Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday November 18 2006 - (813)

Saturday November 18 2006 edition
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FDA Ends Ban On Silicone Implants 2006-11-17 23:26:59 The Food and Drug Administration ended its 14-year ban on the cosmetic use of silicone breast implants Friday, despite lingering safety concerns from some health advocates. The FDA is requiring that manufacturers tell women that the implants "are not lifetime devices" and that most recipients will need at least one additional surgery to remove or replace their implants. The agency is requiring the makers, Mentor Corp. and Allergan Inc., to conduct an extensive study of at least 40,000 implant recipients over the next decade and provide their findings to the government. More than 264,000 women had breast implant surgery last year with saltwater-filled devices, whose availability was never limited. Medical experts predict that Friday's approval will increase that number because silicone-gel implants, which are considered more natural and appealing, will prove popular. The FDA is allowing the devices for breast augmentation for women who are least 22 years old and for all breast-reconstruction patients. Read The Full Story S. Korea Won't Back Bush On Intercepting Vessels To N. Korea 2006-11-17 23:26:03 President Bush, trying to stiffen global resolve to confront North Korea, failed to win South Korea's support Saturday for intercepting ships suspected of carrying supplies for the communist regime's nuclear weapons program. Bush sought to persuade South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to fully implement United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea for testing nuclear weapons. He also sought South Korea's support in the Proliferation Security Initiative, a voluntary international program that calls for stopping ships suspected of trafficking in weapons of mass destruction. Roh said his country "is not taking part in the full scope" of the security initiative, but that it would "support the principles and goals of the PSI," and would cooperate in preventing the transfer of materiel for weapons of mass destruction in northeast Asia. Read The Full Story Universal Music Group Sues MySpace 2006-11-17 23:24:49 The Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit Friday against MySpace, the popular social networking Web site, for allowing users to upload and download songs and music videos. The suit, which also names MySpace's corporate parent, the New Corporation, comes as the recording industry contends with how to exploit its copyrighted material online. The issue has taken on more importance as services built around user-generated content become popular and generate advertising revenue. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, is seen as part of a strategy by Universal to test provisions of a federal law that provides a "safe harbor" to Internet companies that follow certain procedures to filter out copyrighted works. The law requires sites to remove such content after being notified by the copyright holder. Read The Full Story Judge's Ruling Bar N.Y. Times From Using Sources' Information In Defense Against Defamation Suit 2006-11-17 23:23:43 A federal magistrate judge ruled on Friday that the New York Times may not rely in any way on information its columnist, Nicholas D. Kristof, may have received from two Federal Bureau of Investigation officials in its defense of a defamation suit brought by a former government scientist. The judge, Liam O’Grady, issued the ruling as a sanction against the Times for refusing to disclose or force  Kristof to disclose the identities of the two confidential F.B.I. sources he used in writing a series of columns about the investigation of the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001. Dr. Stephen J. Hatfill, a germ warfare specialist who once worked in the Army laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland, has asserted in a lawsuit that the columns defamed him because they suggested he was responsible for the attacks. Read The Full Story U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division To Serve Third Tour In Iraq 2006-11-17 18:11:38 The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which helped lead the charge to Baghdad at the outset of the war, will return next year and become the first Army division to serve three tours in Iraq. More than 3 years into the war, the Army and Marine Corps are straining to keep a steady flow of combat and support forces to Iraq while giving the troops sufficient time between deployments for rest and retraining. Both services are far short of their goal of providing two years between deployments; the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry, for example, will have spent barely more than 12 months at home when it returns next year. The same is true for the division's 1st Brigade, which officials have said is scheduled to deploy again in January. Read The Full Story Leonid Meteor Shower Nears Peak This Weekend 2006-11-17 12:27:45 The annual Leonid meteor shower could produce a strong outburst this weekend for residents of eastern North America and Western Europe. A brief surge of activity is expected begin around 11:45 p.m. ET Saturday, November 18. In