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Editorial: I Pledge Allegiance to the Corporations...
Jason Miller
26/09/2006
Students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in school on Flag Day in 1899
Fascism the American Way
Relentless indoctrination by a vast corporate media complex has convinced many that the United States of America is an exceptional nation. Charged with the sacred duty of preserving Pax Americana, the United States is purported to be the embodiment of the ideals of truth, justice and liberty for all.
Before making firm intellectual commitment to such pleasant fictions, consider these questions:
Why is it that virtually every liberal or progressive proposal for socioeconomic or political change in the United States is still-born, or on the rare occasions it survives the birthing process, it is beaten into submission by a domineering patriarch?
And why have virtually all crusaders for progressive causes in the "land of the free" wound up imprisoned (i.e. Eugene Debs), deported (Emma Goldman), or assassinated (MLK)?
For a nation that Thomas Paine, the intellectual catalyst of the American Revolution, envisioned as "an asylum for mankind", the United States has not been very hospitable to dissent or dissidents. How can this be?
A simple summation of a highly complex answer is that powerful reactionary forces are consistently poised to suppress those who dare to challenge the tyranny of the de facto aristocracy and corporatocracy. And they have an extraordinary propaganda machine known as the mainstream media to sustain the myth that the United States is a nation governed by and for "We the People".
One can readily find multiple examples of other governments and nations guilty of heinous crimes against humanity, but with a foreign policy that has resulted in the annihilation of millions of civilians, the United States is as malevolent as some of history's most despicable empires. And the "bastion of human rights" has a highly questionable track record domestically too. Ask Native Americans and Blacks how their ancestors fared in a nation populated largely by self-professed Christians and ostensibly governed as a constitutional republic.
It HAS happened here
Tragically, the forces of avarice, militarism, nationalism, and lust for power have all but extinguished the bright illumination cast by those amongst the Founding Fathers who were deeply influenced by the Age of Enlightenment. Despite its military and technological prowess, the United States is awash in ignorance, superstition, repression, and fear reminiscent of the Dark Ages.
Holding the reins guiding the world's sole remaining super-power, the United States' ruling elite have seized (or perhaps created) a ripe opportunity. Preying on ignorance and fear, they have convinced many amongst the masses to sell their souls for the "security" of fascist and corporate rule.
Fascism is multi-faceted and has been defined in a multitude of ways. However, Wikipedia provides a simple and succinct summary of fascism's widely accepted defining characteristics:
Fascism is associated by many scholars with one or more of the following characteristics: a very high degree of nationalism, economic corporatism, a powerful, dictatorial leader who portrays the nation, state or collective as superior to the individuals or groups composing it.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Sinclair Lewis' prediction has come true. And despite desperate propagandistic attempts to preserve the false cloak of humanitarianism, the Bush Regime is overtly displaying the innate savagery and predatory nature of the American Empire, Inc.
In the United States' version of a fascist state, the flag and those who mindlessly Pledge Allegiance have become nearly ubiquitous. The so-called "Patriot Act" has severely diminished civil liberties yet is widely accepted as necessary to preserve the security of "our nation". Two consecutive elections (each of which denied US citizens the opportunity to truly influence the outcome) "catapulted" a morally and intellectually bankrupt man into the role of "leader of the free world". Natural disasters occur and thousands of human beings are left to suffer and die. Imperial wars cost hundreds of thousands of lives, plunge the nation further into fiscal and moral bankruptcy, and strain military personnel beyond their limits. The Decider and company continue greedily consolidating power to elevate Bush to the position of a unitary executive. And thanks to the zealous efforts of the Bush Regime, the widening wealth gap and deep cuts to federal social programs are enabling some Developing Nations to surpass the United States in areas such as education and health care.
Corporatism and its evil ways...
With the rise of economic corporatism, the line between corporations and the federal government has blurred significantly. Dick Cheney is one of many key government officials who seamlessly slide between the private and public sector, closing the door on neither. In a blatantly criminal example, this "revolving door" has enabled Halliburton to win no-bid contracts and defraud tax-payers of billions of dollars. Intense lobbying efforts, large campaign donations, and the manipulation of Congresspeople with promises to create (or threats to eliminate) jobs ensure that corporate interests prevail in the public arena. And with $600 billion of public money going toward military spending each year, corporate defense contractors have become the pushers for a nation addicted to war.
How did corporations become so powerful?
Germinating in the 19th Century, the legal concept of corporate personhood sank deep roots into the rich soil of predacious capitalism in the United States. Sheltered by the validation of the Supreme Court and the fierce protection of the ruling elite, corporate personhood has grown to Sequoia-like proportions. Bestowed with many of the legal rights of a human being yet lacking human encumbrances or limitations such as conscience, fear, and mortality, corporations are bastions from which acquisitive and malevolent individuals can commit egregious crimes with virtual impunity.
There are many examples of corporations that often abuse their power, put profits ahead of human welfare and the environment, and wield undue influence over public policy.
Shall we consider one such corporation?
"Have a Coke and a Smile and Shut the Fuck Up"
Coca Cola is as much a part of the American Way as baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie. What could be more wonderful than an American icon producing a refreshing soft drink recognized by 94% of the world's population?
Remember some of Coke's advertising slogans?
I'd like to buy the world a Coke
Coke adds life.
Coke is it.
(Yes, those are but a few of the taglines that Madison Avenue has seared into your cerebrum).
Despite some recent "hiccups", the soft drink leviathan cruised across the 2005 finish line with annual revenues of $23.1 billion and a net income of nearly $5 billion. So major investors, corporate executives, supporters, and Coca Cola addicts can truly "Have a Coke and a smile."
It's not a party for everyone...
Unfortunately, there are many people around the world who are not smiling with them. A campaign to Stop Killer Coke has gathered so much momentum that Coke spent $2.4 billion in advertising last year. To counter the exposure of the hideous truths behind the hallowed "Coke lore", Coca Cola has increased its advertising expenditures by 30% since 2004.
With animated polar bears and Kris Kringle giving them the thumbs up while merrily downing their noxious concoction, how can Coke lose?
Hopefully enough people will awaken to reality and stop drinking Coca Cola beverages until it begins producing and marketing healthier products in an ethical way.
And what are some of these ugly truths veiled by the powerful illusions that $2.4 billion per year can create?
Ray Rogers, head of Corporate Campaign, Inc. offered this analysis:
"They are right at the top of the worst companies in the world, and yet they've created an image like they are American pie. When people think of Coca-Cola, they should think about great hardship and despair for people and communities around the world."
What are some of the hardships and despairs associated with Coca Cola?
India is the scene of some of Coke's most serious crimes.
In the remote village of Plachimada, Coke's $25 million bottling plant depleted the water wells of locals. Adding insult to injury, Coca Cola also distributed "free fertilizer" to indigenous farmers. The "fertilizer" was a by-product of its production process and was loaded with cadmium, a carcinogenic toxin. Locals staged an ongoing demonstration at the plant starting in 2002. In 2005 the Kerala State Pollution Control Board shut down the Coke facility.
A Coke plant in Mehdiganj has caused Indian citizens in twenty towns to face significant water scarcity with water tables dropping by 18 feet.
Pesticide levels in Coke produced in India average 25 times the maximum levels established by the Bureau of Indian Standards. As a result, the Indian state of Kerala has banned the sale of Coke.
It is instructive to note that the Bush administration, ever the corporate champion, dispatched U.S. Undersecretary for International Trade Franklin Lavin to issue this thinly veiled threat to India:
"In a time when India is working hard to attract and retain foreign investment, it would be unfortunate if the discussion were dominated by those who did not want to treat foreign companies fairly."
Yes, Franklin. It is indeed unfair that people in India don't want to drink pesticide to enhance Coke's profits. And Coca Cola thanks you for providing a return on its investment of $380,000.00 to the Bush presidential campaign in 2004.
In his April 2006 ZNet article, Sucking Communities Dry , Joe Zacune of War on Want wrote:
The company admits that without water it would have no business at all. Coca-Cola's operations rely on access to vast supplies of water, as it takes almost three litres of water to make one litre of Coca-Cola. In order to satisfy this need, Coca-Cola is increasingly taking over control of aquifers in communities around the world. These vast subterranean chambers hold water resources collected over many hundreds of years. As such they the represent the heritage of entire communities.
It is indeed ironic that the company that once used the tagline "Delicious, wholesome, thirst quenching" is depriving significant numbers of people around the globe of ready access to potable water.
And do the ends justify the means? To offset its theft and poisoning of water supplies, does Coca Cola create an elixir that benefits humanity in a substantial way? Hardly....
Here's to your (deteriorating) health...
Coca Cola easily dissolves tooth enamel. Its high phosphorus contact causes the depletion of calcium in the body. Calcium depletion increases the risk of osteoporosis in adults and of bone fractures in adolescents. As calcium leaves the body, it is often collected in the kidneys to form kidney stones. Coke can also impede proper digestion and exacerbate acid reflux.
And let's not forget the additional "health benefits" to Coke drinkers. The extremely high sugar content increases the chance of obesity 1.6 times each time a person downs a soda. And to complement the lovely prospect of becoming obese, the over-consumption of sugar associated with drinking Coke on a regular basis puts one at risk of contracting Type 2 diabetes.
In 2002, Dr. Francine Ratner Kaufman wrote of a disturbing trend involving our children, who happen to be frequent targets of Coke's advertising:
As the new president of the American Diabetes Association and as a pediatric endocrinologist, I have had the opportunity to appreciate the recent change in the face of type 2 diabetes in the United States. Type 2 diabetes has changed from a disease of our grandparents and parents to a disease of our children....In 1992, it was rare for most pediatric centers to have patients with type 2 diabetes. By 1994, type 2 diabetes accounted for up to 16% of new cases of pediatric diabetes in urban areas, and by 1999, it accounted for 8-45% of new cases depending on geographic location.
"Relax with Coke"...But don't try to work for them
Coke has been particularly hard on the health of union activists and members. In Colombia, nine Coca Cola-employed union leaders have been killed and hundreds of union workers tortured, kidnapped, or attacked by right-wing paramilitaries. Ironically, the timing of the violence of the paramilitaries has coincided with union agitation and contract negotiations.
The New York City Council sent a group to Colombia to investigate Coca Cola's potential responsibility for the murders and assaults. Documenting 179 human rights abuses and determining that Coke's bottlers were closely aligned with the paramilitaries who committed the crimes, the investigators issued this statement:
"The company denies any involvement in the threats, assassinations, kidnappings and other terror tactics, but its failure to protect its workers even on company property, its refusal to investigate persistent allegations of payoffs to paramilitary leaders by plant managers, and its unwillingness to share documentation that might demonstrate otherwise leads the delegation to the conclusion that Coca-Cola is complicit in the human rights abuses of its workers in Colombia."
In May of 2005, a Coca Cola facility in Turkey fired five union organizers. A day later, Coke fired 50 union employees. When the fired employees refused to leave immediately, Coke had Turkish riot police known as Cevik Kuvvet drive them off by beating them.
Coke was not finished. They waited five days and then fired 50 more union members.
In July, the fired union members and their families gathered at the Coca Cola facility to peacefully protest their termination. 1,000 Cevik Kuvvet sprayed them with tear gas and beat them with batons. Coca Cola's violent suppression of union activity sent 90 people to the hospital that day
According to a detailed report by Human Rights Watch, child labor is rampant in El Salvador. Children as young as eight are subjected to back-breaking and dangerous labor harvesting sugar-cane for subsistence wages. Companies purchasing and using the sugar enable and perpetuate this morally reprehensible practice.
Human Rights Watch asserted:
One such business is The Coca-Cola Company, which uses sugar from El Salvador's largest mill, Central Izalco, located in the Department of Sonsonate. Coca-Cola uses Salvadoran sugar in its bottled beverages for domestic consumption in El Salvador and in its canned beverages sold throughout Central America. At least four of the plantations that supply sugarcane to Central Izalco regularly use child labor, Human Rights Watch found after interviewing children and adults who work on those plantations. When Human Rights Watch brought this information to Coca-Cola's attention, Coca-Cola asked its supplier mill to conduct its own investigation into the use of child labor on plantations that supply the mill. Coca-Cola's extensive response to the information provided by Human Rights Watch did not contradict our findings.
In 1946, one of Coke's advertising slogans was:
Whenever you hear "Have a Coke," you hear the voice of America
I wonder how often eight year old El Salvadoran children hear the voice of America and think that "Coke adds life"....
They're counting on YOUR support!
After weighing the evidence, I have decided to excise soft drinks from my life. And that is no easy task for a "four can a day" addict. So the next time you are downing a refreshing can of soda, I urge you to resist Coke's $2.4 billion mind fuck and think about thirsty human beings drinking cadmium-contaminated water, pesticide cocktails, "fertilizer" derived from toxic sludge, decaying teeth, corpulence, child diabetics, murder for hire, police batons cracking skulls, children suffering the horrors of child labor, and the growing trend toward global fascism.
And remember to"Enjoy that refreshing new feeling." Fascist elements are counting on your blind loyalty in their bid to subjugate the world's masses to corporate domination.
Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He writes prolifically and his essays have appeared widely on the Internet. He welcomes constructive correspondence at willpowerful@hotmail.com or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.
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Zionist War
Israel Dropped one million cluster bombs in South Lebanon
26 September 2006
BBC
Up to a million cluster bomblets discharged by Israel in its conflict with Hezbollah remain unexploded in southern Lebanon, the UN has said.
The UN's mine disposal agency says about 40% of the cluster bombs fired or dropped by Israel failed to detonate - three times the UN's previous estimate.
It says the problem could delay the return home of about 200,000 displaced people by up to two years.
The devices have killed 14 people in south Lebanon since the August truce.
The manager of the UN's mine removal centre in south Lebanon, Chris Clark, said Israel had failed to provide useful information of its cluster bomb strikes, which could help with the clearance operation.
Last month, the UN's humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, accused Israel of "completely immoral" use of cluster bombs in the conflict.
Israel says all its weapons and munitions, as well as their use, comply with international law.
'Threat to life'
Mr Clark said Israel fired up to 6,000 bombs, rockets and artillery a day into Lebanon during the 34-day conflict.
He said more than 40,000 cluster bomblets had been cleared since the fighting ended on 14 August, but many more remained scattered "in bushes, trees, hedges and wire fences".
Mr Clark said information Israel had provided to help with the bomblets' clearance had been "useless".
"We have asked for grid references for [cluster bomb] strikes," he said.
"We have not received them so far."
The UN's refugee agency said the danger of unexploded cluster bombs meant some 200,000 people displaced by the conflict would not be able to return home for up to two years, rather than 12 months as previously forecast.
"This is clearly the biggest threat to civilian life," said Arjun Jain, of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Hundreds of bomblets are packed into the cluster bombs, which are fired from the ground or dropped by aircraft.
The bombs detonate in mid-air, dispersing the drinks-can sized bomblets over a wide area. Those which do not explode on impact become like anti-personnel mines.
The use of cluster bombs is not prohibited under international law.
Comment: From Israel to the Lebanese people; the 'gift' that keeps on killing.
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Israeli air strike kills Gaza teen: medics
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Reuters
Tue Sep 26, 2006
GAZA - An Israeli warplane bombed and destroyed a home in the
Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing a teenage girl in a neighboring building and wounding 10 other people, Palestinian medics said.
The Israeli army confirmed it had fired at a house camouflaging a weapons-smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, and that its occupants had been warned beforehand to leave.
Dr. Ali Mousa, the director of Rafah's hospital, told Reuters a girl, 14, died when a block from the house that Israel bombed twice ricocheted into a neighboring building causing it to collapse.
He said 10 other people were wounded by the blast, most of them women and children who suffered broken bones, bruises and shrapnel wounds.
The Israeli strike came hours after a rocket fired from Gaza wounded an off-duty Israeli soldier in the southern Israeli town of Sderot.
