace issued a statement where Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom expressed her "deep sorrow" at the passing of Pope John Paul II.
* Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that the Pope's death was a "great loss for all of humanity."
* Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury said "Pope John Paul was a leader of manifest holiness and a faithful and prayerful friend of the Anglican Church."
* The Muslim Council of Britain said "Pope John Paul II bestrode the international stage for nearly three decades with a simple message of peace, justice and freedom. He was a man of extraordinary faith, courage and compassion."
* Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, said "Pope John Paul II was a great reconciler to religion and a humanist."
* Bono, the lead singer of U2, said of the Pope, he was the "best frontman the Roman Catholic Church ever had".

The announcement of Pope John Paul II's death in Saint Peter's Square at 19:58 UTC was met with applause, a traditional Italian gesture of respect, followed by silence.
The Italian government declared three days of national mourning. (Earlier in the day, all major Italian sporting fixtures had already been cancelled.) It was reported that he had already been dubbed 'John Paul the Great' by many in the tearful crowd in St Peter's Square.

In Krakow, Poland, a crowd gathered in the square outside of the Archbishop's residence. The Polish government declared a period of national mourning, from today until the funeral.

Many Catholic churches around the world remained open to allow people to pray, or held special masses. In Dublin, Ireland, the Pro-Cathedral remained open until midnight to allow people to pray privately for the deceased Pope. In the United Kingdom, Westmister Cathedral remained open to allow people to sign a book of condolence.

The flag of the United States flying over the White House was lowered to half mast.

Pope John Paul II
Born Karol Józef Wojtyła in Wadowice, Poland on May 18, 1920, Pope John Paul II became the first non-Italian pope in 455 years when he was chosen on October 16, 1978 to lead the Roman Catholic Church following the sudden death of Pope John Paul I.

His more than 100 trips abroad have attracted enormous crowds (some of the largest ever assembled). With these trips, John Paul has covered a distance far greater than that traveled by all other popes combined. They have been seen as an outward sign of the efforts at global bridge-building between nations and between religions that have been central to his pontificate.

Pope John Paul II has beatified and canonized far more persons than any previous pope. It is reported that as of October 2004, he has beatified 1,340 people. Whether he has canonized more saints than all his predecessors put together, as is sometimes claimed, is difficult to prove, as the records of many early canonizations are incomplete or missing.

First diagnosed in 2001 and confirmed by the Vatican in 2003, the Pope had suffered from Parkinson's disease during the last few years of his life. This restricted him to only speaking a few sentences at a time and also affected his hearing and mobility. Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers were shot and killed while raiding a house in the rural town of Mayerthorpe, Alberta. The suspected shooter, James Rosko, 46, also died in the raid. The RCMP reported that he committed suicide after killing the four officers with his own rifle.

The officers were carrying out a court-ordered property seizure. They discovered stolen property and a marijuana growing operation.

The following officers were killed in action:

* Const. Peter Schiemann, 25
* Const. Anthony Gordon, 28
* Const. Lionide Johnston, 34
* Const. Brock Myrol, 29

The shooting has shocked the peaceful region and the country of Canada. The Liberal Party of Canada has responded by agreeing to recommend tougher laws for grow-ops. Local citizens are reacting to the losses with memorials and condolences.

The rural town of Mayerthorpe, with a population of about 1,600, is located about 130km northwest of Edmonton.

have your say

February 9, 2007 The US military is funding the research and development of a weapon that could be used to inflict excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away, but is meant to otherwise leave victims unharmed. Pain researchers have been left furious after work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop technology aimed at maximising it.

Intended for use against protesters and rioters, the research focuses on the effect electromagnetic pulses can have on pain reception. Due to be ready by 2007, the Pulsed Energy Projectile (PEP) weapon will fire a burst of electrically charged gas, or plasma, which will generate an electromagnetic pulse on impact. It is this pulse which will trigger impulses in nerve cells causing extreme pain.

A review of the non-lethal weapon by the US Naval Studies Board in 2003 concluded that PEPs produced “pain and temporary paralysis” in animal test subjects. Studies ongoing at the University of Central Florida in Orlando aim at optimising this effect. The ultimate aim is to generate a pulse which will trigger optimum pain in the subject without damaging tissues. Studies due to be carried out on lab grown cells aim at identifying the threshold of pain that can be inflicted on someone without causing death. There is some concern that the studies will fall short of demonstrating a safe level for a plasma burst.

The work came to light after documents were released under the US's Freedom of Information Act to the Sunshine Project, an organisation who aims to expose biological weapons research. One document entitled “Sensory consequences of electromagnetic pulses emitted by laser induced plasmas” concerned the generation and firing of PEPs. Pain researchers have condemned the research, claiming that it could be put to use as a means of torture and that it is unethical.

“I am deeply concerned about the ethical aspects of this research,” said Andrew Rice, a consultant in pain medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. “Even if the use of temporary pain can be justified as a restraining measure, which I do not believe it can, the long-term physical and psychological effects are unknown.”

