Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday October 22 2006 - (813)

Sunday October 22 2006 edition
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Your Cellphone May Tell On You 2006-10-21 22:26:00 Sam Bachman is a frequent upgrader. Not of cars or homes, but of his "smart phone." Hooked on the convenience of a cellphone that's also a mini PC, calendar and address book, the Virginia social worker just bought his sixth Treo smart phone. And before advertising his old model for sale online, he took what he thought was a savvy step: He "reset" the device to wipe it free of data. Or so he thought. It turns out that hackers or sleuths armed with commercially available software can fairly easily resurrect erased data on cellphones, including address books and calendar contacts, photos, videos and e-mails, turning used phones into a treasure trove for identity thieves and allowing them in effect to buy personal data off the Internet, security experts say. "You could recreate someone's entire life from the data you recover from these devices," said Norm Laudermilch, chief technology officer for Trust Digital, a McLean security company that helps companies and government agencies protect data. Read The Full Story U.S. To Hand Iraq A Timetable On Its Security Role 2006-10-21 22:24:41 The Bush administration is drafting a timetable for the Iraqi government to address sectarian divisions and assume a larger role in securing the country, said senior American officials. Details of the blueprint, which is to be presented to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki before the end of the year and would be carried out over the next year and beyond, are still being devised, but the officials said that for the first time Iraq is likely to be asked to agree to a schedule of specific milestones, like disarming sectarian militias, and to a broad set of other political, economic and military benchmarks intended to stabilize the country. Although the plan would not threaten Maliki with a withdrawal of American troops, several officials said the Bush administration would consider changes in military strategy and other penalties if Iraq balked at adopting it or failed to meet critical benchmarks within it. Read The Full Story Royal Dutch Shell Costs On Sakhalin Gas Project Spiralling 2006-10-21 22:23:26 Costs on Sakhalin-2, one of Royal Dutch Shell's most treasured yet politically fraught gas projects, are rocketing, says an internal report by the Russian government leaked to The Observer The news will anger the Kremlin because it could in theory mean it receives less revenue under the production-sharing agreement it signed with Shell a decade ago. The report, by the mineral services division of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, drawing on Shell's own figures, states that operational costs will rise from a predicted $15 billion in 2003 to $28 billion, according to its latest estimate. The liquefied natural gas plant off the east coast of Russia has doubled its construction budget of $20 billion (£10.6 billion) and there is a strong possibility that construction costs could rise further. Read The Full Story Russia Minister Rules Out Punishment For Iran Over Nuke Program 2006-10-21 12:15:53 Russia will not allow the U.N. Security Council to be used to punish Iran over its nuclear program, the foreign minister said. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia was ready to discuss ways to pressure Iran into accepting a broader international oversight of its nuclear program, but added that "any measures of influence should encourage creating conditions for talks." "We won't be able to support and will oppose any attempts to use the Security Council to punish Iran or use Iran's program in order to promote the ideas of regime change there," Lavrov said Friday in an interview with the Kuwaiti News Agency KUNA which was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry Website Saturday. On Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the U.N. Security Council and its decisions "illegitimate," saying the world body was being used as a political tool by Iran's enemies - the United States and Britain. Read The Full Story Bush: U.S. Will Not Leave Iraq Until Mission Complete 2006-10-21 12:14:48 President Bush met Saturday with his top advisers and military commanders on Iraq, but he offered no indication of change in strategy in his weekly radio address where he vowed not to pull U.S. troops out until "the mission is complete" and said one of the causes of the increased violence in Iraq is the enemy's desire to break America's resolve. "The terrorists are trying to divide America and break our will, and we must not allow them to succeed ... ," said Bush. "Retreating from Iraq would allow the terrorists to gain a new safe haven from which to launch new attacks on America. Retreating from Iraq would dishonor the men and women who have given their lives in that country, and mean their sacrifice has been in vain. And retreating from Iraq would embolden the terrorists, and make our country, our friends, and our allies more vulnerable to new attacks." Read The Full Story Editorial: Flexing Our Muscles In Space 2006-10-21 00:38:51 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006, edition of the New York Times. In it, the Times editor addresses the new space policy declared by the Bush Administration and discusses criticisms and dangers of that policy, including the danger of initiating an arms race in space. Because this is a much more serious issue than many seem to