Israel has stepped up military operations in Gaza, a coastal strip it had withdrawn from last year, after Palestinian militants captured a soldier in a June 25 cross-border raid.
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Gaza power plant bombing a 'war crime:' Israeli rights group
AFP
September 27, 2006
JERUSALEM - Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip's sole power plant in June as part of efforts to recover a seized soldier was a war crime and collective punishment, an Israeli rights group has said.
"The bombing of the power plant was illegal and defined as a war crime in international humanitarian law, as the attack was aimed at a purely civilian object," B'Tselem, Israel's main rights group monitoring the Palestinian territories, said in a statement Wednesday.
"It was also an act of collective punishment," it said.
B'Tselem demanded "the government of Israel order a criminal investigation into the bombing, with the intention of prosecuting the persons responsible for ordering and carrying out the attack," it said.
Israel bombed the Gaza power plant on June 28, as it launched a massive military offensive in the impoverished coastal strip three days after militants seized a soldier and killed two others in a cross-border raid.
The offensive, and the plant bombing, was said to be aimed at recovering Corporal Gilad Shalit and at stopping Gaza militants from firing rockets into Israel.
"Although the bombing followed the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit and the firing of... rockets at Israeli communities, there was no apparent military basis for the action, and it seems that its intention was to satisfy a desire for revenge," B'Tselem said.
"Even if one adopts the doubtful claim that the attack provided some definite military advantage, it was disproportionate and Israel has other, less harmful alternatives," the group said.
The power plant bombing has had a devastating effect on life in the densely populated territory, with electricity being rationed to a few hours a day during the hot summer months.
The offensive has also cut water supplies to a few hours a day and brought sewage treatment to a halt.
The UN humanitarian aid chief, Jan Egeland, condemned the bombing as clear use of disproportionate force.
The Gaza Strip is also the heartland of Islamist faction Hamas which came to power in January elections and against which Israel has been applying mounting pressure to get it to renounce violence and recognise the Jewish state.
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UN human rights envoy says Gaza a prison for Palestinians
Haaretz
27/09/2006
Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians where life is "intolerable, appalling, tragic" and the Jewish state appears to have thrown away the key, a UN human rights envoy said on Tuesday. "If ... the international community cannot ... take some action, [it] must not be surprised if the people of the planet disbelieve that they are seriously committed to the promotion of human rights," he said in a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
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IDF: Sorties will continue over Lebanon
Ynet
27/09/2006
The IDF said that following the departure of all of its soldiers from Lebanese territories, aerial sorties will continue in Lebanese skies. Israel will reserve its right to continue to carry out the flights, aimed at gathering intelligence on developments in southern Lebanon, especially in light of the fact that the two kidnapped soldiers - Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser - are still in captivity.
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Israel military court to release Palestinian Deputy PM
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-27 19:37:36
LAMALLAH, JERUSALEM, Sep. 27 (Xinhua) -- An Israel Defense Forces court decided Wednesday to release the Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasar al-Sha'er for lack of enough evidence to keep him in jail, local media reported.
"The court admitted there was not enough evidence to keep him in jail. He will be home in Nablus (in the West Bank) in a matter of hours," Sha'er's lawyer, Osama al-Saadi, was quoted by Haaretz.
But an IDF spokeswoman said she could not confirm the report at the moment.
Al-Sha'er, a top Hamas official on Israel's wanted list, was seized at his house two months ago.
Israel arrested dozens of lawmakers, including three cabinet ministers in June after an Israeli soldier was kidnapped in a cross-border raid from Gaza by the Palestinian militant groups three months ago.
Thirty-one Hamas legislators are still in Israeli custody.
Comment: Contrary to this report, Al-Sha-er is NOT a "top Hamas official". He is not a member of any political party. You may read an interview with him condicted by Silvia Catorri here.
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UK politician: Pro-Israel lobby controls West
Hagit Kleinman
18:35 , 09.21.06
Baroness Jenny Tonge, a former British parliament member from the Liberal-Democrat party, was invited for a clarification discussion with the party leader following outbursts she made against 'the Israeli lobby' at a pro-Palestinian solidarity event.
"The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the Western World, its financial grips. I think they've probably got a certain grip on our party," Tonge said.
Senior sources in the Liberal-Democrat party expressed revulsion from her comments. Jewish and Israeli sources in Britain described her comments as being anti-Semitic, and pointed out that Tone was removed from her parliamentary job in 2004, after she said she understood the hearts of Palestinian suicide bombers.
The Daily Express newspaper, one of the media outlets to report on the episode, tied Tonge's comments to a confrontation between the party and the Israeli embassy in London, following a decision by Ambassador Zvi Hefetz to boycott the opening of the annual party conference, due to the position of the Liberal Democrats' party leader on the war in Lebanon.
The confrontation took place after Liberal-Democrats leader Menzies Campbell sent a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair calling on him to place an arms embargo on Israel. During the same day Campbell met with Ambassador Hefetz in parliament, and discussed the situation in the Middle East - though he did not tell Hefetz about the letter he sent to Blair.
'Anti-Semitic expression'
When Hefetz learned of the letter, he sent a letter to Campbell in which he tried to explain to him why he saw his request for an arms embargo on Israel as being a one-sided stance. Embassy spokesman in London, Lior Ben Dor, told Ynet that Hefetz did not yet receive a reply to his letter.
At the start of the week, Hefetz sent Campbell another letter in which he informed him that although he was invited to the annual conference of his party, like every year, he cold not take part in the event due to the one-sided stance his party took during the war.
Responding to Tonge's comments, Hefetz told Ynet: "I assume that if these comments were made before the publication of the report on anti-Semitism of the independent parliamentary commission, which found a rise in anti-Semitism in Britain, the comments of the baroness would serve as an example of anti-Semitic expression."
The embassy spokesman stressed that despite the boycott of the Liberal-Democrats conference, "we are interested in continuing the dialogue and relations with the Liberal-Democrat party like with every other party."
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See, There Is No Israel Lobby
Saturday, 23 September 2006
We would like to apologise to all the Warmongers, Anti-Ceasefire camp, pro-war camp, anti-Islam camp, anti-Muslim camp, Zionists, Israel Supporters, terrorists, extremists, fascists, right-wingers, Neo-Cons, Tony Blair, well pretty much everyone who doesn't believe in the existence of the British Israel Lobby for exposing you for hijacking our countries foreign policy, which promotes hatred/war/injustice and who can forget the rejection of the ceasefire in Lebanon. Still don't believe in the Israel Lobby, well open your eyes and be ready to be shocked (no, not by Israel's carpet bombing). p.s before someone throws the accusation of anti-semitism of the logo of LDFI, MPACUK didn't do a photoshop job, but we got it from their website.
Conservative Friends of Israel
The Conservative Friends of Israel is an independent, self-financing and autonomous organization. The CFI aims to foster greater understanding about and sympathy for Israel within the Conservative Party.
Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) is one of the largest political groups in the UK. Over two thirds of the Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs) are members and CFI has activists all over the UK. CFI regularly lobbies Conservative MPs, Lords, MEPs and advisors to make the case for Israel. At CFI, we ensure Conservative politicians make Israel 's case in Parliament, in the UK and Europe.
http://www.cfoi.co.uk/about.html
Labour Friends of Israel
LFI seeks to promote a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel. We work with the Government, Parliamentarians, advisers, and activists throughout the Labour movement. LFI also strengthens the bond between the British and Israeli Labour parties, organising meetings in both countries between senior figures, officials and the grassroots.
We are fundamentally sympathetic to Israel's position as a liberal democracy facing constant security dilemmas and existential threats. But we are not uncritical. Positive engagement with all sections of the Israeli political spectrum is important, as is an effective working relationship with Palestinian representatives. We are friends of both an Israel, secure and at peace with her neighbours, and of a viable and democratic Palestine.
http://www.lfi.org.uk
Liberal Democrat friends of Israel
Due to the website being developed by an immature web designer, we could not paste the aims and objectives of LDFI. But we are sure you can read the text under Objectives of LDFI.
http://www.ldfi.org.uk
Even A Blind Person Knows The Existence of The Israel Lobby, but what is stopping you in seeing the existence of the Israel Lobby? Fear of being called An Anti-Semitic? If you think now is worse give it a few years when everything and anything on the issue of Israel & Zionism will be anti-Semitic.
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Resident injured in Nablus invasion
IMEMC
27/09/2006
For the third consecutive day, Israeli troops continued their military invasion to the Old City of Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, broke into dozens of homes, shot and injured one resident, local sources reported. The resident was identified as Amjad Anabtawi, 22. He was shot in his chest and was transferred to a local hospital.
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Poll:67% of Israelis want talks with PA gov't including Hamas
Haaretz
27/09/2006
A majority of Israelis would support holding negotiations with a Palestinian unity government that includes the Islamic Hamas movement, according to the results of a joint Palestinian-Israeli poll released on Tuesday. The survey, which polled some 1,270 Palestinians, 500 Israeli Jews and 401 Israeli Arabs, was conducted as a coordinated effort between the Truman Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Khalil Shikaki, of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.
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Dugrad: Israel has admitted "Wall" has political purpose to draw boundaries
Kuna.net
27/09/2006
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) John Dugard said Tuesday that the Israeli government has confirmed that its separation wall under construction has a political purpose and that is drawing the new boundaries of the Israeli state to include very fertile Palestinian agricultural land and 76 percent of the settler population.
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Netanyahu, Mofaz 'plotting' against Olmert
Jpost.com
25/09/2006
Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz met recently and planned strategy for toppling Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to a report on journalist Yoav Yitzhak's Web site that was denied by spokesmen for both Netanyahu and Mofaz.
The report said the two men met secretly at the home of a well-known attorney. It said they discussed political developments, including the possibility of Mofaz drafting the 10 MKs necessary to split off from Kadima and join a coalition led by the Likud.
In such a scenario, the report said, Mofaz would become Netanyahu's defense minister, but only if Mofaz would be among the first MKs to break off from Kadima. Mofaz ran against Netanyahu for the Likud leadership last year but decided near the end of the campaign to drop out of the race and join Kadima.
Netanyahu is facing a leadership challenge in the Likud from former foreign minister Silvan Shalom, who invited hundreds of Likud activists to a post-Rosh Hashana toast he is hosting on Monday night in a large Ramat Gan wedding hall. Another prospective Likud leadership candidate, former IDF chief of General Staff Moshe Ya'alon, denied that he intends to enter politics in an interview with Channel 10 broadcast on Sunday night.
A spokesman for Mofaz said the meeting with Netanyahu took place a month ago at the home of attorney Yitzhak Molho, who was Netanyahu's personal attorney and an envoy to former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat when he was prime minister. But he said the two merely exchanged pleasantries and did not talk politics.
Netanyahu's spokesman Ophir Akunis added that there was a social meeting between the two a month ago, but said there was no attempt to bring Mofaz or 10 MKs from Kadima over to the Likud. The Likud leader said in closed conversations on Thursday that the Kadima Party would self-destruct before the next election but he would take no action to bring it about because getting caught interfering inside Kadima would harm him politically.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said they were aware of the meeting between Netanyahu and Mofaz and that they were "really not concerned" about it. Olmert bashed Mofaz in weekend interviews with the Hebrew press, accusing him of lying about warning Olmert of the ramifications of his decisions in the Lebanon war.
The prime minister also blamed Mofaz for many of the casualties in the war. Mofaz's spokesman declined to respond to the allegations.
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Regime Change
Mossad Targetting Chavez?
Periodico 26
26/09/2006
CARACAS- Venezuela's state security agencies have detected plans of a destabilization process in the country to be set in motion if opposition presidential candidate Manuel Rosales remains without a prayer to win the December 3 elections.
The revelation came in a commentary in the Vea newspaper, and also assures that extra measures have been taken to protect the life of President Hugo Chavez.
"A new element has been added: a possible connection with the sophisticated Israeli secret service, Mossad, capable of doing absolutely anything," assured the journalist.
Chavez warned Saturday that US President George W. Bush had ordered his assassination after the Venezuelan president's speech at the UN General Assembly last Wednesday. In his address, Chavez dubbed Bush as the "devil."
Chavez also noted that there is an undermining process in progress through the manipulation of opinion polls on the presidential elections.
There is an interest in disclosing false numbers pointing to a supposed advance by opposition candidate Manuel Rosales, said Chavez who described Rosales as the "candidate of the [US] empire."
FOREIGN MINISTER URGES THE UN TO HOLD INQUIRY ON HIS DETENTION
UNITED NATIONS.- Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, informed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, about his 90-minute detention on Saturday at JFK International Airport, reported Prensa Latina news agency.
Maduro returned to his country's mission in Manhattan after being detained at the airport terminal and even threatened with a beating by the police, according to his statements at an improvised press conference.
"We were the target of an illegal detention," said the Venezuelan foreign minister, who explained that he was asked to be submitted to a body search.
Maduro said that his ticket and passport were retained, and although they were finally returned to him, it was already too late for him to reach the plane that would take him back to Caracas.
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Destabilization Plans Revealed in Venezuela
PERIÓDICO 26
CARACAS.- Venezuela's state security agencies have detected plans of a destabilization process in the country to be set in motion if opposition presidential candidate Manuel Rosales remains without a prayer to win the December 3 elections.
The revelation came in a commentary in the Vea newspaper, and also assures that extra measures have been taken to protect the life of President Hugo Chavez.
"A new element has been added: a possible connection with the sophisticated Israeli secret service, Mossad, capable of doing absolutely anything," assured the journalist.
Chavez warned Saturday that US President George W. Bush had ordered his assassination after the Venezuelan president's speech at the UN General Assembly last Wednesday. In his address, Chavez dubbed Bush as the "devil."
Chavez also noted that there is an undermining process in progress through the manipulation of opinion polls on the presidential elections.
There is an interest in disclosing false numbers pointing to a supposed advance by opposition candidate Manuel Rosales, said Chavez who described Rosales as the "candidate of the [US] empire."
FOREIGN MINISTER URGES THE UN TO HOLD INQUIRY ON HIS DETENTION
UNITED NATIONS.- Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, informed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, about his 90-minute detention on Saturday at JFK International Airport, reported Prensa Latina news agency.
Maduro returned to his country's mission in Manhattan after being detained at the airport terminal and even threatened with a beating by the police, according to his statements at an improvised press conference.
"We were the target of an illegal detention," said the Venezuelan foreign minister, who explained that he was asked to be submitted to a body search.
Maduro said that his ticket and passport were retained, and although they were finally returned to him, it was already too late for him to reach the plane that would take him back to Caracas.
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Chavez Had a Right to Call Bush the Devil - And Pelosi, Rangel and other Dems Should Have Said So
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 6:57am.
Guest Contribution
by Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D.
In his famous essay, "On Liberty," John Stuart Mill made plain the danger of censoring the opinions of others. "The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion," he said, "is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."
In our democracy, freedom of speech also means the right of Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, and other hate groups to express their views. The point is not that these groups speak the truth and are therefore entitled to speak openly. Rather, we tolerate the expression of these views because the danger of silencing the opinions of others with whom society or government disagrees means that any view -- no matter how credible -- may end up on the chopping block.
As Mill also recognized, the danger of being cocksure of oneself is that one takes no pains to subject one's views to the court of public opinion. Witness the recent remarks of Donald Rumsfeld in which he likens those who disagree with the Bush administration's stand on the Iraq war to Nazi supporters. And witness the President's own recent accusation that a media that questions his Iraq policy is aiding the terrorists -- and thus by implication is on their side.
In a true democracy, the formidable power of the state should be checked by an almost absolute right of political free speech -- so long, said Mill, as the speech in question does not place anyone in imminent danger.
It is therefore ironic that some of the most ardent opponents of the Bush administration have elected to place themselves on the very side of the government regime they so ardently oppose. I am referring here to Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Rangel.