Clinical psychologist at University College London, Amanda Williams expressed concern that victims risk long term harm. “Persistent pain can result in a range supposedly non-destructive stimuli which nevertheless change the functioning of the nervous system,” she says. Studies “cannot tell us about the pain and psychological consequences of such painful experience,” she said. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the unemployment rate in the Republic of Ireland was steady at 4.2% for February. The total number on the live register was 155,900 a fall of 1,300 from January.

All counties bar Waterford, Cavan, Kildare and Longford experienced a fall in unemployment, with Tipperary North having the largest individual drop with a fall of 6% in the unemployment rate.

A similier report by Eurostat - the Statistical Office of the European Union - for the month of January put Irish unemploment at 4.3%, confirming beliefs that Ireland now has the lowest rate of unemployment in Europe. Ireland is followed closely by Luxembourg with a rate of 4.4% and Austria at 4.5%. The EU average is 8.8% with Poland having the highest rate at 18.2%. DNA tests have proven that David Blunkett is not the father of Kimberley Quinn's baby son, Lorcan. The spokesman of the former minister said that test, categorically denies that David Blunkett is the father of Ms. Quinn's second son Lorcan. The test was carried out a few weeks ago with consent of both parties.

However Stephen Quinn, the real father, attacked Blunkett by saying "We are angry that Mr Blunkett has yet again chosen to talk to the press about... our family."

Mr. Blunkett was the former home secretary in the United Kingdom, until he resigned after it emerged that he had had an affair with Mrs. Quinn.

*Wikipedia - The David Blunkett scandal Italian security officer Nicola Calipari has been killed, and Giuliana Sgrena as well as two other security agents have been wounded after U.S. forces opened fire on the car they were travelling in shortly after Sregna's release from captivity.

Multinational Force Iraq officials have stated that the car approached a military check-point at speed at 8:55pm Baghdad time on Friday. Soldiers opened fire on the vehicle, injuring Ms Sgrena and killing one other.

"There was suddenly this shooting, we were hit by a hail of gunfire, and I was speaking with Nicola, who was telling me about what had been happening in Italy in the meantime, when he leaned towards me, probably also to protect me. And then he collapsed and I realised that he was dead," Ms. Sgrena told Italy's RAI radio.

She said the shooting continued "because the driver wasn't even managing to explain that we were Italian."

When questioned if the car was going too fast as it approached the U.S. troops, she said: "We weren't going particularly fast given that type of situation."

Ms Sgrena was given medical care by Coalition Forces medical personnel for a superficial wound to her shoulder. Her left-wing newspaper, Il Manifesto, claimed that the bullet had previously passed through the body of Calipari.

The Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, has demanded an explanation for the shooting. President Bush told Mr Berlusconi during a telephone call that there would be a full investigation, and offered his apologies. Boeing's Launch Systems, Launch Services and Delta Program business units are to be allowed to bid once more for U.S. space launch contracts, the USAF has announced.

Boeing had been suspended since July 24, 2003 after violating federal law. The company was discovered to have been in possession of thousands of pages of documentation from Lockheed Martin, Boeing's rival during the 1998 evolved expendable launch vehicle source selection process.

The USAF and Boeing have signed an interim agreement to protect the Air Force's interests. The agreement allows for the reinstating of the suspension if Boeing is indicted or convicted, or if new evidence is found.

Boeing will have to submit to outside verification of the remedial steps it has taken, and cannot charge the Air Force for associated costs. Internal management responsibilities for ethical practice have been changed.

Lockheed Martin's Atlas V and Boeing's Delta IV are two types of expendable rocket, designed to reduce the cost of space launches. The People's Republic of China government plans to pass an anti-secession law, aimed at preventing a declaration of Taiwan independence. The law shows the "strong determination of the Chinese people" and will "never allow secessionist forces working for 'Taiwan independence' to succeed at breaking away from the mainland" according to an announcement made by China's Premier Wen Jiabao at the National People's Congress in Beijing.

The Chinese State Council is also planning to increase the country's military budget by 12.6 percent, to US$29.98 billion, for the current fiscal year.

The anti-secession law, as well as the military budget increase will both be discussed during the parliamentary meetings which begin today, and continue for the next 12 days. Over 3,000 delegates assembled in the Great Hall of the People today to listen to Wen's two hour speech and begin discussions.

Taiwanese politicians reacted with disappointment to the planned anti-secession law, and promised protests in the streets of Taipei and Kaohsiung this Sunday. Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian even threatened to introduce an "anti-annexation" law to oppose China's move. The US and France are repeating their calls for Syria to completely withdraw from Lebanon. The two countries are leading an international campaign, based upon the UN Security Council Resolution 1559.

Syria's president Bashar al-Assad promised to gradually withdraw his troops from the region, but the US State Department is calling Bashar al-Assad's promise "insufficient" and demanded an "immediate and full withdrawal".

The French Foreign Ministry issued a statement which read, "We note the announcement by the president of the Syrian republic of his decision to apply" UN Resolution 1559. "We, therefore, expect him to fully withdraw his troops and services from Lebanon as soon as possible."

Bashar al-Assad has announced a "two-phase" withdrawal of Syria's troops, but the timetable is not yet determined.