Europe, that corresponds to early Sunday morning, November 19 at 4:45 GMT. The outburst could last up to two hours. At the peak, people in these favorable locations could see up to 150 shooting stars per hour, or more than two per minute. "We expect an outburst of more than 100 Leonids per hour," said Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. Cooke notes that the shooting stars during this peak period are likely to be faint, however, created by very small meteoroid grains. Read The Full Story Housing Construction Plummets In October 2006-11-17 11:30:18 U.S. home construction plunged in October to its lowest level in more than six years, according to government data, sending a chill through the slumping housing market. The Commerce Department reported today that construction of homes and apartments dropped to an annual rate of 1.486 million units last month, down 14.6 percent from the September level. The sharpest drop came in the South, where construction fell by 26.4 percent. That region includes the Washington, D.C., area. Construction was down 11.7 percent in the Midwest and 2.1 percent in the West. The only region to show gains was the Northeast, where construction grew by 31 percent. Read The Full Story More Health Benefits Found In Red Wine 2006-11-17 11:29:08 A component of red wine recently shown to help lab mice live longer also protects animals from obesity and diabetes and boosts their physical endurance, researchers reported Thursday. The new research helps confirm and extend the possible benefits of the substance, resveratrol, and offers new insight into how it works - apparently by revving up the metabolism to make muscles burn more energy and work more efficiently. Mice fed large doses could run twice as far as they would normally. In addition, the scientists for the first time produced evidence linking the biological pathway activated by the substance to human physiology, showing that the same genetic switch resveratrol mimics seems to naturally endow some people with faster metabolisms. "It's very exciting," said Johan Auwerx, a professor of medicine at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Strasbourg, France, who led the research being published online and in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Cell. "This compound could have many applications - treating obesity and diabetes, improving human endurance, helping the frail. There's a lot of potential." Read The Full Story House Republicans Elect Boehner As Minority Leader 2006-11-17 11:27:57 House Republicans Friday morning voted to return two of their top officials to high-ranking leadership posts in the next Congress, despite challenges from representatives who said the party's defeat at the polls 10 days ago warranted putting new people at the helm. Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), the current majority leader, was elected 168 to 27 over challenger Mike Pence  (R-Ind.) to serve as minority leader in the Democratic-controlled Congress that will convene in January. Rep. Joe Barton, of Texas,of Texas received one vote. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) was chosen as minority whip over Rep. John Shadegg (R-Arizona), 137 to 57, with one abstention. Boehner will succeed outgoing Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) as the top Republican leader in the next House. Hastert did not seek a leadership post. Read The Full Story Astronomers: Universe's 'Dark Energy' At Least 9 Billion Years Old 2006-11-17 00:13:08 A strange thing happened to the universe five billion years ago. As if God had turned on an antigravity machine, the expansion of the cosmos speeded up, and galaxies began moving away from one another at an ever faster pace. Now a group of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that billions of years before this mysterious antigravity overcame cosmic gravity and sent the galaxies scooting apart like muscle cars departing a tollbooth, it was already present in space, affecting the evolution of the cosmos. "We see it doing its thing, starting to fight against ordinary gravity," Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute said about the antigravity force, known as dark energy. He is the leader of a team of "dark energy prospectors," as he calls them, who peered back nine billion years with the Hubble and were able to discern the nascent effects of antigravity. The group reported their observations at a news conference Thursday and in a paper to be published in The Astrophysical Journal. Read The Full Story Florida Opens Criminal Probe In Foley Case 2006-11-17 00:11:55 Florida has opened a full criminal investigation into sexually explicit Internet messages from disgraced former Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, whose resignation amid scandal helped Democrats win control of Congress, officials said Thursday. State investigators previously launched a preliminary inquiry into the e-mails and instant messages sent by Foley to underage former congressional aides. "We are now doing an active criminal investigation," said Heather Smith, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Read The Full Story Socialists Back Woman For French President 2006-11-17 00:10:55 Segolene Royal moved a step closer to becoming the first female president of France