In addressing the United Nations, Hugo Chavez made no bones about his scorn for the President of the United States when he referred to him as "The Devil." No term of endearment, this gesture of ill-will is likely to prove abundantly less "incendiary" and dangerous than the President's own demonizing denouncement of entire nations as members of "The Axis of Evil." Just how incendiary the President's remark is perceived to be obviously depends on what side of the axis you are on. The point is not that this damning rating of nations such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea (and more pointedly, of their leaders) was degrading, provocative, and foolish -- it was all that. The point is rather that ours is supposed to be a nation that embraces freedom of speech, and if a President is entitled to indiscretions without censor, then, lest we face the fact that we live under a totalitarian regime, so too are others so entitled.
About Chavez's remark, Nancy Pelosi stated, "Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had, speaking at the United Nations"; and Charlie Rangel stated, "You do not come into my country, my congressional district, and you do not condemn my president." He told Chavez that he shouldn't "think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our Chief of State."
For such "champions of democracy" to gloss over the distinction between indiscretion and offensiveness, on the one hand, and the right to free speech on the other, is not unlike a President who condemns the media for disagreeing with his war policy. The fact that Chavez's remark came in the form of a personal attack is irrelevant from the perspective of freedom of speech. In a democracy no federal government authority -- Democrat or Republican -- has the right to hold itself out as the arbiter of what etiquette freedom of speech must embrace. In the United States, there are civil courts that exist for such purposes. If Chavez or anyone else who rightfully has the bully pulpit wants to get up in front of a distinguished body of statesmen or a crowd at a rock concert and proclaim the President of the United States a devil, that is surely their prerogative. If the speaker demeans himself or his nation -- as Pelosi said of Chavez -- that is clearly the speaker's problem. It is the nation's problem only if this indiscretion is censored. From Mill's perspective, we are then prevented from "the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."
To be credible, Democrats like Pelosi and Rangel need to stand firm against a government that likens those who dissent to its policies to Nazis and terrorists. In order to do so, they need to stand firm for freedom of speech. The main issue was not that Chavez was right or wrong; discrete or indiscrete. The important point is that he was exercising free speech -- and they (all of us) should support the right to do so, even if this means recognizing the right of another (even a foreign leader such as Chavez) to call the President of the United States The Devil.
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
Elliot D. Cohen is a media ethicist and author of many books and articles on the media and other areas of applied ethics. He is the 2006 first-place recipient of the Project Censored Award for his Buzzflash article, Web of Deceit: How Internet Freedom Got the Federal Ax, and Why Corporate News Censored the Story.
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Bolivian President Denounces Media Attacks
26/09/2006
Periodico26
LA PAZ- President Evo Morales reported on Monday that private media run by opposition political forces are attempting to destabilize and destroy Bolivia.
The president said that the ongoing process of change will go ahead with or without him, adding that "the owners of the hostile media are large estate owners affected by the agrarian revolution," announced by his government.
"Regardless of what they say or do, the political movement I lead is invincible. With or without Evo Morales, Bolivia will be liberated," he added.
President Morales called on the indigenous peoples of Bolivia to fight hostile media manipulation that seeks to discredit the Constituent Assembly and oppose the nationalization of the country's hydrocarbon resources.
To rebut the opposition, the president announced a new network of 30 community radio stations to be followed by a TV network to "spread our truth, to educate and to inform."
The president spoke about the private media campaign against his government in the town of Ocuri where he delivered 100 computers for local public schools.
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Call for referendum on 3rd presidential term rejected in Russia
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-27 18:15:47
MOSCOW, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Central Election Commission on Wednesday rejected an initiative to call a referendum on lifting the two-term limit on presidency, the Interfax news agency reported.
The initiative was put forward by a non-governmental organization in the southern North Ossetia region, Accord and Stability, which started in September to campaign for a referendum to revoke the constitutional ban on a third consecutive presidential term.
President Vladimir Putin, who was first elected in 2000 and is serving his second term, enjoys high popularity in the country, but he has said on different occasions that he would not run for a third term in the presidential election in 2008.
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Many Americans look for political manipulation as gasoline prices plunge
9/26/2006
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - There is no mystery or manipulation behind the recent fall in gasoline prices, analysts say. Try telling that to many. motorists.
Almost half of Americans believe the plunge at the pump has more to do with politics and the November elections, than economics.
Retired farmer Jim Mohr of Lexington, Ill., rattled off a tankful of reasons why pump prices may be falling, including the end of the summer travel season and the fact that no major hurricanes have disrupted Gulf of Mexico output.
"But I think the big important reason is Republicans want to get elected," Mohr, 66, said while filling up for $2.17 a gallon. "They think getting the prices down is going to help get some more incumbents re-elected."
According to a new Gallup poll, 42% of respondents agreed with the statement that the Bush administration "deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's elections." Fifty-three percent of those surveyed did not believe the conspiracy theory; 5% said they had no opinion.
Not surprising, almost two-thirds of those who suspect President Bush intervened to bring down energy prices before Election Day are registered Democrats, according to Gallup.
White House spokesman Tony Snow addressed the issue Monday, telling reporters that "the one thing I have been amused by is the attempt by some people to say that the president has been rigging gas prices, which would give him the kind of magisterial clout unknown to any other human being."
"It also raises the question, if we're dropping gas prices now, why on earth did we raise them to $3.50 before?" Snow said.
The excitement - and suspicion - among U.S. motorists follows a post-summer decline in gasoline prices that even veteran analysts and gas station owners concede has been steeper than usual.
The retail price of gasoline has plunged 50 cents, or 17%, the past month to an average $2.38 a gallon nationwide, according to Energy Department statistics. That is 42.5 cents lower than a year ago, when the energy industry was still reeling from the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which damaged petroleum platforms, pipelines and refineries across the Gulf Coast.
Industry officials say the competition among gas station owners to sell the cheapest gas on the block is fierce.
"They want to gain market share," says John Eichberger, director of motor fuels at the National Association of Convenience Stores.
Jay Ricker, president of Ricker Oil Co. in Anderson, Ind., which owns about 30 gas stations and supplies fuel to 30 more, says he's thrilled to see pump prices sinking as fast as they are.
With prices falling, more customers are buying mid-grade and premium gasoline, Ricker said, and they're spending more inside his convenience stores, where profit margins are higher.
"I'd much rather sell them a donut or a fountain drink," says Ricker, whose stations are selling regular unleaded for a few pennies above $2.
Fimat USA oil analyst Antoine Halff says there is no doubt "the downturn in prices is welcome news from an electoral standpoint for the ruling party." But he scoffed at the notion that the president has the power to muscle a global market.
The plunge in prices, Halff says, is the result of growing U.S. inventories of fuel, slowing economic growth and toned-down rhetoric between Iran and the United States, which has been critical of Tehran's uranium enrichment program.
The sell-off has been magnified, Halff says, by the recent retreat from the market of many speculative investors who got burned by the late-summer volatility in commodities prices. Just last week, a prominent hedge fund told investors it lost some $6 billion due to bad bets on natural gas prices.
That said, "the sky is not falling," says Halff, who believes oil prices will likely head higher again this winter and average more than $65 a barrel throughout 2007.
At the start of summer, oil analysts were worried about rising demand, the threat of hurricanes and the nuclear standoff between the West and Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer. As a result, crude-oil futures soared to more than $78 a barrel in mid-July.
By summer's end, these fears had largely dissipated. On Monday, November crude futures settled at $61.45 a barrel.
"We have lots of gasoline supply," said Joanne Shore, an Energy Department analyst. Her agency shows U.S. inventories of gasoline at 207.6 million barrels, 6% more than last year and slightly above the five-year average for this time of year.
Asked if it was possible that oil companies would reduce prices to help Republicans, Shore responded: "What company in their right mind would step forward to kill their profit?"
At a suburban Miami Mobil station, where regular was selling for $2.66 a gallon, no one was buying the conspiracy theory.
"The decrease of gas prices is simply due to a seasonal adjustment of price," said Javier Gudayal, a 48-year-old attorney. "And that the Bush administration does not have the power to manipulate."
But in Los Angeles, which has some of the highest gasoline prices in the country, motorists wouldn't rule out the possibility of politicians eager to sway the electorate.
Twenty-eight-year-old attorney Amnon Siegel sensed more than market forces at work.
"I'm sure there's some sort of string-pulling going on," Siegel said.c
Comment: Here's a crazy idea: if the Bush government can artificially force a drop in oil prices in order to secure an election success, then it is likely that the rise in oil prices over the past two years was equally bogus and for the purpose of filling the coffers of Bush's corporate cronies. In this case, the Bush government is guilty of manipulation, exploitation and outright theft, and should be booted out of office.
Hey, I said it was a crazy idea!
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US gasoline prices: the "free market" and the November election
WSWS.org
27 September 2006
Government figures released on Monday show that gasoline prices in the United States continued their sharp decline last week. Over the past six weeks, the average price of gas has fallen 66 cents, from over $3 a gallon, to $2.38.
And the November mid-term elections are just under six weeks away.
The connection between these two circumstances is obvious. Certainly this is the view of a substantial section of the American population-42 percent of which, according to a new Gallop poll, believe that the Bush administration has deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline to improve the chances of the Republican Party in the coming elections.
In investigating the forces behind the very rapid decline in prices, the first question to ask is, "Who benefits?" An article in the September 24 edition of the New York Times ("With Prices Falling, Gas May Lose Its Electoral Punch" by Danny Hakim) quoted Ed Patru, a spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee, as stating, "Virtually every newspaper in America is reporting on their front page that gas prices are plummeting. That denies Democrats another issue that they're trying to use to nationalize the election."
The Times cited a survey by the Pew Research Center showing that between May and September, the percentage of people listing high energy prices as the nation's most important problem fell from 14 percent to 7 percent.
Large energy companies certainly feel they have an interest in maintaining Republican control of the government. Not that they have anything serious to fear from the Democrats, but there are divisions within the ruling elite and no administration has been so closely tied, personally and financially, to the interests of the energy giants as the current one.
The ties between oil companies and various administration officials and other high-ranking members of the Republican Party are too numerous to list exhaustively. It is worth recalling that both Bush and Vice President Cheney are former energy executives. Cheney held meetings early in the administration's tenure, in which the oil companies were invited to help formulate energy policy and plan for the war in Iraq. In 2001, the administration helped block any measures that would ameliorate the California energy crisis, through which companies including Enron reaped billions while fleecing the consumers and businesses of the state.
More recently, several government auditors have charged top Interior Department officials with blocking efforts to collect millions of dollars from energy companies-money that the auditors say was fraudulently withheld from royalties the companies must pay to the government for extracting oil from the Gulf of Mexico. Earl Devaney, the inspector general of the Interior Department, told a House committee, "Short of crime, anything goes" among senior officials at his own department.
The dispute within the Interior Department is part of a broader issue of government leases in the Gulf of Mexico. Administration officials have written off any attempts to get energy companies to pay $1.3 billion in royalties that the government has lost as a result of the interpretation that energy companies have given to contracts signed in the late 1990s. Republican leaders in both the House and Senate have stalled legislation that would pressure companies to renegotiate these contracts.
These are no doubt only a sampling of the ways in which the financial interests of energy companies are tied in to ensuring that the Republican Party retains control of Congress. There is also the issue of price gouging itself. When investigations were held following the sharp rise in gasoline prices after Hurricane Katrina last year, oil executives testified that there was no price manipulation involved. The Republican leader of the House Energy committee, Ted Stevens, insisted that this testimony not be held under oath.
Notwithstanding the spinelessness of the Democratic Party, there can be no doubt that energy executives see their own interests as bound up with a Republican victory. Certainly they have invested more heavily in buying off Republican legislators than they have their Democratic counterparts. The profits given up as gasoline prices decline may be considered merely another form of investment.
Do energy companies have the ability to manipulate prices in this way? The workings of the energy market are highly opaque; however, the number of companies involved has decreased substantially over the past decade, due to consolidation. Companies such as ExxonMobil-whose executives routinely move in and out of government posts-have enormous leverage over world supply of oil and gasoline, and a few of the companies acting together could have a serious market impact.
The various reasons given in the media for why gasoline prices are declining so sharply now are generally as unconvincing as the reasons given for why they went up so sharply a year ago. There are references to changing political conditions, but these are always post facto rationalizations. For example, one of the reasons for the present drop is supposedly the lessening of fears of economic sanctions against Iran. If prices had risen over the past week, however, this would no doubt have been attributed to the remarks of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the UN, in which he sharply denounced the Bush administration. Venezuela is, after all, one of the principal suppliers of oil to the world market.
Others point to speculation in the oil and gasoline futures market. This may be a factor-prices rise and fall according to the profit considerations of various big investors. Here it is interesting to note that, according to US News & World Report, "Major energy trader Goldman Sachs embarked upon a massive liquidation of its position in gasoline futures-shifting to other energy investments instead. Gasoline prices fell sharply, and pulled crude oil prices down with them." Henry Paulson, the Bush administration's treasury secretary, took up his current position in 2005 after serving as chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.
Regardless of the exact forces behind the present decline in gasoline and oil prices, one can bet that by January or February prices will be back to their "normal" exorbitant levels.
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The October Surprise
Gary Hart
Huffington Post
26/09/2006
It should come as no surprise if the Bush Administration undertakes a preemptive war against Iran sometime before the November election.
Were these more normal times, this would be a stunning possibility, quickly dismissed by thoughtful people as dangerous, unprovoked, and out of keeping with our national character. But we do not live in normal times.
And we do not have a government much concerned with our national character. If anything, our current Administration is out to remake our national character into something it has never been.
The steps will be these: Air Force tankers will be deployed to fuel B-2 bombers, Navy cruise missile ships will be positioned at strategic points in the northern Indian Ocean and perhaps the Persian Gulf, unmanned drones will collect target data, and commando teams will refine those data. The latter two steps are already being taken.
Then the president will speak on national television. He will say this: Iran is determined to develop nuclear weapons; if this happens, the entire region will go nuclear; our diplomatic efforts to prevent this have failed; Iran is offering a haven to known al Qaeda leaders; the fate of our ally Israel is at stake; Iran persists in supporting terrorism, including in Iraq; and sanctions will have no affect (and besides they are for sissies). He will not say: ...and besides, we need the oil.
Therefore, he will announce, our own national security and the security of the region requires us to act. "Tonight, I have ordered the elimination of all facilities in Iran that are dedicated to the production of weapons of mass destruction....." In the narrowest terms this includes perhaps two dozen targets.
But the authors of the war on Iraq have "regime change" in mind in Iran. According to Colonel Sam Gardiner (author of "The End of the 'Summer of Diplomacy': Assessing U.S. Military Options in Iran," The Century Foundation, 2006) to have any hope of success, such a policy would require attacking at least 400 targets, including the Revolutionary Guard. But even this presumes the Iranian people will respond to a massive U.S. attack on their country by overthrowing their government. Only an Administration inspired by pre-Enlightenment fantasy could believe a notion such as this.
Embracing this reverie requires believing in the Iranian Ahmed Chalabi, or perhaps even Mr. Chalabi himself since he has been working both sides of the street in both countries for some time.
It does not involve much imagination to understand the timing. The U.S. is poised to adopt a Congressional regime change of its own in November. A political strategy totally based on fear can offer few other options to prevent this. Besides, occupation by Democrats of even one house of Congress in January would make this scheme more difficult (one would certainly hope).
Further, time for super-power military conquest may be running short in the emerging age of fourth generation warfare. "...the age of Western military ascendancy is coming to an end." ("No Win," Andrew Bacevich, The Boston Globe, August 27, 2006).
The consequences? The sunny neoconservatives whose goal has been to become the neo-imperial Middle Eastern power all along will forcast few. But prudent leaders calculate all the risks, and they are historic.
These include: violent reaction throughout the Islamic world; a dramatic increase in jihadist attacks in European capitals and the U.S.; radicalization of Islamic youth behind a new generation of jihadist leaders; consolidation of support for Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, and a rapidly spreading malignant network; escalating expansion of anti-American sentiment throughout the world, including the democratic world; and the formation of WWIII battle lines between the U.S. and the Arab and Islamic worlds.