"The Syrian army wants to pull out quickly ... as soon as possible logistically," said Syrian cabinet minister Buthaina Shaaban.

Other countries shared the concerns of the US and France:

* Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew stated, "Today's announcement by Syria of a redeployment of its troops to the Beka'a Valley and from there to the Syrian-Lebanese border falls short of Syria's obligations and the requirements of the people of Lebanon and the international community".
* Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani al-Mulqi said, "Implementation of the resolution should result in a stronger Lebanon and a Lebanon that is undivided."
* Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that a complete Syrian withdrawal "will allow free and democratic elections, letting the Lebanese elect their own leaders creating an independent country, not vassal state, and maybe in the near future leading ... to a greater understanding and maybe even peace with Israel."

Lebanese opposition leader Walid Jumblatt welcomed Bashar al-Assad's announcement, calling it a "positive start", but other leaders, such as former President Amin Gemayel are concerned that "the Syrian army will stay in the mountain range within the Lebanese border".

The international campaign to ask Syria to withdraw from Lebanon has gained increased publicity since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in Beirut, on February 14. Westmeath managed to beat Donegal by the narrowest of margins in a thrilling game at Mullingar's Cusack Park earlier today. The Allianz NFL Division 1A clash had been tipped to end in a draw, but a late burst of energy by the lakelanders ensured a victory.

Both teams scored a goal with Colm McFadden and Dessie Dolan both finding the back of the net, however both teams had several missed chances; with Ryan Bradley hitting the woodwork in an early penalty and Martin Flanagan unable to beat the goalie.

The final score was 1-12 to 1-11.

Original reporting Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena has suggested that it was "no accident" when US troops shot at her car, resulting in the death of an Italian intelligence officer who had helped to secure her release from captivity earlier that day.

Speaking to the press at the Rome hospital where she is being treated for a gunshot wound to her shoulder, she said, "It can't be just said that it was just an accident. We can't accept this, it is not possible."

Sgrena's suggestion is being reinforced by her partner, Pier Scolari who said "I hope the Italian government does something because either this was an ambush, as I think, or we are dealing with imbeciles or terrorized kids who shoot at anyone,"

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a press conference in Rome today looked visibly angry and said "I immediately invited the American ambassador to come speak with me, to clarify the actions of the American military for such a grave accident that someone is going to have to take responsibility for,"

Sgrena claims that Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari was fatally hit when he moved in front of her in the car after the soldiers opened fire on the group.

"It wasn't a checkpoint, but a patrol that started shooting after pointing some lights in our direction," the Ansa news agency cited Sgrena as telling prosecutors. "We hadn't previously encountered any checkpoint, and we didn't understand where the shots came from." The New York Times quotes Sgrena as stating that, "There was no bright light, no signal."

The London Observer reported, "Sgrena told colleagues the vehicle was not travelling fast and had already passed several checkpoints on its way to the airport. The Americans shone a flashlight at the car and then fired between 300 and 400 bullets at if from an armoured vehicle. Rather than calling immediately for assistance for the wounded Italians, the soldiers' first move was to confiscate their weapons and mobile phones and they were prevented from resuming contact with Rome for more than an hour."

The US military said in a statement: "About 2100 1800 GMT, a patrol in western Baghdad observed the vehicle speeding towards their checkpoint and attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car. When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."

American soldiers have had been victims of suicide car-bomb attacks in the past. On December 4, 2004, two cars exploded next to a checkpoint at the Green Zone in Baghdad, killing 16 and wounding dozens. On December 13, another car exploded in Baghdad killing 13.

Sgrena had been held captive for a month by Iraqi rebels. She works for the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto, founded by the former leader of Communist Youth Luciana Castellina . The paper has been characterized by the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista as a "communist daily" that has been "engaged against the war in Iraq." Italian Giancarlo Fisichella has won the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne, the opening Grand Prix of the 2005 season.

Fisichella, driving a Renault, started from pole position leading for the majority of the 57 lap event.

Fellow Renault driver Fernando Alonso finished third, with Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello separating the pair.

It was an unhappy weekend for defending world champion Michael Schumacher, who began from the rear of the field after his qualifying hopes were severely dented by Melbourne's changeable weather. Schumacher made steady progress through the field during the race but retired on lap 43 after a collision with fellow German Nick Heidfeld.

The next grand prix is scheduled for March 13 in Malaysia. The CIA has been secretly authorized by a classified directive, signed by US President Bush, to send suspects overseas as part of a "rendition" process.

The program has been used to manage the large case load which has accumulated since the September 11, 2001 attacks, leaving US officials free to concentrate on the "high value" suspects who are kept under US control at secret locations throughout the world.

Today, US officials were reluctant to defend this policy for any specific cases, but White House spokesman Dan Bartlett presented a generic defense of US anti-terrorism policies on Sunday talk shows in the United States.

A former government official claimed that the program was "fully authorized" and that the CIA was "not doing anything illegal" in an interview with The New York Times, and said that the leadership of the House and Senate intelligence committees was able to find out about the program, or had been informed of its existence.