realize, I decided to give it a broader readership by posting the editorial. I hope the folks at the the N.Y. Times don't mind. The editorial follows: The Bush administration has adopted a jingoistic and downright belligerent tone toward space operations. In a new "national space policy" posted without fanfare on an obscure government Web site, and in recent speeches, it has signaled its determination to be pre-eminent in space - as it is in air power and sea power - while opposing any treaties that might curtail any American action there. This chest-thumping is being portrayed as a modest extension of the Clinton administration's space policy issued a decade ago. And so far there is no mention of putting American weapons in space. But the more aggressive tone of the Bush policy may undercut international cooperation on civilian space projects - a goal to which the new policy subscribes - or set off an eventual arms race in space. The new policy reflects the worst tendencies of the Bush administration - a unilateral drive for supremacy and a rejection of treaties. And it comes just as the White House is desperately seeking help to rein in the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran. That effort depends heavily on cooperation from China and Russia, two countries with their own active space programs. Read The Full Story Chinese Pressure Forces N. Korea To Apologize, Promise No More Tests 2006-10-21 00:36:42 Kim Jong-il has apologized to China and reassured his powerful neighbor that he has no plans to conduct further nuclear tests, according to reports Friday that suggest the North Korean leader is backing down in the face of unprecedented pressure from an historic ally. Amid tightening of financial sanctions and growing international isolation, Kim was quoted as telling a senior Chinese envoy on Thursday that he was prepared to return to the negotiating table and compromise with the United States. The apparent softening came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew into Beijing on the third leg of a tour of northeast Asia aimed at coordinating the punitive sanctions agreed last weekend by the United Nations Security Council. Read The Full Story Future Forecast: Extreme Weather Caused By Global Warming 2006-10-21 00:34:48 The world - especially the Western United States, the Mediterranean region and Brazil - is likely to suffer more extended droughts, heavy rainfalls and longer heat waves over the next century because of global warming, a new study forecasts. But the prediction of a future of nasty extreme weather also includes fewer freezes and a longer growing season. In a preview of a major international multiyear report on climate change that comes out next year, a study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research details what nine of the world's top computer models predict for the lurching of climate at its most extreme. "It's going to be a wild ride, especially for specific regions," said the study's lead author, Claudia Tebaldi, a scientist at the federally funded academic research center. Read The Full Story Bush, Rumsfeld Deny Change In Iraq Strategy 2006-10-21 00:32:48 President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld Friday defended the U.S. strategy in Iraq, saying the ultimate goals remain unchanged despite escalating violence and increasingly somber assessments from military leaders on the ground. Speaking at a Washington, D.C., fundraiser, Bush said the U.S. goal in Iraq "is clear and unchanging": creating a country that can govern and defend itself and "that will be an ally in the war against these extremists". In a briefing later at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld played down the significance of fighting and sectarian violence that have erupted over the past few days outside Baghdad, as U.S. troops in Iraq suffer some of the highest monthly casualties since the 2003 invasion. Read The Full Story	Democrats Chances For Senate Majority Strengthen 2006-10-21 22:25:17 Democrats in the past two weeks have significantly improved their chances of taking control of the Senate, according to polls and independent analysts, with the battle now focused intensely on three states in the Midwest and upper South: Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia. Democratic challengers are in strong positions against GOP incumbents in four states - Pennsylvania, Montana, Ohio and Rhode Island - a trend that leaves the party looking for just two more seats to reclaim the majority. The main targets are states where Republicans in recent years have dominated but this year find themselves in hotly competitive races. Except for a brief period in 2001 and 2002, Republicans have held power in the Senate continuously since the 1994 elections and now hold 55 of 100 seats. Only last year, Senate Democratic Leader Harry M. Reid (Nevada) said it would take "a miracle" for his party to win control. But the same issues that are leading many pollsters and strategists to predict a Democratic takeover of the House - including the unpopularity of President Bush and the Iraq war - have made a turnover in the Senate more plausible. Read The Full Story Former Defense Chief: Britain Risking Defeat In Afghanistan 2006-10-21 22:24:05 Field Marshal Sir Peter Inge, the former head of Britain's armed forces, has broken ranks to launch an attack on the current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, warning that British forces risk defeat in Afghanistan. In one of the strongest interventions in the conduct of the War on Terror, Inge also