In more rational times, including at the height of the Cold War, bizarre actions such as unilateral, unprovoked, preventive war are dismissed by thoughtful, seasoned, experienced men and women as mad. But those qualities do not characterize our current leadership.
For a divinely guided president who imagines himself to be a latter day Winston Churchill (albeit lacking the ability to formulate intelligent sentences), and who professedly does not care about public opinion at home or abroad, anything is possible, and dwindling days in power may be seen as making the most apocalyptic actions necessary.
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Why a diminished regard for the First Amendment?
By Philip Meyer
USA Today
September 27, 2006
Summary: Two political scientists at the University of Connecticut surveyed high school students in 2004 and '06 and made an alarming discovery: Regard for the First Amendment to the Constitution declined between the surveys.
Four out of five high school students felt they knew enough to give opinions on this 215-year-old list of rights. And among them, 55% thought the First Amendment goes too far in granting rights.
Every organized society, from the most libertarian to the totally repressive, shares one goal: raising its children to believe in its institutions and ideology. If our values matter, they need to be passed on.
It's getting harder to do.
One of the problems is the breakup of mass media that has been taking place since World War II. They are being replaced by many specialized messages aimed at small, targeted audiences.
My generation grew up reading the same newspapers and listening to the same news broadcasts that our parents heeded. Advertisers today have created a cacophony of entertainment for teenagers that distracts them from the world's serious side.
Two political scientists at the University of Connecticut surveyed high school students in 2004 and '06 and made an alarming discovery: Regard for the First Amendment to the Constitution declined between the surveys.
Did you know?
I'm sure you know everything that's in the First Amendment, but the next person to pick up this newspaper might not, so here is the list. The guarantees are:
- Freedom of religion.
- Freedom of speech.
- Freedom of the press.
- The right of the people to peaceably assemble.
- The right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Four out of five high school students felt they knew enough to give opinions on this 215-year-old list of rights. And among them, 55% thought the First Amendment goes too far in granting rights.
That's a turnaround from two years ago, when 57% expressed support for the First Amendment and its enumerated rights.
This reversal is so surprising that you want to find a flaw in the question wording or the methodology. But they were big samples: more than 100,000 in 2004 and nearly 15,000 in '06. The question was in a self-administered form that replicated the wording of the amendment and reminded students that it "became part of the U.S. Constitution more than 200 years ago."
The researchers, David Yalof and Kenneth Dautrich, are old hands at studying attitudes toward the First Amendment. They started focusing on young people with a grant from the Knight Foundation.
The decline in support for the First Amendment as a whole came despite an apparent increase in the number of students taking high school classes that cover First Amendment issues: 72% in 2006 vs. 58% two years ago. Dautrich acknowledges that some of that could be testing effect. All 34 of the high schools in the second survey had participated in the first, and that might have motivated them to teach the First Amendment before Round 2.
Even so, Dautrich believes a stronger factor is the national debate on security vs. liberty. Teachers who relate their lessons to the news can find more reasons to bring up the First Amendment.
He also agrees with David Mindich, author of Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News, that high schools have reduced the time devoted to teaching civics. If colleges would make civics courses an entrance requirement, that might change.
Music, on the other hand
Meanwhile, we can take small comfort in the fact that a bare majority of high school students, 54% (up from 51% in 2004), believes that newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of a story. They are more interested, however, in freedom for raunchy music: 69% agreed that "musicians should be allowed to sing songs with lyrics that others might find offensive."
Maybe it's not so surprising when you figure that they spend more time listening to the songs than they do reading newspapers.
Hey, geezer, want to help? When you finish this newspaper, don't throw it away. Give it to some young person you know. Or, if you are reading this online, send the kid a hyperlink.
Philip Meyer is a Knight Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Research for his book The Vanishing Newspaper was supported by the Knight Foundation.
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Former general emerges as contender for Thai premier
by Griffin Shea
AFP
Wed Sep 27, 2006
BANGKOK - Thailand's junta has narrowed its search for a new prime minister, as a popular retired general emerged as a major contender alongside a former head of the World Trade Organization.
The military leader, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, has promised to name a civilian premier within days but said Tuesday that the junta would remain as a National Security Council to keep a tight check on the new government.
The leading candidate for the premiership had been seen as former WTO boss Supachai Panitchpakdi, whose leadership could ease concerns among investors about Thailand's economic future.
But Sonthi indicated that retired military officers would be considered candidates, sparking speculation in Thai media that the job could go to former General Surayud Chulanont.
Surayud, 63, is a career soldier who briefly became a Buddhist monk after retiring. He now sits on the Privy Council, the innermost circle of advisers to Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The Bangkok Post newspaper said Wednesday that Surayud has already been encouraged to accept the job, but that no decision had been made.
He remains a popular figure among the military, where he is credited with professionalizing the armed forces and respected for his deep loyalty to the king.
The king has given his endorsement to the generals, a move which is widely credited with helping to prevent violence after the country's first coup in 15 years. Any prime minister they choose would be confirmed by the king, army officials say.
But if the military decides to name one of their own as prime minister, it could raise new questions about how tightly checked the junta plans to keep the new government.
Sonthi told AFP in an interview Tuesday that the governing military council would work alongside the new government "so that there is no loophole for the executive branch."
After ousting prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a late-night coup on September 19, the junta said they had acted to eliminate rampant corruption under the billionaire politician's regime and to restore democratic institutions that he had undermined.
The generals also tossed out the constitution, clamped down on the media, banned gatherings and imposed martial law.
They have promised the military-appointed premier will only remain for one year, until a new constitution can be written and elections held in October 2007.
The junta says it will appoint all 2,000 members of a council that will be tasked with writing a new basic law. It has already named more than 60 high-powered advisors to help formulate economic, foreign and domestic policies.
Sonthi has insisted the generals would not interfere with the work of the new prime minister, acting merely as "advisers" to the government.
While the search for a new premier intensifies, the junta's newly appointed corruption busters were meeting again Wednesday to dig deeper into allegations of wrongdoing by Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon whose wealth was estimated at more than two billion dollars by Forbes magazine this year.
The ousted premier, who was at the UN General Assembly in New York when he was turfed out, is currently living in London.
Sonthi has said the junta was in contact with Thaksin about whether he should return home, but doubted he would do so anytime soon.
Among the cases being studied are the sale of bomb scanners for Bangkok's new three-billion-dollar Suvarnabhumi airport, which is due to open before dawn Thursday, an airport train link and the suspected misuse of lottery revenues and tsunami aid.
Another key focus will be Thaksin's tax-free January sale of his family's telecom empire to a Singapore state company for 1.9 billion dollars, sparking the months of turmoil that led up to his ouster.
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Thai schools set on fire in Thaksin stronghold
Reuters
Wed Sep 27, 2006
BANGKOK - Arsonists set five schools on fire in central Thailand, a stronghold of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a military coup last week, the army said on Wednesday.
A military spokesman condemned the attacks, but did not say who was suspected of being behind them.
However, a military officer in the area, who declined to be identified, said he suspected "local politicians who had close links to national politicians" were responsible.
Three old primary schools built of wood were destroyed in Kampaengpetch province, 360 km (220 miles) north of Bangkok, while villagers doused two other fires, soldiers in the areas said.
Arson attacks on schools have been common in more than two years of separatist violence in the Muslim-majority far south as militants see them as symbols of government, but not in other parts of the overwhelmingly Buddhist country.
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War of Terror
US Government Turns Back The Clock On Rape
New York Times
23/09/2006
[...] Rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse are mentioned twice in the bill [as crimes and war crimes]. But in each case, the wording creates new and disturbing loopholes. In the bill, rape is narrowly defined as forced or coerced genital or anal penetration. It utterly leaves out other acts, as well as the notion that sex without consent is also rape, as defined by numerous state laws and federal law. That is the more likely case in a prison, where a helpless inmate would be unlikely to resist the sexual overtures of a guard or interrogator.
In recent decades, women's advocates and human rights activists have made huge progress on the issues of rape and sexual assault - in the United States and globally. Both crimes are now more powerfully defined in state and federal laws. In international law, where rape and sexual assault have long been classified as torture and war crimes, the world has begun to accept the importance of enforcement. In 1998, a tribunal convicted a paramilitary chief for watching one of his men rape a woman in Serbia. A year ago, the world rose up in outrage when United Nations peacekeepers raped women in Congo.
You'd think this was a settled issue. But it's been opened up again in the bill on jailing, interrogating and trying terror suspects that President Bush is trying to ram through Congress in a pre-election rush. Both the White House and Senate versions contain provisions on rape and sexual assault that turn back the clock alarmingly. They are among the many flaws that must be fixed before Congress can responsibly pass this legislation.
Rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse are mentioned twice in the bill - once as crimes that could be prosecuted before military tribunals if committed by an "illegal enemy combatant," and once as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions that could be prosecuted as war crimes if committed by an American against a detainee. But in each case, the wording creates new and disturbing loopholes.
In the bill, rape is narrowly defined as forced or coerced genital or anal penetration. It utterly leaves out other acts, as well as the notion that sex without consent is also rape, as defined by numerous state laws and federal law. That is the more likely case in a prison, where a helpless inmate would be unlikely to resist the sexual overtures of a guard or interrogator.
The section on sexual abuse requires that the act include physical contact. Thus it might not include ordering a terrified female prisoner to strip and dance, which happened in Rwanda, or compelling a male prisoner to strip and wear women's underwear on his head, or photographing naked prisoners piled together, both of which happened at Abu Ghraib.
Rhonda Copelon, a professor of law at the City University of New York who was an author of the international law on rape as a war crime, says the bill also could make it impossible to prosecute rape or sexual assault as torture, because the definition of torture in the legislation requires proof of specific intent to commit the crime. Motive is very hard to prove in cases of rape or sexual assault.
Experts on sexual violence fear that the intent is to absolve American soldiers and their commanders from prosecution for deeds that have occurred since Sept. 11. Ms. Copelon also points out that the United States has been trying for years to write a specific intent requirement into international law on torture. The co-authors of the bill, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, did not respond to questions about the section.
But it does not really matter. This language simply needs to be changed, and Senators McCain and Graham should do it. If not, Democrats should insist on this among many other changes they should be demanding before agreeing to a vote on the prison measure.
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British lawyer says US threatened him with Guantanamo internment
AFP
Wed Sep 27, 2006
LONDON - Clive Stafford-Smith, a British lawyer who represents detainees at the US Guantanamo Bay naval base, said in a newspaper interview that he was threatened with internment there.
Stafford-Smith, who has made at least eight trips to the Cuba-based camp to consult with several of the terrorism suspects he represents, told The Guardian that the US military accused him of inciting inmates to commit suicide and go on hunger strike.
He also said that one of his clients had been repeatedly interrogated in an attempt to implicate him in three suicides.
The lawyer was quoted as saying that in the midst of a mass hunger strike in August 2005, "a military lawyer took me into a cell and said it would be for me, as he alleged I was behind the hunger strike. They have been making stuff up about the clients and now they are making it up about me."
US officials aroused worldwide outrage earlier this year by describing three suicides in June, the first at Guantanamo since the detention camp's opening in 2002, as "an act of asymmetric warfare" and "a good PR move."
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French court delays verdict in 'Guantanamo six' trial
PARIS, Sept 27, 2006 (AFP)
PARIS, Sept 27, 2006 (AFP) - A French court Wednesday postponed its verdict in the terrorism trial of six former Guantanamo inmates, scheduling more hearings for next May to consider new evidence from intelligence agents.
The court had been expected to hand down a verdict on the six defendants, who were held for up to three years at the US base in Cuba following their capture in Afghanistan in 2001.
"I am sorry," said Judge Jean-Claude Kross, addressing the lawyers. "We have to start again from scratch.
"We may have to consider obtaining access to classified intelligence material," he added.
The court notably wants to hear from French foreign intelligence agents who questioned the suspects in Guantanamo.
At the men's trial in July, defence lawyers accused France of colluding with the US authorities over the Guantanamo detentions by sending secret service agents to question them in Cuba, outside of any legal framework.
Mourad Benchellali, 25, Nizar Sassi, 26, Khaled Ben Mustapha, 34, Redouane Khalid, 38, Brahim Yadel, 36, and Imad Achab Kanouni, 29, were captured in 2001 during the US-led war to oust the Taliban and handed over to US forces.
Released to France in 2004 and 2005, they were accused of staying in Afghan camps linked to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and charged with "criminal conspiracy in relation to a terrorist enterprise".
The state attorney called for all but Kanouni to be found guilty, but asked for lenient, one-year prison sentences, saying their "abnormal detention" in Guantanamo should be taken into account.
She argued that the five others knowingly travelled to Afghanistan using a "terrorist" underground network based in London.
Some of them had admitted to staying in Al-Qaeda camps, but all denied fighting US forces or planning attacks in Europe.
Though none is currently in detention, all six spent periods in pre-trial custody and could therefore expect to avoid jail if the court follows the prosecutor's recommendation.
Separately, a 37 year-old Moroccan man suspected of having links with the September 11 attackers, went on trial in Paris Wednesday accused of terrorist-related offences.
Karim Mehdi, who was arrested in June 2003, is the only person to face charges arising out of the French judicial investigation into the 2001 attacks in the United States.
According to documents read in court, the Moroccan was in contact with Ziad Jarrah -- a Lebanese who was on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania -- as well as Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni believed to have been among the plotters.
However there was no evidence he took part in planning the suicide hijackings.
Prosecutors also believe Mehdi had links with German national Christian Ganczarski, suspected of involvement in the 2002 bomb attack on a synagogue in the Tunisian town of Djerba which killed 21.
Mehdi told the court that he met the two men only once, on a visit to the German city of Hamburg. "I have nothing to do with these stories," he said.
He was detained in 2003 at Charles-de-Gaulle airport en route from Germany to the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where investigators say he was planning to carry out surveillance for a future bomb attack.
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US maintains visa ban on Muslim academic
Tuesday September 26, 2006
EducationGuardian.co.uk
The US government has refused to grant a visa to the Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan, a vocal critic of the US invasion of Iraq, but has dropped earlier charges against him of supporting terrorism, it has emerged.
Mr Ramadan, a Swiss citizen and a visiting fellow at Oxford, said he received an official letter clearing him of the charges that prevented him taking a job at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
But the US sustained the visa ban, imposed in 2004, saying that Mr Ramadan had contributed $600 (Ł400) to a group providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
Janelle Hironimus, a State Department spokeswoman, said a US consular officer had last week denied Mr Ramadan's application for a temporary business and tourism visa based on new information the government had learned about the scholar.
She said it had been determined that Mr Ramadan was ineligible to enter the country "based solely on his actions, which constituted providing material support to a terrorist organisation."
Ms Hironimus said she could not reveal specifics about Mr Ramadan's case due to confidentiality rules regarding visa applications.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the US government had notified Mr Ramadan that he was being denied a visa because he donated money French and Swiss organisations that provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
The ACLU said the organisations are legitimate charities in France, but the Bush administration contends the groups gave funds to the militant Islamic group Hamas and has invoked a law allowing it to exclude individuals whom it believes have supported terrorism.
"This case is really about speech," said Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer. "The government is using the immigration laws as a means of silencing and stigmatising a prominent critic."
Mr Ramadan, whose family fled Egypt to settle in Switzerland, has said he opposes the US invasion of Iraq and US policies in Israel and the Palestinian territories, but has no connections to terrorism, opposes Islamic extremism and promotes peaceful solutions.
On his website, Mr Ramadan said in a statement Monday that he brought the donations to the State Department's attention and that the organisations "are not deemed suspect in Europe, where I live."
"I donated to these organisations for the same reason that countless Europeans - and Americans, for that matter - donate to Palestinian causes: not to provide funding for terrorism, but because I wanted to provide humanitarian aid to people who are desperately in need of it," he said.
In a letter received by Mr Ramadan on Thursday, he said the State Department had put an end to rumors surrounding his case since the government revoked his visa in 2004 on grounds he had "endorsed or espoused" terrorist activity, a claim the government later dropped.