Allowing the CIA to have so much power in deciding who can stay in the country and who is shipped off to other countries is controversial, because in the past, the White House, State Department, or Justice Department would have been involved in approving individual cases of sending prisoners to other countries.

While refusing to admit that the rendition policy even exists, the Bush administration claimed that they do not hand over people to be tortured in other countries, to get around US laws which prohibit such practices.

However, the New York Times interviewed a number of current and former officials who believed that the policy was designed to allow the government to plausibly deny that torture was being tolerated.

The case of Australian Mamdouh Habib attracted widespread attention in that country, after he was released in January after 40 months, without any charges being pressed. Australian officials were aware that he had been transferred by the United States to Egypt for six months. During this time, Habib claims he was subjected to various methods of torture, including electric shock and being held under water.

The United States denies that Habib was tortured with their knowledge, although US officials were not present during his overseas captivity and could not guarantee that he had not been tortured. Egypt has not confirmed that Habib was ever in the country.

A similar case involving Syrian born Canadian Maher Arar, deported to Syria in October, 2002, subsequently held and allegedly tortured for 374 days, led to Canada issuing a travel advisory strongly cautioning Canadians born in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya and Sudan against travel to the United States for any reason. A subsequent internal RCMP investigation found several instances of impropriety in the Arar case, including the provision of sensitive information on Arar to US officials, and that a liaison officer may have known of the deportation plan but did not contact his supervisors.

Mr. Arar's attempt to sue American Attorney-General John Ashcroft over the incident in January 2004 was dismissed when the US government invoked the rarely used "state secrets privilege", claiming that to go forward in open court would jeopardize intelligence, foreign policy, and national security interests.

Legal analysts point out that information obtained through the use of torture is useless in court proceedings, but US officials insist that the information obtained from such interrogations is still useful for their purposes, and that "it has resulted in the capture of terrorists." The owner of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse has said it is quitting the takeover of the owner of the London Stock Exchange, LSE. Its planned GBP 1,3 billion (EUR 2 billion) takeover (530p per share) was stopped by opposition for various shareholders from both parties. Its announcement is a setback for the chief executive Werner Seifert.

This just leaves the Euronext NV as the sole bidder of the LSE. It owns the stock exchanges in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and the tiny London-based exchange Liffe. Jewish, fled Germany in 1933 when the Nazi Party came to power. Bethe, along with hundreds of other Jewish academics, were fired from their posts as a result of one of Adolf Hitler's first anti-Semitic acts. Bethe moved first to England and in 1935 to the USA where he taught at Cornell University.

Between 1935 and 1938, he studied nuclear reactions and reaction cross sections. This research was useful to Bethe in more quantitatively developing Niels Bohr's theory of the compound nucleus.

During World War II, he served as a prominent member of a special summer session at the University of California, Berkeley at the invitation of Robert Oppenheimer, which outlined the first designs for the atomic bomb and served as the beginning of the Manhattan Project. When Oppenheimer started the secret weapons design laboratory, Los Alamos, he appointed Bethe as Director of the Theoretical Division.

After the war, Bethe argued that a crash project for the hydrogen bomb should not be attempted, though after President Truman announced the beginning of such a crash project, and the outbreak of the Korean War, he signed up and played a key role in the weapon's development. In 1968, he reflected upon the choice, noting that "It seemed quite logical. But sometimes I wish I were more consistent an idealist." Though he would see the project through to its end, in Bethe's account he was primarily hopeful that the weapon would be impossible to produce. He later characterized Stanislaw Ulam as the "father" of the hydrogen bomb, and Edward Teller as its "mother," and himself as its "midwife."

Among his many honors, Bethe received the Max Planck medal in 1955, and in 1961 he was awarded the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for his work in identifying the energy generating processes in stars. In 1967, Bethe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his studies of the production of solar and stellar energy, stellar nucleosynthesis. He postulated that the source of this energy are thermonuclear reactions in which hydrogen was converted into helium.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Bethe campaigned for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, arguing against the nuclear arms ace and against nuclear testing. In 1995, at the age of 88, Bethe wrote an open letter calling on all scientists to "cease and desist" from working on any aspect of nuclear weapons development and manufacture. In 2004, he signed a letter along with 47 other Nobel laureates endorsing John Kerry for president of the United States citing Bush's apparent misuse of science. Insulin production has been discovered in the brain and linked to Alzheimer's disease, potentially changing how the illness is viewed and treated.

While insulin resistance, a characteristic of diabetes, is linked with neurodegeneration, the new finding provides a strong connection between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

"What we found is that insulin is not just produced in the pancreas, but also in the brain," says study senior author Suzanne de la Monte of Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University Medical School. "And we discovered that insulin and its growth factors, which are necessary for the survival of brain cells, contribute to the progression of Alzheimer's."

This raises the possibility, says de la Monte, of a "type 3" diabetes.

The finding was made by studying a genetic abnormality in rats that blocks insulin signaling in the brain.

In the rats, de la Monte and colleagues found that insulin and related proteins IGF I and II are expressed in neurons in several regions in the brain.