charged a lack of any "clear strategy" guiding British operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. His comments came as President George Bush met his military and political officials to consider fresh tactics over Iraq, amid a mood of crisis in Washington over the violence. Read The Full Story Britain To Shut Door On New Wave Of Migrants 2006-10-21 22:22:50 The British government is to abandon its "open-door" policy to eastern Europe by restricting the inflow of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants when their countries join the European Union in January. In a dramatic U-turn that has been attacked as a sop to the anti-immigration lobby, John Reid, Britain's Home Secretary, will unveil plans to prevent thousands of people from Romania and Bulgaria coming to Britain to work. His move comes after sustained criticism that Polish immigrants are entering the country in unsustainable numbers. The move is in stark contrast to the treatment of other new European Union countries, including Poland, to which the U.K. allowed unlimited access when they joined in 2004. It also reflects political fears about the impact of immigration on working-class Britons. Read The Full Story Rice Doubts Reports North Korea Pledged To Halt Tests 2006-10-21 12:15:19 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday cast doubt on a widely-publicized report that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has assured Chinese officials he would not conduct a second nuclear test. Rice said she had received a "fairly thorough briefing" from State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan about his meeting Thursday in Pyongyang with Kim. "Councilor Tang did not tell me that Kim Jong Il either apologized for the test or that he would not ever test again," Rice told reporters traveling with her as she flew to Moscow from Beijing. "I have seen those reports. I don't know the sourcing but that is not what Councilor Tang told me." Read The Full Story U.S. Senate Investigates S.E.C. Inquiry On Hedge Funds 2006-10-21 12:13:43 By the evening of June 20, 2005, the government's investigation of possible insider trading by Pequot Capital Management, a prominent hedge fund, had reached a critical stage. Throughout the day, Robert Hanson, a branch chief in the Washington office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, had been questioning his lead investigator in the case about taking the testimony o John J. Mack, an influential Wall Street executive. The investigator, Gary J. Aguirre, was trying to find out if Mack had obtained inside information about a merger and passed it to his friend, Pequot's founder, Arthur J. Samberg. Read The Full Story Doctors Rethink Widespread Use Of Heart Stents 2006-10-21 00:38:24 The medical community is having second thoughts about stents. Tiny metal sleeves placed in arteries to keep blood flowing, stents have become such a popular quick fix for clogged coronary vessels that Americans will receive more than 1.5 million of them this year. And stents are a big business, generating $6 billion a year in sales for their makers and thousands of dollars in fees for each procedure performed by the specialists implanting them. But now stent sales are falling and some doctors are rethinking their faith in the devices, driven by emerging evidence that the newest and most common type - drug-coated stents - can sometimes cause potentially fatal blood clots months or even years after they are implanted. Read The Full Story Blair Warns Of Catastrophic Tipping Points From Global Warming 2006-10-21 00:35:29 British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Friday that the world will reach "catastrophic tipping points" on climate change within 15 years, unless serious action is taken to tackle global warming. In his strongest warning yet on the environment, the prime minister told fellow European Union leaders that the world faces "conflict and insecurity" unless it acts now. "We have a window of only 10-15 years to take the steps we need to avoid crossing catastrophic tipping points," Blair said, in a joint letter with his Dutch counterpart, Jan Peter Balkenende. Read The Full Story U.S., Britain Seek Iraq Exit Strategy 2006-10-21 00:33:56 Frantic efforts are under way in Washington, D.C., and London to find an exit strategy for Iraq as a renewed surge in violence led George Bush to admit Friday that tactics there might need to change. Diplomats and politicians in both capitals are desperately reviewing and debating options that were once regarded as unthinkable. The review was given added urgency Friday when 800 gunmen, thought to be part of the Mahdi army militia, ran amok in Amara, a town transferred by the British to Iraqi control two months ago. Read The Full Story Train Derails, Bursts Into Flame In Pennsylvania 2006-10-21 00:31:51 A train derailed and burst into flames over a bridge in southwestern Pennsylvania late Friday, leaving fiery rail cars dangling over a river, said authorities. There were no immediate reports of injuries, said Dom Bedolatti, 911 center supervisor at the Beaver County Emergency Management Agency. The eastbound, 80-car Norfolk Southern Railroad train was carrying ethanol when it derailed above the Beaver River at about 10:50 p.m., said Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband. ''There are cars on the bridge, hanging off the bridge and in the water,'' said Brian Hayden, a spokesman for the Beaver County Emergency Operations Center. Read The Full Story
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