He said the 2004 revocation had come as a shock after he had accepted a double-tenured position at the University of Notre Dame, rented a house in South Bend, Indiana, and enrolled his children in schools there.
"I have consistently opposed terrorism in all of its forms,' he said. "While I have criticised specific United States policies, I have always condemned terrorism and I continue to do so today."
In 2005, Mr Ramadan applied for a visa that would allow him to temporarily visit the United States to lecture or attend conferences, as he had done prior to 2004 when he spoke at Harvard University, Stanford University and elsewhere.
When the State Department did not rule on the application, the ACLU brought a lawsuit on behalf of several groups which had invited Mr Ramadan to speak to force it to act.
In June, a US district judge ordered the government to rule on Mr Ramadan's application within three months.
In his statement on Monday, Mr Ramadan said it was "clear from the history of this case that the US government's real fear is of my ideas."
Ms Hironimus defended the government's policies, saying the United States "welcomes the exchange of culture and ideas with the Islamic world."
But Mr Jaffer said the ACLU had an option to return to court to argue that the government was using immigration laws to censor political debate in the United States.
"We do think this is reflective of a broader pattern. Increasingly, the government is relying on the immigration laws as a tool to manipulate debate here in this country," he said.
Comment: Oh my god! How utterly evil! He paid $600 to help feed Palestinian children who are starving because of the sanctions imposed by Israel! Clearly this is a captial offence! I mean, how DARE he try to help even ONE Palestinian child! Israel has made it clear that all Palestinians are animals and must be exterminated! What is this guy's problem?! Could it be that he still maintains a modicum of his own humanity?! Please, say it ain't so!
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UK troops 'beat Iraqi hotelier'
BBC News
26/09/2006
An Iraqi civilian said he believed he was going to die while being beaten by British soldiers in Basra in 2003.
Ahmad al-Matairi told the hearing at Bulford Camp, Wilts, that soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment took bets on who could make him fall down.
Hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, 26, was arrested during the raid and later died while in British custody.
Seven soldiers have been charged variously with treating Iraqi civilians inhumanely and manslaughter.
Mr Matairi, a hotel owner, came face-to-face with his alleged attackers at the court martial.
He was arrested on suspicion of being an insurgent and told the hearing he was forced to lie on the floor with his staff while the troops gave him "insult kicks".
The father-of-three said the soldiers guarding him celebrated beating him and a group of other Iraqis "like it was Christmas".
Abuse testimony
Mr Matairi, who had a brother killed by Saddam Hussein's regime, gave evidence to the court through an interpreter.
He said he felt hurt at being ill-treated by British soldiers he had welcomed to Iraq.
"I put flowers in my children's hands to welcome the British soldiers when they came to free us from Saddam," he said.
"I could not believe that these were criminals from Britain. According to our knowledge it was a civilised country so I could not believe it.
"We were hit all the time, continuously without knowing the reason why."
A total of nine Iraqis claim they were hooded and beaten after being detained.
Mr Matairi, who is the first of the Iraqi witnesses to give evidence, also claimed that the equivalent of US$3,100 (Ł1,635) was taken from a safe by the soldiers.
'Systematic abuse'
"Passing by me lying on the floor, he would hit me with his boots on the head - an insult kick," Mr Matairi told the hearing.
Prosecutor Julian Bevan QC described the soldiers' behaviour at the Basra holding centre where detainees were taken as "systematic abuse".
The inhumane treatment of persons charge faced by three soldiers - Cpl Donald Payne, L/Cpl Wayne Crowcroft and Pte Darren Fallon - is being brought as a war crime charge under the International Criminal Court Act (ICCA) 2001.
It is the first time British military personnel have been prosecuted under the act.
Cpl Payne, 35, pleaded guilty to treating detainees inhumanely at the start of the court martial - making him the first British serviceman to admit a war crime.
He denies manslaughter and perverting the course of justice.
The other six soldiers each deny the charges they face - ranging from negligence and assault, through to manslaughter.
Col Jorge Mendonca, Maj Michael Peebles and Warrant Officer Mark Davies are all charged with negligently performing a duty.
Sgt Kelvin Stacey is accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm with an alternative count of common assault.
L/Cpl Wayne Crowcroft and Pte Darren Fallon are charged with inhumane treatment of persons.
The Queen's Lancashire Regiment now forms part of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment. The court martial, at the Military Court Centre on Salisbury Plain, continues.
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Crunch Iran-EU nuclear talks to start in Berlin
AFP
Wednesday September 27, 2006
Iran's top nuclear negotiator was to hold crunch talks with the EU's foreign policy chief in a final chance for the Islamic republic to agree to a nuclear deal offered by world powers.
The German government said the talks would begin Wednesday at 5:00 pm (1500 GMT), but did not disclose the location.
"This meeting is part of our efforts to find a diplomatic solution," German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said.
Solana's spokeswoman and an Iranian source close to the negotiations also confirmed the meeting would take place.
"Mr Ali Larijani is in Berlin with his delegation to meet Mr Solana," the Iranian source told AFP.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said earlier that the talks had been supposed to take place in New York but were switched to Europe because Larijani had visa problems.
The discussions have been billed as a last opportunity for Iran to agree to a suspension of sensitive uranium enrichment activities as demanded by the UN Security Council and stave off the threat of UN sanctions.
Mottaki struck an upbeat note ahead of the talks.
"Since there is an atmosphere of understanding between Iran and Europe, we can be optimistic on the results of the meeting," he was quoted as saying by state television.
The deal offered by the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany asks Iran to accept a package of incentives in exchange for it freezing enrichment work the West fears could be channelled into producing nuclear arms.
The official news agency IRNA said Larijani could also use the occasion to meet German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier but Steinmeier's ministry said he would not take part in the meeting.
Key to the success of Wednesday's talks is the question of whether Iran is prepared to suspend uranium enrichment for a limited period of time before or even during full negotiations with world powers.
However there was confusion over whether Iran is considering such a step. European diplomats said Larijani made an offer at his last talks with Solana on September 9-10 in Vienna, but several Iranian officials have denied any suspension is on the cards.
"Such issues will not be addressed in the next negotiations," Atomic Energy Organization deputy head Mohammad Saeedi told the Iranian student news agency ISNA on Tuesday.
But the Washington Times also reported Tuesday that Iran was close to agreeing to a secret deal that would see it suspend uranium enrichment for 90 days in order for additional talks to take place with European nations.
The US State Department spokesman meanwhile spoke of "hopeful" signs from Iran but warned sanctions were still on tap if diplomacy failed.
The repeated delays for the latest Larijani-Solana meeting appear to reflect intense diplomatic efforts to ensure the nuclear dossier does not go to the Security Council.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meanwhile again hit out at the West for what he described as its failure to allow Iran access to peaceful nuclear technology.
"Today the people will not accept that some countries have warehouses full of nuclear weapons and then tell others that you cannot have a (nuclear) fuel cycle since you may deviate," he said in a speech.
Iran's uranium enrichment is particularly controversial as it can be used to make fuel for a nuclear power station but in highly enriched form can also be employed to make the explosive core of a nuclear bomb.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful energy needs, vehemently rejecting US allegations that it is seeking to manufacture nuclear weapons.
The negotiations were given a last chance after Washington, under pressure from Europe and China, backed down on its demand for immediate sanctions against Iran for failing to meet an August 31 UN deadline to freeze enrichment.
According to European diplomats, Western powers have set the start of October as a final deadline for Iran to give its definitive response to the Security Council offer.
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Berlin signals new tack over Middle East
Wednesday September 27, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
It's a coming of age of sorts, or at least the smashing of an old and sensitive taboo. In the next few days German warships will take up position in the eastern Mediterranean in the country's biggest naval deployment since the second world war. The mission: to help police the Lebanese coastline to stop arms smuggling by Hizbullah guerrillas.
The Bundesmarine flotilla sailed from Wilhemshaven on September 21. It consists of two frigates - the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Karlsruhe - supported by helicopters, supply ships and patrol boats, with about 1,500 men on board. It is due in the Cypriot port of Limassol on October 2, and will assume command of Unifil's multinational naval contingent a week later.
This is far from Germany's first overseas military deployment. Since the early 1990s the Bundeswehr has been involved in UN and Nato missions as far afield as the Balkans, Congo and Afghanistan - evidence of an increasingly confident foreign and defence policy. Until unification, post-war (West) Germany's military activities were confined to the Nato alliance, and were strictly within its European area of operations.
In 1992 Helmut Kohl was the first to break the general taboo against deploying troops abroad by sending army medics to support the UN mission in Cambodia. A year later German soldiers were doing good works in warlord-plagued Somalia. But the really significant change came in 1999 when the Social Democrat chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, and his Green (and former pacifist) foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, defied domestic criticism to allow German Tornado bombers to take part in Nato attacks on Serb targets during the Kosovo campaign.
The Middle East is a very different matter. The shadow of the Nazi Holocaust has always hung heavily over Germany's relations with both Arab states and Israel. Since Konrad Adenauer's agreement on reparations payments to Israel in the 1950s, Germany has tilted towards the Jewish state when other Europeans have moved in the opposite direction. Still, there have also been embarrassing hints of Arab admiration for Germany precisely because of its terrible anti-semitic past: a former senior Egyptian official bore the first name Hitler; a German ambassador in one Arab capital famously cringed at the approving "heil" salute he received whenever his official car was recognised by a policeman.
Germany dispatched Patriot anti-missile batteries to help defend Israel from Saddam Hussein's Scud attacks during the 1991 Gulf war. But there was no misunderstanding about where it stood in the run-up to the 2003 war in Iraq, when Schröder, facing re-election, opposed the US-led campaign, teaming up with France and Belgium to split Nato in one of its worst ever crises.
Angela Merkel, the Christian Democratic Union leader, has changed tack in foreign policy since becoming chancellor last year. She has worked to mend fences with Washington and has made no secret of her sympathy for Israel. Polling shows German elites are more favourable to the Jewish state than parallel groups in France and Britain.
Still, there is no popular enthusiasm for the naval mission.
Merkel's decision was made easier by the fact that Israel actively wanted this to happen. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, made a startling diplomatic shift by signalling that Israel would welcome an expanded Unifil, despite years of hostility to the UN.
"There is perhaps no other area of the world," Merkel told the Bundestag, "where Germany's unique responsibility, the unique responsibility of every German government for the lessons of our past, is so clear." The Israeli request, she added, "is a signal of trust in Germany, the country in whose name the destruction of the Jews and the second world war began".
German diplomats admit privately that joining the Italians, French and others in an expanded UN ground mission would have been too difficult. "Sending a naval contingent was a solution that appealed to almost everyone in official Germany," commented Der Spiegel. "It gave politicians a sense of fulfilling their historic duty to protect Israel without asking armed and uniformed Germans to patrol the Israeli border - or, potentially, to fire on armed and uniformed Jews."
Viewed from Berlin, this is about Germany playing a role in Europe as well as the Middle East, and tiptoeing round the past. The European Union's largest country has long argued that the union needs to add some military and diplomatic muscle to its economic weight. Germany is at the centre of efforts to get the stalled EU constitution back on track when it takes over the rotating presidency for six months in January. With both Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac written off as lame ducks, Merkel looks like a natural leader.
Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, reflected this line of thinking when he addressed the Bundestag before it backed the Lebanon deployment. "Ten years ago, nobody would have thought about sending German soldiers alongside soldiers from other European countries to the Middle East," he said. "Peacemaking was a task that Europeans left to the United States."
Still, there are worries that Germany may be looking too close to Israel by doing its bit to help curb Hizbullah, a radical fundamentalist movement with links to Iran and Syria. Merkel has also been more combative than other European leaders in her comments about Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Voices on the left, such as Oskar Lafontaine, have wondered out loud whether Germany might be putting itself at risk of terrorist attacks.
Another view is that participating in the UN force may undermine Germany's special status as a shadowy go-between: it is widely assumed that the BND, Germany's foreign intelligence service, is working on how to engineer a swap of the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbullah for Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners held in Israel - as it has done before.
Still, it is hard to argue with the proposition that Germany playing a bigger, more high-profile international role is a good thing - for Germany and for Europe. It should be good for the Middle East too.
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Romania, Bulgaria welcomed as full-fledged members of EU
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-27 18:10:34
BUCHAREST, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Leading European parliamentarians have said Romania and Bulgaria are welcomed to be full-fledged members of the European Union (EU), the Romanian Rompres news agency reported on Wednesday.
"There are some shortcomings in Romania and Bulgaria, however, this is not the time nor the place to talk about problems," said the European Parliament Socialist Group leader Martin Schulz.
The EU itself will reap benefits from the membership of Romania and Bulgaria in terms of security along its borders, social cohesion and economic strength, said Schulz.
He compared the joy of the two countries' EU accession to the one experienced at Germany's reunification.
Enthusiastic about Romania and Bulgaria's entry to the EU on Jan. 1, 2007, was also the European liberal democrats leader Graham Watson, who said that following the EU accession of the two states, both sides will reap benefits.
"The most important argument favoring the EU accession of the two countries are the 22 million Romanians and 7.5 million Bulgarians," said Brian Crowley, an Irish parliamentarian who is also co-chairman of the Union for Europe of the Nations.
He pointed out that the two states should be given the same opportunities as current EU states got when they were weaker and less developed.
The key word of the emphasis should be laid from now on is " transparency," said European parliamentarian for Bulgaria Geoffreyvan Orden (EPP-ED).
"The nationals of the two states should have confidence in authorities serving their interest adequately," said a British Euro-lawmaker.
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Money Matters
Dow closes at second highest level ever
By TIM PARADIS
AP Business Writer
September 26, 2006
NEW YORK - Wall Street surged higher Tuesday, carrying the Dow Jones industrials to their second-best close ever as positive economic data further buoyed a growing sense of optimism among investors. The Dow closed just 53 points away from its record high close.
Stocks, particularly the blue chips, rose after the
Conference Board said its consumer confidence index for September rose more than expected, reaching 104.5 from a revised reading of 100.2 in August. Analysts forecast the index would rise to 103.
Also bolstering investor enthusiasm was a report from the
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond that showed the region's economy strengthened this month. The bank's manufacturing index came in at 9 versus 3 in August.
Jack Albin, chief investment officer with Harris Private Bank, said the market's advance reflects widespread investor enthusiasm and a realization that the Federal Reserve might have room to ease short-term interest rates. He pointed to low inflation and the recent nearly 20 percent pullback in oil prices.
"The Fed has a lot more elbow room to lower rates. The Fed could maybe even lower this year."
The Dow gained 93.58, or 0.81 percent, to 11,669.39. The Dow's advance put it within range of its high of 11,722.98 set in January 2000.
Broader stock indicators also jumped sharply. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose to a five-and-a-half-year high, gaining 9.97, or 0.75 percent, to 1,336.34 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 12.27, or 0.55 percent, to 2,261.34.
Bonds fell after a sharp rally Monday in what was perhaps some profit-taking. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.58 percent from 4.54 percent late Monday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
Light crude oil settled down 44 cents at $61.01 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The slide in oil prices this month has given Wall Street investors optimism that consumer spending will hold up even as the economy slows and therefor help protect corporate profits.
Investor sentiment has strengthened since the Fed's August decision to leave interest rates unchanged after a two-year string of 17 straight increases. That enthusiasm became more widespread after the central bank held off again last week, signaling to investors that inflation remained within reasonable limits.
Recent reports on the health of the economy appeared to ease concerns held by some that the Fed had overreached in its bid to corral inflation. Aside from a disappointing report last week from the Philadelphia Fed about regional manufacturing activity, investors have grown increasingly confident as more economic findings have trickled out and oil prices have held lower long enough to make a difference at the pump.
Alfred E. Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., doesn't expect the stock market's gains will last, however.
"I don't think we're going to go up, up and away from here. I think you've got momentum and the magnetism of a new record high for the Dow."