Additionally, they determined that a drop in insulin production in the brain contributes to brain cell degeneration, a symptom of Alzheimer's.

"These abnormalities do not correspond to type 1 or type 2 diabetes, but reflect a different and more complex disease process that originates in the CNS (central nervous system)," the researchers report.

Analysis of postmortem brain tissue also revealed that the proteins aren't produced at normal levels in human Alzheimer's sufferers.

Insulin and IGF I were significantly reduced in the frontal cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus—all areas affected by Alzheimer's—while not in the cerebellum, which is generally not affected by Alzheimer's.

The study "opens the way for targeted treatment to the brain and changes the way we view Alzheimer's disease," says de la Monte.

The research is reported in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. The Sunday Times and Observer newspapers today both stated that British Airways CEO Rod Eddington is planning to step down in the Summer. Althought no official announcement has been released from the airline about Mr Eddington's future, speculation is already mounting on who the successor will be.

Possible internal candidates include marketing director Martin George and finance director John Rishton. However it is quite possible that an external executive such as Willie Walsh, former CEO of Aer Lingus, could take the post. Mr Walsh successful turned around Aer Lingus into one of the most profitable national carriers in the world after it had almost bankrupt in 2002.

Mr Eddington took over the top job at British Airways in May 2000 Peruvians living near the site of a release of mercury are preparing to sue a U.S. mining company, announcing last Saturday that they will bring their case before a Denver judge.

On June 2, 2000, a serious accident in the province of Cajamarca, in Peru, poisoned many residents with mercury, a highly toxic heavy metal. A truck from Newmont Mining Company dumped two metal canisters of mercury along an Andean highway, in the communities of San Juan, Choropampa, and Magdalena. Curious townspeople (mostly children) picked up the silvery droplets, and some even drank some of it. Many residents became sick from severe mercury poisoning. Some of those who came in contact with the mercury suffered blindness, and one even had a purplish rash on her body.

Over 300 people directly suffered the effects of mercury poisoning.

As the owners of the Yanacocha mine which produced the mercury, Newmont Mining offered up to US$6 thousand to more than 700 local residents, but over 1,100 others are still engaged in a legal battle with Newmont over the case.

In today's global economy, many international businesses have looked overseas to maintain their profits, but environmental law professor James Otto is asking about the cost to the environment and public health. "Any company that wants to mine internationally now must not only have the legal right to mine but also a 'social license' to operate," he said. "Peru has been a wake-up call."

As the Peruvian residents gear up for their lawsuit against Denver-based Newmont Mining, the world's largest gold mining firm, some of these important questions may finally be answered. After the breakdown of mediation talks with Newmont on January 20, the residents and their lawyer decided to stop negotiating behind closed doors and take their case to the public. Last Saturday, March 5, 2005, they announced that they are bringing their suit before Denver District Judge Robert Hyatt. "If successful," states Ken Krowder who represents the plaintiffs, "this would mark the first time an American firm is held accountable for environmental damages overseas."

This is not the first time Newmont Mining has had trouble with an emerging Third World environmental movement. Recently, in August 2004, a US$543 million lawsuit was filed against Newmont Mining by the Indonesian Environmental Ministry and local villagers. They claim that pollution caused by the company’s mining activities has caused serious illnesses and other health problems, including skin disease, tumors, birth defects, and a decline in fish stocks, a staple food. One particular mining practice used frequently by Newmont Mining in Indonesia is submarine tailings disposal, a waste disposal method for mercury and arsenic that is outlawed in the United States.

At least six Newmont Mining managers, including an American and an Australian, face up to 15 years in a Jakarta prison for environmental and corporate crime in that case.

The local Peruvian residents are continuing their fight for safer mining practices and compensation for existing damage and injuries. Thousands of local townspeople protested against the Yanacocha mine last fall, demanding protection for the local water supply.

Newmont Mining officials have blamed the June 2000 mercury spill on a contractor, and have lost the battle to keep the case out of the American court system. The President of Bolivia Carlos Mesa officially resigned Sunday, March 6. Now the President of Senate Hormando Vaca Díez is the temporary President of the Republic of Bolivia.

Mesa resigned because of the announcement of highways's blockages by Evo Morales, both the leader of the coca growers and the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS). The blockages serve to pressure the Legislative so the Hydrocarbons Law can be approved. The law aims to raise the taxes levied on hydrocarbon extraction from 18 to 50%.

The MAS is a political party formed basically by coca-growing campesinos (known as cocaleros), communists, admirers of Fidel Castro, and indigenous people. The party is against the government of the United States and the alleged American influency in the region, the neoliberalism and the globalization. Morales in his own words, explain some of the MAS motivations:
:The worst enemy of humanity is capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that the national states are not providing even minimally for health, education and alimentation, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated.

Morales is an admirer of Fidel Castro and he says he is inspired by the presidents of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He supports the creation of an anti-imperialist block formed by Latin-American and Arabian countries against the USA, which is being organized by the Brazilian President.