early Friday, crushing her two male rivals for the Socialist Party nomination in next April's election. With most of the vote in, Ms. Royal, 53, a regional president and former minister, won 60.6 percent of the vote of the party's nearly 219,000 members in an unusual primary. Her closest rival, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 57, a former finance minister, received 20.8 percent of the vote, and Laurent Fabius, 60, a former prime minister, 18.5 percent. The tally in France ended around 1:30 a.m. and will be complete after overseas territories finish voting. Read The Full Story	PlayStation 3 Debut Sparks Violence 2006-11-17 23:26:29 Forget video game violence, Sony Corp.'s new PlayStation 3 delivered a dose of real-world insanity Friday as it hit retail shelves across the country - and sold out moments later. Low supply led to long lines and short tempers outside retail outlets. Armed thugs Friday robbed a line of people waiting to buy the PlayStation 3 in Putnam, Connecticut, and a man who refused to hand over his money was shot in the chest. In Palmdale, California, police shut down a Super Wal-Mart Stores outlet after a line of people waiting for the new game console got out of control. In Tysons Corner, Virginia, police fired pepper spray toward a crowd of about 200 people who rushed the locked doors of a Circuit City Stores outlet before it opened. Read The Full Story Kidnapping Of Americans Sign Of Iraq Insecurity 2006-11-17 23:25:34 It was a routine trip, along the same stretch of highway the contractors of Crescent Security Group drove nearly every day. As their convoy neared the Iraqi police checkpoint outside the border town of Safwan on Thursday afternoon, everything seemed normal, according to accounts later provided to company officials by men who participated in the convoy. They were escorting 43 empty tractor-trailers from Kuwait to Tallil Air Base, near the southern city of Nasiriyah. The convoy was protected by five Crescent gun trucks - black Chevrolet Avalanches mounted with belt-fed machine guns. The convoy reached the checkpoint and stopped. Suddenly, one of the contractors pushed the panic button, a locating device used in emergencies. About 30 gunmen converged on the convoy in at least two white Toyota Land Cruisers, one white pickup truck and one white Chevy Lumina, according to information gathered by Crescent employees and the American and British militaries. Most wore camouflage uniforms and carried AK-47 assault rifles. As many as six were dressed as civilians, said Crescent sources. Read The Full Story IMF Warns G20 Economic Powers Of Inflation Risk 2006-11-17 23:24:10 The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Saturday gave an upbeat reading on the world economy but warned of inflationary risks, as financial leaders wrestled with economic flashpoints ranging from currency levels to free trade. Rodrigo Rato, managing director of the IMF, said at a meeting of the Group of 20 economic powers held in Melbourne, Australia, that healthy global growth was on track, but he warned central bankers must be on high alert to tackle inflationary dangers. "We see a need for central bankers, not only in industrialized countries but certainly in emerging ones, to be extremely vigilant on inflationary pressures," Rato told a briefing ahead of a two-day G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs. Read The Full Story NATO 'Failing In Afghanistan'; Blair Admits Iraq A 'Disaster' 2006-11-17 18:12:09 NATO "cannot win" the fight against the Taliban alone and will have to train Afghan forces to do the job, the United Nation's top official in the country warned Friday. "At the moment NATO has a very optimistic assessment and they think they can win the war," warned Tom Koenigs, the German diplomat heading the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. "They say development can follow military action. But there is no quick fix." The military alliance "does not understand Afghan ownership" and should "stop doing things on their own," he said. Training the fledgling Afghan National Army (ANA) to defeat the Taliban is crucial. "They [the ANA] can win. But against an insurgency like that, international troops cannot win." Read The Full Story 'Long March Of History' Comforts Bush In Vietnam 2006-11-17 18:10:47 George Bush struggled Friday to escape the shadows of wars past and present in Vietnam and Iraq, holding up his presence in Hanoi as proof of the possibilities of reconciliation. His visit comes as America is expanding its relationship with Vietnam from trade to military cooperation and joint efforts to fight avian flu. But President Bush, a product of the Vietnam war generation who served in the Texas and then the Alabama Air National Guard, seemed at times overwhelmed by the sheer fact of his presence in the capital of America's erstwhile communist enemy. That incongruity was evident during a display of pageantry at Vietnam's presidential palace as Bush looked out across the lawns to the headquarters of the Communist party, listening to Vietnamese military bands playing the American national anthem. The president then proceeded up the steps of the deep yellow palace for the first of a series of meetings with Vietnamese officials - all conducted under a large bronze bust of the country's