"I would preach a little caution here." Goldman contends the markets will discount for November's midterm elections by mid-to-late October and that some of the run-up this week could reflect a desire among institutional investors to burnish their third-quarter figures.
"This time of the year you also get some window dressing by institutions and also some short covering," he said. "The bears have not had a lot of a fun."
Bears wouldn't have been surprised by news from Lowe's, which rose 1 cent to $28.85, despite reducing its full-year profit forecast; it warned that a slowdown in the sector was hurting sales of its home-improvement products. Lennar rose 7 cents to $46.95 even after saying its third-quarter profit fell 39 percent amid sluggishness in the sector and the company, one of the country's biggest homebuilders, trimmed its fourth-quarter forecast.
In technology, PMC-Sierra Inc., a maker of communications and storage chips, fell 55 cents or 8.4 percent, to $6 after cutting its third-quarter sales forecast to $114 million to $116 million from $122 million to $124 million.
Innovex Inc., a chip maker, fell 38 cents, or 13.7 percent, to $2.40, after warning its fourth-quarter sales could fall short of expectations.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.72 billion shares, compared with 1.75 billion traded Monday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was up 2.52, or 0.35 percent, at 729.61.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.49 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 closed up 1.30 percent, Germany's DAX index was up 1.00 percent, and France's CAC-40 was up 1.42 percent.
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U.S. drops to 6th in world competitiveness ranking
By Laura MacInnis
Reuters
Tue Sep 26, 2006
GENEVA - The United States fell to sixth place in the World Economic Forum's 2006 global competitiveness rankings, ceding the top place to Switzerland, as macroeconomic concerns eroded prospects for the world's largest economy.
In a report released on Tuesday, the Forum said Washington's huge defense and homeland security spending commitments, plans for further tax cuts and long-term potential costs from health care and pensions were creating worrisome fiscal strains.
"With a low savings rate, record-high current account deficits and a worsening of the U.S. net debtor position, there is a non-negligible risk to both the country's overall competitiveness and, given the relative size of the U.S. economy, the future of the global economy," it said.
While stressing that U.S. dominance in education and innovation should keep the country among the world's most competitive "for the foreseeable future," the report said economic concerns had made other countries more attractive for business leaders.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said in Washington that the decline in America's competitiveness would accelerate unless the country made reforms.
"We need to clean up our own backyard to make sure our economic and legal policies welcome capital instead of drive it away," he said.
The conservative lawmaker, a leading critic of China's currency policy, added, "Secondly, we need to level the playing field in the world marketplace ... we're losing market share and competitive advantage because people are cheating, like China."
CHALLENGE TO U.S.
Augusto Lopez-Claros, chief economist of the World Economic Forum, said that unless the United States acted it "could allow other countries in a highly competitive global economy to challenge the U.S.'s privileged position."
Switzerland was deemed the most competitive economy in 2006, followed by Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Singapore. After the United States, which had topped the 2005 index, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and Britain rounded out the top 10.
The Geneva-based group Forum said that Switzerland's well developed infrastructure, plentiful scientific research and intellectual property safeguards helped vault the small Alpine country into the index's leading position.
As in Switzerland, it said high-ranking Nordic countries benefited from strong institutions and excellent education and training, but said they lagged in labor market flexibility.
Most European Union countries saw stable competitiveness readings over the past year, but Italy's competitiveness ranking fell to 42nd -- compared to 38th last year -- because of ongoing macroeconomic and institutional weakness.
RUSSIA, CHINA SLIP
Russia slipped nine places for a 62nd-place ranking this year, largely due to private sector misgivings about the independence of the country's judiciary, according to the report based on surveys of more than 11,000 business leaders worldwide.
"Legal redress is Russia is neither expeditious, transparent nor inexpensive, unlike in the world's most competitive economies," it said. "Partly because of this, the property rights regime is extremely poor and worsening."
China's ranking also fell -- to 54 from last year's 48.
The report said China had a mixed performance this year as fast growth, low inflation and high savings rates were muted by banking weakness concerns, poor penetration rates for mobile phones, computers and other technology, and low secondary and tertiary school enrollment rates.
Fellow Asian powerhouse India gained two places to rank 43rd in the World Economic Forum ranking, with persistent poverty, weak health infrastructure and a large public sector deficit offsetting advances in technological services.
Chile, ranked 27, led Latin America's showing in the 2006 index while Brazil slipped nine places to 66th as a result of a worryingly large budget deficit, the report said.
Comment: "U.S. dominance in education"?? Most Americans can't even find Iraq on a world map. The average American's lack of knowledge about the world is even broadcast as "humor" on late-night comedy shows!
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U.S. House approves $70B more for Iraq and Afghanistan
Last Updated Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:54:10 EDT
The Associated Press
Despite intense partisan divisions over the course of the Iraq war, the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington on Tuesday easily approved $70 billion US more for military operations there and in Afghanistan.
Lawmakers also adopted a record $448 billion budget for the Pentagon.
With Iraq alone costing about $8 billion a month, another infusion of money will be needed next spring.
The House passed the Pentagon appropriations bill by a 394-22 vote Tuesday night, and the Senate is due to vote before adjourning this weekend for the fall campaign.
The House-Senate compromise bill provides $378 billion for core Pentagon programs, about a five per cent increase, though not quite as much as President George W. Bush asked for. The $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan is a down payment on war costs the White House has estimated will hit $110 billion for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.
With final passage of the bill, Congress will have approved $507 billion for Iraq, Afghanistan and heightened security at overseas military bases since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to the Congressional Research Service.
"If the president had told us the truth, that Iraq and Saddam Hussein ... presented no real threat to us, that there was no likelihood of weapons of mass destruction, that there was no connection to al-Qaeda ... would this Congress have voted for war?" said Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York. "I don't think so."
"Is the world better or worse off without (Saddam)?" said Tom Cole, a Republican from Oklahoma. "I think it's better, and it took American action."
Opinion polls indicate the war continues to be unpopular with voters, but even Democratic opponents of the war generally embraced the Pentagon measure, which provides funding for body armour and other support for U.S. troops overseas.
The growing price tag of the Iraq conflict is partly driven by the need to repair and replace military equipment worn out in harsh, dusty conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan or destroyed in battle. Almost $23 billion was approved for army, marine corps and National Guard equipment such as helicopters, armoured Humvees, Bradley armoured fighting vehicles, radios and night-vision equipment.
Lawmakers allotted $1.9 billion for new jammers to counter improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan and $1 billion is provided for body armour and other personal protective gear.
The measure includes a Democratic-sponsored provision against establishing permanent military bases in Iraq. GOP leaders dropped identical language from an Iraq funding bill this June.
The bill would be the first of 11 spending bills to clear Congress for the new budget year.
So little progress has been made on other bills that the Pentagon measure also carries a stopgap funding bill to keep open through Nov. 17 agencies whose funding bills won't have passed. Only the homeland security measure is expected to also pass before Congress leaves Washington to campaign.
The core bill contains $86 billion for personnel costs, enough to support 482,000 army soldiers and 175,000 marines. That would provide for a 2.2 per cent pay increase for the military, as Bush requested in his February budget.
The bill provides $120 billion for operations and maintenance costs, just less than the Pentagon request. And $81 billion goes for procurement of new weapons, with $76 billion dedicated to research and development costs.
That's still not enough for the White House, which requested $4 billion more. But House appropriators diverted that money to ease cuts in domestic programs. Earlier this year, the Senate passed a version shifting $9 billion to domestic programs but backed off in the face of a White House veto threat.
The sprawling measure contains good news for lawmakers from Maine, California and Missouri, among others. The bill includes $2.6 billion for two super-modern Navy DD(X) destroyers. That is significant because it would allow Bath Iron Works in Maine and Northrop Grumman's Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi to build one ship each.
A House-passed defence policy bill had called for only one DD(X) ship, to be built in Mississippi.
The measure also almost triples Bush's request for eight C-17 cargo planes, providing for 22 of the aircraft, which are built in Long Beach, Calif. Several components are manufactured at Boeing's St. Louis-based defence company.
But Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is assembled in Fort Worth, Texas, would face cuts. Bush requested five planes, but lawmakers cut that back to two, though funds are provided for advanced purchases of parts for 12 more.
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US PR Firm Gets $12.4 M to Monitor Iraq Media, Plant Propaganda
AP
27/09/2006
A public relations company known for its role in a controversial U.S. military program that paid Iraqi newspapers for 'stories favorable to coalition forces' [pro-occupation propaganda] has been awarded another multimillion dollar media contract with American forces in Iraq. Washington-based Lincoln Group won a two-year contract to 'monitor' [censor] a number of English and Arabic media outlets and produce 'public relations-type products such as talking points or speeches' [propaganda] for U.S. forces in Iraq, officials said Tuesday. The type of contract, its cost, and the fact that it was awarded to the PR and communications company have raised questions.
A public relations company that participated in a controversial U.S. military program that paid Iraqi newspapers for stories favorable to coalition forces has been awarded another multimillion-dollar media contract with American forces in Iraq.
Washington-based Lincoln Group won a two-year contract to monitor a number of English and Arabic media outlets and produce public relations-type products like talking points or speeches for U.S. forces in Iraq, officials said Tuesday.
"Lincoln Group is proud to be trusted to assist the multinational forces in Iraq with communicating news about their vital work," Lincoln Group spokesman Bill Dixon said in a statement. Details about the contract were confirmed by the U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, and were described in documents posted on a federal government Web site outlining contracts awarded.
The contract is worth roughly $6.2 million per year over a two-year period, Johnson said.
The idea is to use the information to "build support" in Iraqi, Arabic, international and U.S. audiences for what the military describes as its goals in Iraq, such as destroying the insurgency and helping Iraqis build a democracy, according to contract documents.
The list of media outlets to be watched includes the New York Times, Fox Television and the satellite channel, Al-Arabiya.
The Lincoln Group was mired in controversy last year when it became known that the company had been part of a U.S. military operation to pay Iraqi newspapers to run positive stories about coalition activities. According to the company's Web site, it was created in 2003 to do public relations and communications work in challenging environments such as Iraq.
The type of contract, its cost, and the fact that it was awarded to the PR and communications company have raised questions.
Rep. Robert Andrews (news, bio, voting record), D-N.J., who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said he would be asking the
Department of Defense for information about how this "controversial" vendor was chosen, saying the choice of the Lincoln Group "concerns me greatly."
But, Andrews said he's more concerned about the fact that the contract was awarded at all, not just to the Lincoln Group.
"I wish that our problem in Iraq was that the military wasn't getting good PR," Andrews said. "The problem seems to be that the country is sliding into civil war."
Johnson could not comment on how the Lincoln Group was chosen, saying it was a "standard contracting process." He said the contract did not include any provisions to purchase favorable coverage or pay for favorable stories. The Lincoln Group would not comment on the contract beyond the statement issued.
Lucy Dalglish, the executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, based in Arlington, Va., said she was worried about whether the military would be creating its own news through its own newspapers or Web sites.
"If they're trying to influence Iraqi opinion of Americans, I almost find that to be unconscionable because that would say that they do not value a free and independent press in Iraq," Dalglish said.
Johnson said the contract is really nothing new from programs that are already in existence.
Multi-National Forces-Iraq already has in place a one year contract with The Rendon Group, a Washington D.C.-based company, to perform many of the same functions this current contract would fulfill, Johnson said.
"We always monitor the press. Any organization, anywhere monitors the press to see what's being said to determine what messages are out there and how it's impacting the environment," Johnson said.
The Rendon Groups contract, worth $6.4 million over one year, was scheduled to expire this September but Johnson said it has been extended until Oct. 27 while the winner of the new contract is determined.
A key question is whether any public relations campaign in Iraq will work.
Nabil Khalid, the executive news director of Al-Arabiya, one of the most popular Arabic-language television stations in the Middle East, said right now, the multinational forces in Iraq are losing the public relations battle.
"If you asked me who better influences the media, the insurgents or the multinational forces, I would say that the insurgents," Khalid said, speaking by telephone from the station's Dubai headquarters.
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How long will housing slump last?
By Mark Trumbull and Ron Scherer
The Christian Science Monitor
Tue Sep 26, 2006
BOSTON AND NEW YORK - First came a slowdown in the volume of home sales. Now prices are falling, and the question for anyone selling, buying, or even just hanging onto a home is: How far and how fast?
The expert consensus: The slump could last into the summer of 2007. And the speed could depend on how many people hit the panic button or take their homes off the market.
Last month, the median price of a single-family home was down from a year ago - the first significant national decline in 13 years, according to tracking of previously owned homes by the National Association of Realtors.
This August, the median price for all housing types was $225,000, down 1.7 percent from August 2005, when the median was $229,000, the realtors' group reported Monday.
Historically, it's rare for prices to sink very far nationally even when recessions occur. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) predicts a return to stability next year. But some economists are forecasting a tougher climate, thanks to an extraordinarily large run-up in prices in the past couple of years and homebuyers' increasing reliance on exotic new types of mortgage loans. Merrill Lynch predicts a 5 percent home-price drop in 2007, while Goldman Sachs, another New York investment firm, forecasts a 3 percent decline nationwide.
"The housing market is weak and getting weaker," says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com. "It appears the downturn has a ways to go."
After a five-year boom in the housing market, where home prices head from here could have a significant impact on the direction of the economy and on the pocketbook finances of millions of families. But economists differ in their forecasts of how the current real estate cycle will unfold.
NAR has taken a largely upbeat view. "This is the price correction we've been expecting - with sales stabilizing, we should go back to positive price growth early next year," NAR economist David Lereah said in a statement accompanying Monday's numbers.
The volume of sales barely budged in August, closing the month at an annualized pace of 6.3 million existing-home sales, the report said. That suggests some possible stabilizing after months of declines in the number of units sold. Home sellers may finally be settling for lower prices rather than letting their homes sit on the market.
Pessimists say a speculative "bubble" had built up and now needs to unwind - possibly over several years.
"As draconian as that sounds, a 5 percent price decline would only reverse one-tenth of the price run-up over the previous five years," Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg wrote in a recent report.
"Additional price declines should not be surprising," says Asha Bangalore, an economist at Northern Trust Co. in Chicago. "We have a recession in the housing market.... Usually it takes two to three years to stabilize."
She points to a rising supply of homes on the market. There are now enough homes on the market to meet demand for 7.5 months, up from 7.3 months supply in July, Dr. Bangalore says. The last time inventories surpassed current levels was in October 1992, during the last housing downturn.
Economist Richard DeKaser of First National City Corp. in Cleveland says the decline in sales volume is only about half-way done. So far, he reasons, existing-home sales have fallen about 12.6 percent on a year-over-year basis. "On average, they have fallen on the order of 25 percent," he says. "This suggests we're about halfway there, and by late next year, this should be over."
Though the housing numbers are bad, the rate of decline may be slowing. "The fact is that the decline is showing signs of losing momentum, not gaining momentum," says Bob Brusca of FAO Economics in New York. For example, the decline in the August sales volume was less than economists had been expecting, he says. "We can't say it's a turning point, but we can say it's an inflection point."
He expects the downturn to continue for another year, but at a slower pace. And he's not concerned about the drop in home prices, because during the past three years, the median price of houses is up 27 percent, and the average price of a home is up 20.9 percent.
"Even though prices have fallen, people still have a lot of wealth and equity built up," Mr. Brusca says. "We would need to see a lot more decline before it materially impacts consumer finances."
One new uncertainty in this cycle is today's greater reliance on adjustable-rate mortgages. With the interest rates on those loans shifting upward, a key question is how many owners will have to unload homes they bought during good times when values were rising and interest rates were low.
"The probability of a more disorderly correction is raised by this element," says Bangalore of Northern Trust.
The decline in last month's prices of new homes on a seasonally adjusted, year-over-year basis is the first such drop since February 1993, except for a very slight blip on a seasonally unadjusted basis in April 1995.
Prices may continue to fall, since many of the leading economic indicators have continued to weaken.