Bolivia economy depends on exportation of hydrocarbon (oil and gas). Other sources of resources comes from the cultivation of coca.
The coca growers demands the same treatment the government is giving to hydrocarbons. However, the production of coca in great quantities is controversial since the coca is the raw material of cocaine. Cocaine is considered illegal in Bolivia and in the majority of other countries

In October 2003, Morales caused the resignation of the President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. After the resignation of Lozada, Mesa, the vice-president, assumed the command of Bolivan government.

Morales said about the resignation of Mesa:"The only resignation purpose is to blackmail, this resignation is not worth, it basically serves so the October agenda does not occurr (agenda purpose is nationalization of gas production and to proclaim a Constitutional Assembly Note:where politics propose a new Constitution).

The blockades of roads occurred in two strategical places: at the city of El Alto, neighboring to the capital, and at El Chapere, which binds the cities of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

The country is divided. There were some protests and manifestations for and against Mesa. Two engineers, Andrea Alù and Nader Engheta of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have come up with a 'plasmonic cover' which they claim could render objects "nearly invisible to an observer".

The idea is still in its infancy, but it is said not to violate any obvious laws of physics. John Pendry, a physicist at Imperial College in London, UK: "The concept is an interesting one, with several important potential applications. It could find uses in stealth technology and camouflage."

Earlier attempts at constructing an invisibility screen resulted in the chameleon-principle: screens were coloured to match their background, rendering them hard, but not impossible to see, but usually from only a limited point of view.

The principle on which the technology is founded can be explained as follows: an object can be seen because light scatters from its surface back to our eyes. If the scattering of light could be prevented, the object could not be seen. By making a screen resonate in tune with the light, scattering of light would be prevented. This can be achieved by using plasmons, waves of electronic density caused by electrons in a metalic surface moving in sync. If the frequency of the light is close to that of the shield, the light scattered by the object will be negligible compared to the light scattered by the shield. For visible light, silver and gold can be used as metals, for other frequencies, such as infrared and ultra-violet, other metals will have to be used. China passed a new law that codifies a legal basis for authorising the use of military force to stop Taiwan from formally declaring its independence from the mainland. The anti-succession law was passed by the National People's Congress on March 8 in Beijing.

The deputy chairman of the NPC told members gathered at the Great Hall of the People that, "If possibilities for a peaceful reunification should be completely exhausted, the state shall employ non-peaceful means and other necessary measures to protect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity." The broad language of the law does not specify any exact measures China might take, but its effect is to reinforce the mainland's long held position of a one-China principle.

The Mainland Affairs Council in Taipei described the law as "malicious" and "crude". Taiwan views the development as violating international norms for peacefully resolving disputes. "This law exposes China's plot to impose armed force to swallow up Taiwan," read the council's written statement. "In essence, it has handed its military a blank check to unleash force against Taiwan." A Taiwanese Defence Ministry spokesperson announced that military exercises will be held this summer to practice defending against an attack.

The White House had urged China to reconsider the law before it was passed. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "We view it as unhelpful - something that runs counter to recent trends toward a warming in cross-strait relations. We oppose any attempts to determine the future of Taiwan by anything other than peaceful means."

China has always officially maintained that Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949, is a rogue territory which must eventually reunify with China. Just recently in a ‘four point guideline' set forth on March 5, 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao said, "On no account shall the 1.3 billion Chinese people allow anyone to undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We will not have the slightest hesitation, falter or concession on the major principle issue of opposing secession. The 'Taiwan independence' secessionist forces must abandon their secessionist stand and stop all 'Taiwan independence' activities."

Chinese opposition to a plan by Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian for a referendum on a new constitution that may violate Jintao's ‘four-point guideline' is seen in part as prompting the new law. Genetic abnormalities behind the premature aging disease Progeria have been corrected in cells in a step towards gene therapy for the condition.

Affecting about one in eight million children, Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria (HGP) causes sufferers to rapidly experience symptoms of old age.

The average life expectancy of those afflicted is just around 14 years, with many dying from such age-related conditions as heart disease.

The disease is known to be caused by a mutation in the gene lamin A.

The mutation is thought to adversely affect the expression of genes by preventing appropriate genetic "editing."

The inappropriate editing cuts exons—"sentences" of genetic information—too short.

Tom Misteli and colleagues of the US National Cancer Institute have now found a way to correct the editing error.

They did this using synthetic molecules called morpholino oligonucleotides that Misteli likens to a "molecular Band-Aid."

The researchers say the discovery could aid the development of gene therapy for Progeria.

The research is reported in the journal Nature Medicine. The British national airline, British Airways has announced that the former CEO of Aer Lingus, Willie Walsh is to be their new CEO. Mr Walsh is to replace the current CEO, Australian-born Rod Eddington in September after his retirement.

Willie Walsh started as a cadet for Aer Lingus at the age of 17, later becoming a captain of the airline. In 1998, he became the chief-executive of the airline's charter subsidiary Furtura, and later in 2000 chief finance officer. In the wake of 11th September 2001, he became the chief-executive of Aer Lingus, itself. Worried about what happened to Swissair and Sabena, he looked at the rival Irish airline Ryanair for inspiration and made Aer Lingus in effect a no-frills airline, such as replacing the infamous turquoise uniforms with polo shirts and promoting via the Internet. Aslan Maskhadov, the leader of the separatist movement in Chechnya, is reported to have been killed by Russian special forces.