revolutionary leader, Ho Chi Minh. Read The Full Story Scientists: Arctic Getting Warming, Melting 2006-11-17 11:30:48 Signs of warming continue in the Arctic with a decline in sea ice, an increase in shrubs growing on the tundra and rising worries about the Greenland ice sheet. "There have been regional warming periods before. Now we're seeing Arctic-wide changes," James Overland, an oceanographer at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Washington state, said Thursday. For each of the last five years it was at least 1 degree Celsius (1.8 F) above average over the entire Arctic over the entire year, he said. The new "State of the Arctic" analysis, released by the U.S. government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also reports an increase in northward movement of warmer water through the Bering Strait in 2001-2004, which might be a factor in continuing reduction of sea ice. Read The Full Story Burmese Misery Spirals As Junta Targets Minorities 2006-11-17 11:29:49 In a burgeoning encampment here on Burma's eastern frontier, Hay Nay Tha, a 30-year-old mother of three, awakens in the darkness most nights to the sound of her children's screams. "They keep having nightmares about our journey here," she said. That journey, Hay recalled, began when she was four months pregnant and government soldiers torched her village and forced local farmers off their land. It ended four weeks later, after her husband died of malaria en route to this camp. She and her children arrived here this summer dehydrated and exhausted. Hay soon went into early labor with a stillborn son. "To be honest," the copper-skinned woman said, shyly gazing down at her hands, "I am having nightmares, too." Read The Full Story Bush Choice For Family Planning Post Criticized 2006-11-17 11:28:36 The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women". Eric Keroack, medical director for A Woman's Concern, a nonprofit group based in Dorchester, Massachusetts, will become deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in the next two weeks, department spokeswoman Christina Pearson said Thursday. Keroack, an obstetrician-gynecologist, will advise Secretary Mike Leavitt on matters such as reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy. He will oversee $283 million in annual family-planning grants that, according to HHS, are "designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons". Read The Full Story Iraq Issues Arrest Warrant For Prominent Sunni Cleric 2006-11-17 00:13:39 The Iraq government issued an arrest warrant late Thursday for Sheik Harith al-Dhari, one of Iraq's most prominent Sunni Arab clerics, on charges of inciting terrorism and violence, said officials. Dhari, head of the influential Muslim Scholars Association, has been an outspoken critic of the foreign military presence in Iraq and has said he approves of the armed resistance in the absence of a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops. This stance has won him support among hard-line Sunni Arabs and respect among the rebels, and news of the arrest warrant raised concerns among many Iraqis that it could further inspire the insurgency. Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani announced the warrant on state-run television, saying, "The government's policy is that anyone who tries to spread division and strife between the Iraqi people will be chased by our security agencies." Read The Full Story U.S. Airstrikes In Afghanistan Climb Sharply To Aid NATO Ground Troops 2006-11-17 00:12:32 The Air Force has conducted more than 2,000 airstrikes in Afghanistan over the past six months, a sharp increase in bombing that reflects the growing demand for American air cover since NATO has assumed a larger ground combat role, said Air Force officials. The intensifying air campaign has focused on southern Afghanistan, where NATO units, primarily from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, as well as American Special Forces have been engaging in the heaviest and most frequent ground combat with Taliban rebels since the invasion five years ago. The NATO forces are mostly operating without heavy armor or artillery support, and as Taliban resistance has continued, more air support has been used to compensate for the lightness of the units, said Air Force officials.  Most of the strikes have come during "close air support" missions, where the bombers patrol the area and respond to calls from ground units in combat rather than performing planned strikes. Read The Full Story Bush Opens Visit To Vietnam 2006-11-17 00:11:30 President Bush opened a visit Friday to Hanoi, the wartime capital of this once-divided country, a trip that is stirring inevitable comparisons between the unpopular war in Iraq and the divisive conflict fought and lost in Vietnam more than three decades ago. Vietnamese officials greeted Bush and his wife, Laura, at the airport on a humid and breezy morning. Two young girls, wearing flowing traditional dresses, presented them with bouquets of flowers. Bush's itinerary promised some interesting moments. Before attending a state dinner Friday evening, Bush is scheduled to drop by the headquarters of the Communist Party to talk with its general secretary. Read The Full Story
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