The home builders' sentiment index is continuing to decline, as are the number of pending sales of existing homes. Applications for mortgages also remain soft. And the inventory of unsold homes continues to rise, now up to 3.9 million homes, about double what it was in 2003 during the height of the housing boom.
"The rising number of unsold homes reflects the home sellers who were hoping to cash out at a high price and have kept their homes on the market for an extended time," says Mr. Zandi.
Some of these trends are likely to continue, until next summer, says Zandi, when he expects to see housing start to stabilize. With such a long period of weakness, he says, it's beginning to look as if home prices might fall in 2007 by about 5 percent on a year-over-year basis. "This would be the first calendar-year decline since the Great Depression," he adds.
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UK company supplying arms to Israel blockaded
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
27/09/2006
EDO MBM manufactures weapons components for the Israeli army, who slaughtered over a thousand Lebanese civilians this summer and who are engaged in a murderous assault on the people of Gaza . Andrew Beckett, press spokesperson for the campaign said 'we have shut down this factory so that it cannot go on producing armaments to be used against the people of Gaza. We will keep on causing disruption to the factory until it closes down permanently'.
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Putin creates new axis in Europe to oppose USA's global hegemony
Pravda
26.09.2006
The agreements concluded by Putin, Chirac and Merkel in Paris will show a considerable influence on the global energy policy. The new European "axis of energy" has become a response to Washington's aspiration to dominate the whole world. Apparently, Russia's European preferences will inspire the White House to launch a massive anti-Russian PR campaign.
US politicians have become famous for their passion for the notion of axis. It has become a tradition for each US president to create his own axis of something: axis of evil, axis of cooperation, friendship, etc. The latest axis was created without Washington's participation. The Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis appeared in Europe last week. It can be interpreted as a link of international politics run by three superpowers - Russia, France and Germany.
To all appearance, the agreements achieved in France will influence the world energy policies. President Putin said that German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised a question about giving the European orientation to Russia's giant Shtokman gas field. "I can say that Gazprom is considering the opportunity now. The decision will be made shortly," President Putin said.
The Shtokman gas field is one of the largest gas deposits in the world. Its reserves make up 3.2 trillion cubic meters and 31 million tons of gas condensate. It is possible to extract about 70 billion cubic meters a year, which means that the field reserves may last for 50 or even 70 years. It was previously believed that liquefied gas would be delivered to the USA, where Gazprom initially planned to develop one-tenth of the US market and subsequently enlarge its share to 20 percent.
Putin's statement is not just an official phrase to summarize the results of the talks. It marks the change of the development strategy. The success of the talks can be explained with mutual economic interests and close political views. It is an open secret that Russia, France and Germany stand against the establishment of the unipolar world structure. The three countries share similar positions regarding the events in the Middle East and Iran too. To crown it all, special relations with Russia can bring the leading place for France and Germany in Europe.
Russia is developing relations with Old Europe against the background of USA's concerns with Moscow's home and foreign policies. There are monstrous regimes in the world that can continue with their evil deeds for a long time, making many democratic countries crawl in front of them just because they need to have oil and gas for their living.
Russia is not interested in selling its energy sources only. The country is interested in entering European markets, gaining access to up-to-date technologies and participating in European enterprises. It is worthy of note that Russia has recently acquired five percent of stocks of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS). This corporation depends on the deliveries of Russian-made titanium.
Russia's integration in the European economy on the base of competitive advantages raises concerns with US-oriented European government. The US administration will most likely stir up another international scandal in Europe, dwell upon the subject of energy blackmail, or deprive the EADS concern of its orders in the United States.
The European axis (Paris-Berlin-Moscow) is a normal reaction of experienced politicians to USA's hegemony. The USA has become a defense machine making its way to global reign. The agreements in France show that "Old Europe" approaches Russia as an independent and attractive center of power.
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Mother Nature Gone Mad
Night lights attributed to meteor
Wednesday, 27 September 2006. 09:25 (AEDT)
Coloured lights spotted in the skies over SA's mid-north last night are believed to be from a bright meteor.
The flare-like object was first spotted by a fisherman near Whyalla.
It was also seen in Port Pirie and Port Augusta.
There have been suggestions the object may have been space junk, but it is more likely to have been a meteor.
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White House said to bar hurricane report
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer
September 26, 2006
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - part of the
Commerce Department - in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes.
According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect.
In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported.
Leetmaa, head of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.
NOAA spokesman Jordan St. John said he had no details of the report.
NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher is currently out of the country, but Nature quoted him as saying the report was merely an internal document and could not be released because the agency could not take an official position on the issue.
However, the journal said in its online report that the study was merely a discussion of the current state of hurricane science and did not contain any policy or position statements.
A series of studies over the past year or so have shown an increase in the power of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a strengthening that many storm experts say is tied to rising sea-surface temperatures.
Just two weeks ago, researchers said that most of the increase in ocean temperature that feeds more intense hurricanes is a result of human-induced global warming, a study one researcher said "closes the loop" between climate change and powerful storms like Katrina.
Not all agree, however, with opponents arguing that many other factors affect storms, which can increase and decrease in cycles.
The possibility of global warming affecting hurricanes is politically sensitive because the administration has resisted proposals to restrict release of gases that can cause warming conditions.
In February, a NASA political appointee who worked in the space agency's public relations department resigned after reportedly trying to restrict access to Jim Hansen, a NASA climate scientist who has been active in global warming research.
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Earth within whisker of hottest climate in million years: NASA
(AFP)
26 September 2006
WASHINGTON - The Earth's rapid warming has pushed temperatures to their hottest level in nearly 12,000 years and within a hairbreadth of a million years, a study by the US space agency showed on Monday.
Global warming, which has added 0.2 degree Celsius (0.36 degree Fahrenheit) per decade over the past 30 years, has caused temperatures to reach and now pass through the warmest levels in the current interglacial period, which lasted almost 12,000 years, according to the study led by James Hansen, a leading climatologist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The study, published in the September 26 of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said that Earth was now within about 1.0 C (1.8 F) of the maximum estimated temperature of the past million years.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration researcher said that was the most important finding of the team's research.
'That means that further global warming of 1.0 degree Celsius defines a critical level. If warming is kept less than that, effects of global warming may be relatively manageable.
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Locust plague encircles Mexico's Cancun resort
By Gunther Hamm
Reuters
Wed Sep 27, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Clouds of locusts have descended around the Mexican beach resort of Cancun, destroying corn crops and worrying officials in a region still recovering from the devastating fury of last year's Hurricane Wilma.
Traveling in dark fogs, locusts are grasshoppers that have entered a swarming phase, capable of covering large distances and rapidly stripping fields of vegetation.
"Imagine, they fly in the form of a flock. Imagine the width of a street," government official Martin Rodriguez said on Tuesday, describing the fields around Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula.
Towns have formed pesticide-armed brigades and are winning the war against the 3-week-old plague that has left tourist areas unharmed, authorities said.
Squads wait until night when the flying insects are roosting on plants to blast them. They carry motorized backpack pumps to shoot chemicals in a crusade that has affected from 2,000 to 2,500 acres of farm land.
"It is a war, effectively," said German Parra, a senior agriculture official in the Gulf state of Quintana Roo, home of tourist resorts Cancun and Playa del Carmen.
Hot weather and an absence of mobility-limiting hurricanes have allowed the insects to breed more than normal but authorities hope to end the infestation in the next eight days.
The insects have focused on agricultural areas, sparing beachgoers another disaster after last year's Hurricane Wilma, which ravaged Cancun and other Caribbean coast resorts and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and lost revenue.
Destruction to corn crops has been lessened because the locusts came after most of the harvesting was finished, officials said.
Locusts, which typically come to the region in four-year cycles, are most famous as one of the 10 biblical plagues of Egypt. "We hope that God will take pity on us and help us," said Parra with a laugh.
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Idaho Couple's Home Infested With Snakes
AP
Sep 26, 2006
The Hepworths knew the house would require some maintenance. But they never thought they'd need a snake charmer. Shortly after Lyman and Jeanine Hepworth began working on a rundown property outside of town, they experienced a trauma more fit for Samuel L. Jackson's character in "Snakes on a Plane" than a pair of eastern Idaho do-it-yourselfers.
Snakes, perhaps thousands of them, fell on Lyman Hepworth's head when he opened the door to a pump house near the small house the couple planned to buy.
"When it warmed up, we walked onto the yard and the whole yard moved," Jeanine Hepworth told the Rexburg Standard Journal.
One day, Lyman Hepworth reached to turn on a light and discovered the pull cord was actually a snake.
Last March, the Hepworths were having money troubles. Struggling to pay off their medical bills and make house payments, they sold their old home.
They planned to buy a home and a couple of outbuildings from an acquaintance on a few acres outside tiny Wilford.
Then they found the snakes - in the lawn, in the living room and in their hair.
Turns out the property was a winter snake sanctuary, likely a snake den or hibernaculum where snakes gather in large numbers to hibernate for the winter, said Lauri Hanauska-Brown, a biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
In the spring and summer the snakes fan out across the wilds of eastern Idaho, but as the days get shorter and cooler, the snakes return to the resting place - in this case, the Hepworth's new home - where they ball up for heat.
The snakes are likely a terrestrial garter snake, Hanauska-Brown said. Reptiles are a protected species meaning the Hepworths cannot bait them or kill them, she said.
The couple has not contacted Fish and Game to move the garters, Hanauska-Brown said. The department would attempt to move the snakes, but it could be difficult because if they move them too far they would die and if they move them close by the snakes would likely return to hibernate, she said.
"They are used to going there and kind of balling up," Hanauska-Brown told The Associated Press. "That sounds kind of Indiana Jonesish. But this is a natural thing."
The Hepworths never moved in, but Lyman Hepworth's brother is still making payments, though the seller offered to refund their money when he found out about the infestation.
Their plan: They sent a videotape of the house, their children and, of course, the snakes to the producers of "Extreme Home Makeover," in hopes the television show would send its decorators in for a filmed renovation.
The video showed snakes slithering on the back porch, climbing up the foundation and a ball of snakes on the side of the home, Jeanine Hepworth said.
The couple will not find out if the show chooses their reptile refuge for a fix-up challenge until next year.
Meanwhile, summer has turned to fall. And the snakes that have been out for the summer are making their way back to Hepworth's little home in Wilford.
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Noxious gas cloud sickens dozens in N.J.
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press
Tue Sep 26, 2006
ELIZABETH, N.J. - A trucking company worker accidentally damaged a pressurized tank of sulfur dioxide Tuesday, releasing a cloud of the noxious gas and sickening dozens of people.
Fifty-two people exposed to the chemical were decontaminated and taken to hospitals. Several of them, including a firefighter, reported trouble breathing, but none of the injuries appeared to be serious, said city Fire Director Onofrio Vitullo.
The mid-afternoon accident happened as a worker attempted to dismantle a pressurized tank at Full Circle Carriers, a trucking company. The worker snapped the neck off the tank, releasing the gas cloud, officials said.
Witnesses said people began vomiting after breathing the gas, a poisonous industrial chemical that smells like a match that has just been struck.
Deputy Fire Chief Lathey Wirkus arrived at the scene and began to feel his lungs burning.
"I started screaming at all these people to run down the street," Wirkus said. "They were hacking, coughing, snot coming out of their noses."
Wirkus saw a dog nearby on its side with its tongue panting.
"I thought to myself, 'If this dog is in this condition, imagine what it's going to do to all of us,'" said Wirkus, who received oxygen at a hospital.
Sulfur dioxide is chiefly used in the preparation of sulfuric acid and other industrial chemicals, but it can also be used as a disinfectant, a refrigerant and a food preservative.
A hazardous material crew was brought in to seal the tank, Vitullo said. Police closed roads leading into the area, four miles south of Newark.
Eddie Rodriguez, 52, a truck driver from Cliffside Park, was having a shipping container loaded onto his truck when he suddenly smelled a strong odor, and then he couldn't breathe.
"I looked in my mirror and the guy behind me got out of his truck and started throwing up and gasping for air. All that time, I couldn't breathe either," Rodriguez said.
"Everywhere around me, like 50 guys were feeling the same way."
Rescue workers took Rodriguez to a decontamination tent, stripped off his clothes, then washed him down with soap and water before taking him to a hospital.
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France to launch ethanol push with 'green pumps'
AFP
Sept 25, 2006
PARIS - France plans to launch an ambitious scheme designed to encourage motorists to put ethanol in their tanks, a major push for "green" technology, the government has announced.
The initiative, which aims to promote ethanol as an alternative to gasoline, is expected to tempt more drivers to buy ethanol-adapted cars and provide impetus for the creation of a national distribution network.
Speaking on French television channel France 3 on Sunday, French Finance Minister Thierry Breton said: "In a few days, I am going to announce the launch of green ethanol pumps throughout the country."
Sources told AFP on Monday that the plan would be made public before the start of the Paris Motor Show, which opens its doors on Saturday, with Breton most likely to choose Wednesday as the day for an announcement.
In France, the use of ethanol, an alcohol made from wheat, beetroot, corn or sugar cane, is far less than in leading countries such as Brazil or Sweden.
Biofuels, which includes ethanol and the more widely used biodiesel, represent just 1.2 percent of all fuel consumption in France, according to Prolea, a French oils and vegetable product association.
The French government had announced in September that it aimed to increase the amount of ethanol used as a proportion of total fuel to 5.75 percent in 2008 and 7.0 percent in 2010.
The final plan is likely to be influenced by the conclusions of former French Formula One champion, Alain Prost, who Breton said had been preparing a report on the technology that would be delivered to the finance ministry soon.
Asked about the need for consumers to switch to ethanol-enabled cars, Breton said on Sunday: "I've got some nice surprises for French people, for their cars and their taxes."
Biofuels in France already benefit from lower taxation owing to a partial exemption from fuel tax.
Adoption of the technology also depends on the development of new car models able to use ethanol, with the E-85 grade of fuel expected to spur progress.
E-85 is made up of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, but requires special "flex-fuel" engines that are able to work with the mix of fuels.
Car makers Saab, Ford, Peugeot and Citroen are all set to display cars able to run on E-85 at the Paris Motor Show, but the idea has faced some opposition.
The head of French manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen, Jean-Martin Folz, said in May that the idea of a push to sharply increase the number of ethanol-enabled cars in France would be "stupid".
Nevertheless, PSA plans to launch the Peugeot 307 and the Citroen C4 next year that will be able to run on gasoline or E-85.
French rival Renault said in February that 50 percent of its petrol vehicles would be able to run on E-85 by 2009.
In Brazil, the largest producer and exporter of ethanol fuel, 80 percent of new cars sold are able to run on ethanol and the fuel provides 17 percent of the country's fuel needs.
However, some environmentalists and energy experts have cautioned that ethanol is not a panacea for the world's fuel problems, despite its current favour among policy makers looking to reduce consumer dependence on oil products.
Critics have stressed that the production of ethanol requires more energy input than the amount produced and that crop pesticides and fertilizers cause water pollution and other environmental problems.
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Last but not Least
Condi Rice Ok'd Claim Of 'Safe Air' After 9/11
NY post
September 26 2006
Condoleezza Rice's office gave final approval to the infamous Environmental Protection Agency press releases days after 9/11 claiming the air around Ground Zero was "safe to breathe," internal documents show.
Now Secretary of State, Rice was then head of the National Security Council - "the final decision maker" on EPA statements about lower Manhattan air quality, the documents say.
Scientists and lawmakers have since deemed the air rife with toxins.
Early tests known to the EPA at the time had already found high asbestos levels, the notes say. But those results were omitted from the press releases because of "competing priorities" such as national security and "opening Wall Street," according to a report by the EPA's inspector general.
The chief of staff for then-EPA head Christie Todd Whitman, Eileen McGinnis, told the inspector general of heated discussions, including "screaming telephone calls," about what to put in the press releases.
The notes come from a 2003 probe into public assurances made on Sept. 16, five days after the 9/11 attacks. They tell how a White House staffer "worked with Dr. Condoleezza Rice's press secretary" on reviewing the press releases for weeks.