FSB head Nikolay Patrushev announced that special forces attached to the FSB (the successor to the KGB) had "today carried out an operation in the settlement of Tolstoy-Yurt, as a result of which the international terrorist and leader of armed groups Maskhadov was killed, and his closest comrades-in-arms detained". A body was shown on Russian television that looked very much like Maskhadov. Akhmed Zakayev, one of his closest allies who acted as his spokesman and "Foreign Minister", told a Russian radio station that it was probable that Maskhadov had indeed been killed

Russia had considered the Chechen separatists terrorists, and accredited the Beslan school hostage crisis, along with other acts to the militants. Maskhadov has condemned any crime against civilians.

Aslan Alivitch Maskhadov, born 21 September, 1951, was the leader of the separatist movement in the Russian republic of Chechnya. He was credited by many with the Chechen victory in the First Chechen War, which secured temporary de facto independence for Chechnya. In January 1997, Maskhadov was elected President of Chechnya on a platform including demands for independence from Moscow. Following the start of the Second Chechen War in 1999, he returned to leading the guerrilla movement against the Russian army. Syria has begun to withdraw its troops from northern and southern Lebanon despite a large rally in Beirut to support the Syrian presence.

Lebanese Defence Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad said troops would pull back to the eastern Bekaa Valley on Tuesday, but refused to give a date for a full withdrawal. The movement of the 6,000 troops involved would take six to ten days, he said. Syria has a total of 14,000 soldiers in the country.

Earlier, a peaceful Hezbollah-organised rally saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets of Beirut to show their support for the Syrians. The pro-Syrian Lebanon-based Shia Muslim organization, which maintains an armed militia in Lebanon, promised more rallies throughout Lebanon. According to Michel Aoun, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, it appears that the turnout was artificially inflated, with Palestinian, Syrian, and other non-Lebanese groups attending, as well as with coercive tactics used by Syrian intelligence officials.

Lebanese opposing the presence of Syrian troops held counter-rallies just 300m away, with smaller turn-outs.

Syria has come under increasing political pressure to withdraw. U.S. President George W. Bush said in a speech today, "Freedom will prevail in Lebanon. All Syrian military forces and intelligence personnel must withdraw before the Lebanese elections for those elections to be free and fair."

Lebanon plans to hold a general election in May.

Syrian troops and intelligence officers have been present in Lebanon since the country began a peace-keeping mission in Lebanon during the 1976, following the start of Lebanon's civil war. U.S. forces withdrew in 1984 after a suicide attack killed 241 Marines. Ever since, Syria has had a strong political hold on its neighbour.

United Nations Resolution 1559 requires the immediate and complete withdrawal of all Syrian forces from Lebanon. France, Russia, Germany, and Saudi Arabia have made similar calls. Portland, Oregon – A cloud of white steam and ash rose as high as 36,000 feet from Mount St. Helens in the U.S. state of Washington at 5:27 p.m. PST today. The eruption was visible from the Portland metropolitan area in the neighbouring state of Oregon, causing traffic slowdowns as commuters slowed to watch the spectacle. News helicopters have shown photos of lava emerging inside the crater. Although the eruption was mostly over by 6:07 p.m. PST, an ashfall advisory until 9:00 p.m. PST has been announced for communities around the mountain.

The volcano has been building a new dome in its crater in recent months and causing tremors. It seems to have done enough damage to knock out at least two of the seismometers operated on its dome by the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, although this could be the result of either damage to the seismometers themselves, or their telemetry equipment.

The volcano is most famous for its dramatic eruption in 1980 which killed 57 people and blew the top off the mountain.

* VolcanoCam
* "Large Ash Explosion From Mount St. Helens" from KIRO TV (Seattle's Channel 7)
* Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network
* Seismograph chart showing "flatlining" after 01:28 UTC

Original reporting

pt:Cinza e vapor no Monte St. Helens
sv:2005/03/09: Vulkanen Mount St Helens spyr ut aska The Brazilian physicist Cesare Mansueto Giulio Lattes, aged 80, known as Cesar Lattes died on March 8, 2005 at 3:40 pm. His death was caused by a cardio-respiratory failure and occurred at the Hospital of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), in the Barão Geraldo district, in the city of Campinas, São Paulo state, Brazil.

Lattes, along with Giuseppe Occhialini and Cecil Powell was responsible for the discovery of the subatomic particle called the pion, in 1947. This discovery was very important for the understanding of the sub-atomic structure of the atom.

The physicist was born on July 11, 1924 in Curitiba, Paraná. For the last 30 years of his life he lived at Campinas, in Barão Geraldo. He worked at the Brazilian university Unicamp and he was the founder of its Department of Cosmic Rays and Chronology of the "Gleb Wataghin" Physics Institute. Over 27 children are dead, and another 100 are hospitalized, after eating tainted cassava on the central Philippine island of Bohol, according to local officials. Francisca Doliente told The Associated Press that a friend who shared a portion of the cassava with her 9-year-old niece, Arve Tamor, was "gone...She died".