Whitman said through a spokeswoman Friday that she never discussed her press releases directly with Rice. She also defended her collaboration with the White House.
Now-retired Inspector General Nikki Tinsley told The Post her auditors tried to question the head of President Bush's Environmental Quality Council, but "he would not talk to us."
Calls and e-mails to Rice were not returned.
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Indonesian intelligence assured of top militant death in Iraq
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-27 17:10:57
JAKARTA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Wednesday said it has got confirmation from foreign counterpart about the death of Omar al-Farouq, a suspected al-Qaeda operative in Southeast Asia.
Al-Farouq was arrested in Indonesia in 2002 and was later handed over to the U.S. authorities when he still held Indonesian citizenship.
He was killed by British troops in Iraq Monday.
"Yes, he's dead already. We have checked it with our counterpart," BIN chief Syamsir Siregar told reporters here.
He did not elaborate.
Al Farouq, 35, who married to an Indonesian woman, escaped U.S.detention center in Afghanistan in July last year but Washington revealed his breakout until November that upset Jakarta.
Siregar said he was not sure that the body of the Kuwaiti-born al-Farouq can be brought to Indonesia at the request of his family.
However, his death is unlikely to ease terror threat in Indonesia, said a senior official with the Coordinating Ministry for Legal, Political and Security Affairs.
"Terrorism is based on ideology and politics. It doesn't depend on individual figures," the ministry's anti-terror desk head Ansyaad Mbai was quoted by the national Antara news agency as saying.
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Jovial Musharraf in line of comic's fire
Reuters
September 27, 2006
WASHINGTON - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was served tea and Twinkies as the first head of state to appear on "The Daily Show."
Musharraf had barely thanked Stewart for the jasmine green tea and the cream-filled cake popular with American children when host Jon Stewart started the interview Tuesday with a curve ball, suddenly asking the Pakistani leader: "Where's
Osama bin Laden?"
"I don't know," replied Musharraf. "You know where he is? You lead on, we'll follow you."
The general, whose Muslim nation is a key ally of George W. Bush in the war on terrorism, laughed off trademark caustic questions from Stewart, including whether the U.S. president slept or watched TV during their presidential talks last week.
But Musharraf, making the U.S. media rounds to promote his autobiography, "In the Line of Fire," gave a frank answer when Stewart asked if he had not mentioned the U.S. war in Iraq in his memoir because it has "gone so well."
"It has led certainly to more extremism and terrorism around the world," Musharraf said.
Throughout the pre-recorded interview on the cable channel Comedy Central, Musharraf was quick-witted and jovial, while Stewart struck a more serious, respectful tone than he normally does with guests.
Stewart closed by putting Musharraf on the "Seat of Heat" -- surrounded with flashing lights that mimicked flames -- and asking him who would win a popular vote in Pakistan between Bush and Osama bin Laden.
"I think they'll both lose miserably," replied Musharraf to loud applause from the studio audience.
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French-speaking nations meet for summit
BUCHAREST, Sept 27, 2006 (AFP)
A two-day summit of French-speaking nations being held for the first time in an eastern European country will centre on new communications technologies and education, and stress the need for a multicultural conception of the world.
The 11th summit of the International Francophone Organisation (OIF), which opens here on Thursday, will be attended by the heads of state or government of 33 countries and the foreign affairs ministers of 30 others.
The organisation, which has 53 member states and 10 with observer status from across five continents, is not only a cultural organisation, but somewhat like its British-led counterpart, the Commonwealth, is a political body which supports peace, democracy and human rights and has multilateral cooperation agreements.
Secretary General Abdou Diouf told AFP the summit would also make clear its attachment to cultural diversity in opposition to the "single concept of the world" held by the United States.
"We consider that culture is not a commodity to be traded. I have the impression that the notion of culture from a US standpoint is understood to mean entertainment rather than the expression of peoples' souls and identities," said Diouf, the former president of Senegal.
"Language is not neutral," he added, and defending the French language is a "combat" for linguistic diversity "so that we do not live under a reign of hegemony and a single conception of the world," he stressed.
Historically dominated by its African member states, -- France's former colonies with the notable exception of Algeria which is not a member although its 16 million French-speakers make it the second largest Francophone country in the world after France -- the OIF is now becoming more European with 14 of the 21 new members who have joined since 1991 coming from eastern Europe.
Something which is raising some concerns.
"As the Francophone family gets bigger, the oldest members ... are getting worried," said Jean-Didier Somda, a delegate from Burkina Faso's foreign ministry.
But Diouf said that on the contrary the more members "the better... particularly in order to defend our language in international organisations and notably at the European Union.
"When Romania and Bulgaria join the EU, then 13 of the EU's 27 members will also be Francophone members which will help get our message across," he said, adding "the EU is the organisation which gives the most amount of aid to the South."
It is no accident that this summit will be held in Romania where French has been an obligatory school subject since the 18th century.
"Romanian children start learning French in kindergarten and many families want to put their children in school where they can learn French," said Cristian Preda, secretary of state for Francophonie.
French is studied by 88 percent of Romanian schoolchildren either as their first or second foreign language, behind English, and there are 70 French-Romanian bilingual schools across the country.
This enthusiasm for French can be explained not only by the proximity of the two languages which both have Latin roots, but also by the historic links between the two countries and the fascination Romanian intellectuals have always had for France and its culture.
"At the beginning of the 19th century the boyars -- members of the old Russian nobility -- sent their children to study in France while educated Romanians made it a point of honour to speak French," explained art historian Cezara Mucenic.
But when Romania fell under the totalitarianism of communist Soviet Union, many were imprisoned for simply borrowing a book from or taking lessons at the French Institute in Bucharest.
"On March 3, 1950 I went to the French Institute. Two days earlier, the Communist Party had decided to close all Western cultural centres and to imprison anyone who went there. I borrowed a book, began to read it in the street and was arrested," recounted historian Serban Papacostea.
French is spoken by 175 million people around the globe and is the official language in 29 countries either alone, as in 12 countries, or together with another one.
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Secret School Teaches Liberal Values in Belarus
Created: 27.09.2006 18:35 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:35 MSK
MosNews
For three years, teachers at the Yakub Kolos lycee have been leading their pupils from one secret address to another. Moving mostly between private homes, the 90 pupils are defying the high school's official closure in 2003 to try to encourage free thinking and foster Belarussian - the language associated with the small opposition in the ex-Soviet state.
"The history course we teach has nothing to do with the version drafted by Belarus authorities," Vladimir Kolos, director of the school is quoted by Reuters news agency. "And we conduct classes in good Belarussian. That's rare these days."
Officials say the school building was closed as part of a move to consolidate facilities and save money. Staff believe it was shut down because they broke away from the official curriculum taught at state schools and nurtured Belarussian.
They decided to keep their classes going, and resorted to the cat-and-mouse game after attempts to rent public halls led to confrontations or bureaucratic tangles with authorities.
Teachers found that halls were mysteriously booked, unavailable or found to have failed fire or safety inspections.
No one now discloses where the classes are held.
Running the gauntlet of inspectors and Education Ministry officials has become commonplace for these teachers in Belarus, ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994.
The opposition and Western countries accuse him of rounding up rivals, closing down media, rigging elections and hounding independent cultural associations.
Children starting state school are given a book entitled "Belarus - my homeland" featuring four imposing photographs of the president.
Re-elected in March in a poll denounced in the West as rigged, Lukashenko has reintroduced the Soviet notion of obligatory ideology courses for both state and private schools.
However, the Yakub Kolos school helps its teenage pupils challenge this official ideology.
"When we went to ordinary schools, we weren't free to express our opinions," said pupil Oleg Volotovsky. "That could get you into trouble."
For Elina Kazarskaya, whose two daughters attend the school, "there is no school in Belarus like this lycee. Its graduates get into the most prestigious universities."
Lukashenko routinely derides the Belarussian language.
Now associated mostly with academics and, more important, with the liberal and nationalist movements that denounce his administration, Belarussian is an eastern Slav language mid-way between Russian and Ukrainian.
It fell into general disuse under Soviet authorities determined to use Russian to limit nationalist sentiment here and elsewhere. Attempts to revive it after the fall of communism retreated when Lukashenko took office in 1994.
Though street signs are in Belarussian, it is rarely heard in towns and was viewed in Soviet times as unsophisticated.
It is the language of instruction for one in five pupils nationwide but for only two percent in the capital Minsk. In other schools, it is a required subject but some students and parents say it is not taught seriously.
The language - and its role in the national consciousness - seems to be at the heart of Yakub Kolos lycee's appeal. Two candidates compete for every available place.
"My son learned to speak Belarussian better here in a month than in all the previous years put together in state schools," said Tatyana Volotovskaya.
The school, which is funded by parents, cannot issue state diplomas but its pupils can enter universities by sitting separate examinations.
"I started at the lycee before they closed it down. Then we just kept moving from apartment to apartment. We were the first students to take the entrance exams separately," said Yevgeny Blok, now preparing for university in Lodz in next-door Poland.
Kolos - no relation to the Belarussian poet after whom the school is named - says about half the graduates go abroad to study.
"Our teaching methods try to ensure that pupils become Belarussian patriots and want to stay in our country," he said.
"But our graduates have a hard time in Belarussian universities as so much time in the academic program is devoted to ideological disciplines."
The pupils are keenly aware of their sensitive circumstances.
On September 1, the traditional start of the school year throughout the former Soviet Union, they gather informally outside the closed school building.
Standing by a gate outside the building - part of which has been converted into a courthouse - they place flowers on the ground and share old student songs.
"There are no restrictions on how we work," said history teacher Valentin Golubev. "We can discuss just about any problem with our children."
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Do underarm deodorants cause breast cancer?
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-27 15:35:40
BEIJING, Sept. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Are chemicals in underarm deodorants absorbed through the skin, increasing a woman's chances of breast cancer? And what about those preservatives used to prolong the shelf life of hand and body lotions?
Small studies of deodorant and antiperspirants have suggested that daily use of these products might raise a woman's risk for breast cancer over time, especially given the armpit's proximity to sensitive breast tissue. A research dermatologist suggests reading the labels before purchasing a beauty product.
"There have also been a couple of studies that have been pretty good at showing that (these products) -- at least the aluminum in them -- are not really related to breast cancer," said Dr. Lisa Donofrio, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine.
"This debate right now is probably closer to 'case closed,' " she said, adding future studies might turn up conflicting data.
Donofrio said preservatives used in a wide range of beauty products called "parabins" could be a problem for some users. Parabins are used by manufacturers to increase shelf life because a small minority of consumers are allergic to another preservative called formaldehyde releasers.
"So, parabins are now found across the board in beauty items - makeup, and most commonly in lotions," Donofrio said. But the problem with parabins is that they "are estrogenic, meaning they will bind to estrogen receptors [on cells], and in test-tube studies, they actually stimulate breast cancer cells."
Higher levels of circulating estrogens has long been a prime risk factor for breast cancer. Industry experts note that parabins are used in extremely small amounts in health and beauty products.
"For that reason, they say they're just in too small amounts to cause any problems," Donofrio said. "But over a lifetime, with daily use of these creams, we don't actually know what the cumulative dose really is."
For that reason, Donofrio advises that anyone not allergic to formaldehyde releasers shy away from products containing parabins, which are usually noted on label ingredient lists as either methyl parabin or propyl parabin.
For those people who are allergic to formaldehyde releasers, she suggests using products containing a third class of preservative, sodium benzoate. Compared to parabins, "it's the lesser of two evils," the Yale expert said.
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No need to worry about flu shot delay: influenza experts
Last Updated Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:23:53 EDT
CBC News
The arrival of the seasonal flu vaccine has been delayed about one month in Canada. Although the timing isn't ideal, influenza experts aren't worried.
In Canada and Europe, the flu vaccines won't arrive at doctors' offices and clinics until November, about one month later than usual.
Manufacturers usually receive small amounts of the three most common flu strains recommended by the World Health Organization, and then they grow the virus in eggs, which takes about six months.
This year, one of the strains, A/Wisconsin, was difficult to grow, said Dr. Patricia Huston of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Public health experts said it would be better if the vaccine was available by mid-October to increase the time for getting people vaccinated, but flu cases don't usually peak until around Christmas time.
"We should be able to get the vaccine into people's arms if influenza behaves the way it typically does before the peak in flu activity," said Dr. Danuta Skowronski, a physician epidemiologist with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
There may be a benefit to delaying the vaccine, said Dr. Chingiz Amirov of Toronto's Baycrest Geriatric Health Care System.
Some experts recommend delaying administration of the vaccine until early November so its effects last into the spring when the flu season is still active, Amirov said.
It takes about two weeks for the immune system to respond to the shot and build up immunity. People can still contract influenza if they get the vaccine, but it helps reduce the severity of symptoms.
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3-D scan uncovers secrets behind Mona Lisa's smile
Last Updated Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:51:28 EDT
CBC Arts
The Mona Lisa has yielded some of her secrets to a 3-D research technique pioneered by Canada's National Research Council, but Leonardo da Vinci's sfumato painting technique remains a mystery.
The 3-D scanning technology has revealed more about what Mona Lisa was wearing than scientists have ever known before and that has given a clue into why she may be smiling.
Undetectable to the naked eye under the dark glaze is the translucent gauze garment over her dress called a guarnelo.
It was worn at that time by women who were pregnant or had just given birth, leading scientists to conclude that she sat for the painting shortly after the birth of her younger son.
That could account for the smile, but da Vinci's secrets for creating such a beautiful work of art remain undetected.
The 16th-century artist called the technique he used to paint Mona Lisa sfumato. Art experts believe it involved painting several translucent layers of colour to create the appearance of depth.
The high-resolution 3-D laser scanning technology used by an NRC research team allows study of the layers of paint used, down to a micron in width (about one-tenth the width of a human hair).
But scientists still can't tell how Leonardo achieved the uncanny detail of the Mona Lisa, or the effect of having her eyes follow the viewer.
The 11-person NRC team created a 3-D model of the painting by scanning the original - a technique that does no damage.
After examining the painting layer by layer, they found no signs of brush stroke detail, nor evidence that Leonardo used his fingers as he did in other works. "It's extremely thinly painted and extremely flat, and yet the details of the curls of hair, for example, are extremely distinct," John Taylor, co-ordinator of the research team, said in a news release on Tuesday.
"So the technique is unlike anything we've ever seen before. Leonardo was in a league of his own."
The NRC team visited the Louvre at the request of the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France, which wanted confirmation that its preservation techniques for the masterpiece are the best available.
Although the work is seldom taken from its protected and climate-controlled setting, the researchers were given two nights to scan every aspect of the painting down to a micron's width.
They created an archival quality 3-D digital model of the Mona Lisa, which they used to complete their study.
In good shape
After more than year's worth of analysis of the painting, they had some good news for the Louvre - current environmental conditions are likely to keep her smiling for years to come.
Researchers paid particular attention to a warp in the poplar wood panel Leonardo used to paint his work.
They discovered the panel is sensitive to changes in climate, but under its current storage conditions, there is no risk of degradation.
They also studied a 12-centimetre split on the top half of the painting, which probably dates from the 18th century, and decided it has not worsened over time.
The NRC scanning technique provided detailed analysis of the painting's craquelure, the network of surface cracks.
"What our results show, and this corroborates the other studies, is that the paint layer itself, despite all its craquelure, is very well bonded to the poplar substrate," Taylor said.
"We didn't see any sign of paint lifting. So for a 500-year-old painting it's very good news. And if they continue to keep it the way they have in an environment-controlled chamber, it could remain like that for a very long time."
The results of the study are published in French in Au coeur de la Joconde by Les Éditions Gallimard and Mona Lisa: Inside the Painting, published in English by Harry N. Abrams Inc.
The 3-D technology used by the NRC is also being developed to make space exploration safer and allow more precise engineering on auto parts or other industrial applications.
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