"It was during recess time. The children bought cassava," said Mabini Vice-Mayor Ester Tabigue.

"Several children were brought here vomiting and complaining of stomach aches," said Dr. Elpidio Bonito. He noted that seven children did not make it to the hospital before succumbing to the food poisoning.

At the Ubay L.G. Cotamura Community Hospital, Dr. Leta Cutamora confirmed 14 fatalities and 35 others under treatment.

Almost 50 students from the San Jose Elementary School were sent to two other hospitals. One of the sellers of the cassava, a middle-aged woman, was also sent to the hospital.

Cassava is a starchy delicacy made from a tropical plant. It is poisonous when raw, and must be prepared properly so it is not converted into cyanide by the human digestive system.

"Some said they took only two bites because it tasted bitter and the effects were felt five to 10 minutes later," said Dr. Harold Garcia, from the Garcia Memorial Provincial Hospital.

A sample of the cassava will be studied at local Crime Laboratory Group, to try and determine what caused the food poisoning. The cassava was deep-fried and caramelized. The trial of the former Brazilian deputy Hildebrando Pascoal was scheduled to began on March 8 at 8:30 AM in Brasília. However the trial began about an hour later, because Pascoal needed to talk to his lawyer.

Pascoal, the former police officer Reginaldo Rocha de Souza and the alleged drug dealer Alexandre Alves da Silva are in trial because they are accused of murdering the police officer Walter Ayala in September 1997.

There are several other serious accusations against Pascoal, including: dealing with the drug cartel, leading death squads, robbery and political corruption.

The case was widely discussed in Brazil because a witness (whose identity could not be revealed since its life was in danger) said that Pascoal personally cut off the arms and legs of a man with a chainsaw. Another one told Pascoal killed at least 60 people.

Pascoal says he is innocent and that all the accusations were forged by his enemies: the former Court President of Acre, Jersino José da Silva and the Federal Prosecutor, Luiz Francisco de Souza.

Pascoal has been in jail for about 6 years. The ubiquitous plastic bag
They are cheap, useful, and very plentiful, and that is exactly the problem, according to researchers. A report issued on Feb. 23 by a cadre of environment and economics researchers suggested that Kenya should ban the common plastic bag that one gets at the checkout counter of grocery stores, and place a levy on other plastic bags, all to combat the country's environmental problems stemming from the bags' popularity.

The new report was a result of work by Kenyan government, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis. It evaluated the state of waste management in the country with particular attention to plastic bag pollution, and recommended that bags less than 30 microns in thickness be banned, a levy be placed on suppliers of thicker bags, and a number of programs be developed to encourage people in the country to not litter, but to recycle and use alternative or reusable bags for their shopping needs instead.

On one hand, the bags are often better than the alternatives, and are getting better. The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) in the United States quotes the University of Arizona Garbage Project's report that plastics are getting more compact and take up less space in landfills. Plastic bags compare favorably with paper bags which require more energy to produce, generate more waste and burn less cleanly, according to the SPI.

But on the other hand, the bags have gotten so thin as to be barely reusable and recyclable: grocers will frequently double-bag heavy produce, and the bag weighs so little that a great number of bags have to be collected to create an effectively recycled mass of plastic. The light-weight bags are easily picked up by wind, and end up escaping open trash bins and refuse heaps. By littering the landscape, plastic bags become a choking hazard for cattle; in the sea they hurt marine mammals. In Bangladesh, plastic bags were banned after they were blamed for blocking storm drains and causing flooding. Even if they do enter the landfill successfully, the bags take up to 1000 years to bio-degrade.

Plastic bags in Kenya are an especially acute problem. According to the report, waste management in the country isn't very effective, due partially to a lack of municipal trash pickup in squatter settlements and satellite towns outside the cities' boundaries. Less than 25% of the solid waste generated daily gets processed by a combination of public and private efforts.

Sometimes plastic bag litter can have even further consequences. According to 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kenyan Professor Wangari Mathaai, discarded bags fill up with rainwater and become perfect breeding grounds for malaria-bearing mosquitoes. Malaria is Africa's most deadly infectious disease in children, and over 50% of all hospital visits in some areas are malaria-related. Social costs of plastic litter add up as well: countries lacking comprehensive waste management often sprout underground economies of ragpickers — typically children who wander refuse heaps and collect potentially recyclable materials for sale to shady businessmen operating from official dump sites. The ragpickers in developing countries struggle with plastic bags, preferring thicker materials that require fewer items to be picked up for the same weight.

The problem with bags is that they are victims of their own success: they are so very cheap to manufacture that, at a cost of US$0.01 per bag, retailers often absorb the price of bags into the price of merchandise they sell. This makes the bag appear free to the consumers, who in turn do not value it, and toss the bag away with little reuse. In a vicious circle, the low cost of the bags drives down the amount of material used to manufacture them, creating bags that are flimsy and not easy to reuse.

The report places an emphasis on learning from the successes and failures of other countries' approaches to regulating t