Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday December 8 2006 - (813)

Friday December 8 2006 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Hotel Bar Staff Poisoned With Polonium-210, Officials Seek 250 Bar Patrons 2006-12-08 03:23:39 Concern that hundreds of members of the public may have been at risk of radioactive poisoning during the killing of Alexander Litvinenko were raised Thursday night by the discovery that seven hotel workers have consumed polonium-210. Health officials say they are anxious to test around 250 people who went into the bar of the London hotel where the Russian ex-spy is thought to have been exposed to a massive dose of the toxic isotope on November 1. Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) also wants to track down and test hundreds more guests who drank in the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel on the days either side of the attack. Read The Full Story Australia Wants Its Troops Out Of Iraq 2006-12-08 03:22:20 Australian Prime Minister John Howard, responding to the Iraq Study Group report, said Friday he would like to see Australian troops out of Iraq but refused to set a deadline for their withdrawal. Howard's comments echoed those of President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who also have given the group's proposals a chilly reception. "Everybody would like to be out as soon as possible. We all know it is going badly," Howard told Southern Cross Broadcasting. "But I am not going to make myself in any way hostage to a particular date." Read The Full Story Changes Expected In U.S. Voting By 2008 Elections 2006-12-08 03:21:04 By the 2008 presidential election, voters around the country are likely to see sweeping changes in how they cast their ballots and how those ballots are counted, including an end to the use of most electronic voting machines without a paper trail, say federal voting officials and legislators. New federal guidelines, along with legislation given a strong chance to pass in Congress next year, will probably combine to make the paperless voting machines obsolete, say the officials. States and counties that bought the machines will have to modify them to hook up printers, at federal expense, while others are planning to scrap the machines and buy new ones. Motivated in part by voting problems during the midterm elections last month, the changes are a result of a growing skepticism among local and state election officials, federal legislators and the scientific community about the reliability and security of the paperless touch-screen machines used by about 30 percent of American voters. Read The Full Story Bush, Blair Assess ISG Report 2006-12-07 16:44:10 President Bush said Thursday that the United States needs "a new approach" in Iraq, but he implicitly rejected a key recommendation of a bipartisan panel that issued a hard-hitting report Wednesday: the holding of direct talks with Iran and Syria independently of other issues. In a joint White House news conference with visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush hailed the report by the Iraq Study Group as "very constructive" and "worthy of serious study". However, he also noted that it was just one of several studies to consider in determining "the way forward" in Iraq. And he said that neither Congress nor his administration would "accept every recommendation" in the report. The study group, chaired by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former congressman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Indiana), called for a fundamental shift of the U.S. mission in Iraq from combat to training and for a "new diplomatic offensive" to prevent Iraq from sliding into chaos and to deal with the broader Middle Eastern issue of Arab-Israeli peace. The report advocated bringing all of Iraq's neighbors into negotiations, including Iran and Syria, "without preconditions". Read The Full Story Bush: Victory Still Important In Iraq 2006-12-07 15:35:07 A defiant George Bush Thursday said he and Tony Blair agreed that "victory" in Iraq was important, just one day after the Iraq Study Group (ISG) delivered a withering critique of his current policy. In a joint press conference with the prime minister in Washington, D.C., Bush said the recommendations from the ISG are "worthy of serious recommendation", but the president sent out a clear signal to his critics that he thought victory was still possible, despite what the bipartisan panel described as a "grave and deteriorating" situation in Iraq. "We will stand together and defeat the extremists and radicals and help a young democracy prevail in the Middle East," said Bush in a long statement at the start of the press conference. Read The Full Story Six Hurt As Tornado Strikes ... London? 2006-12-07 15:31:11 A number of houses were so badly damaged by the tornado that struck northwest London Thursday morning they may have to be demolished. At least six people were injured and hundreds left homeless when the tornado swept through Kensal Rise at around 11 a.m., tearing the roofs and walls off houses. Eyewitnesses said it lasted for up to 40 seconds; one man said he heard a sound "like standing behind a jetliner". Speaking at an impromptu press conference at the scene Thursday evening, Andy Hardy, the surveyor for Brent council, said some properties in Chamberlayne Road and the surrounding streets may be too badly damaged to be repaired. Read The Full Story Green Onions Identified As Source Of 99 E. Coli Cases 2006-12-07 03:29:40 After Taco Bell traced a growing E. coli outbreak to green onions at its restaurants Wednesday morning, government investigators began an intensive search to identify the source of the contamination. The total number of cases in three Northeastern states swelled to 99, implicating several additional restaurants and a second food distributor, who said the onions came from a California farm. Taco Bell officials said early Wednesday that their preliminary tests had traced the E. coli to three samples of green onions, which the restaurant chain sprinkles on many of its menu items. In what the company president, Greg Creed, called "an abundance of caution," Taco Bell removed green onions from its 5,800 outlets across the United States. A Suffolk County laboratory later confirmed E. coli in three of four green onions taken from a previously unopened package at one of the restaurants, "suggesting that it was already contaminated before it arrived," said Suffolk's acting health commissioner, Dr. David G. Graham. County officials retrieved the green onions from a Taco Bell in Deer Park after the franchise identified them as the probable cause of the outbreak. Read The Full Story Audit: FEMA Wasting Millions In Katrina Aid 2006-12-07 03:28:10 The government is squandering tens of millions of dollars in Hurricane Katrina disaster help, in some cases doling out housing payments to people living rent-free, investigators said Wednesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has recouped less than 1 percent of the $1 billion that investigators contend it wasted on fraudulent assistance, according to the Government Accountability Office. The report illustrates the disaster relief agency's struggles, more than one year after the deadly storm, to rush aid to those in need while also preventing abuse. Last week, a federal judge in Washington ordered the Bush administration to resume housing payments for thousands of people displaced by Katrina. The ruling, which FEMA is appealing, cited a convoluted process for applying for help. Read The Full Story Former U.K. Army Chief Says Government Failing Soldiers In Time Of War 2006-12-07 03:26:51 General Sir Mike Jackson, a former head of the U.K. army, delivered a blistering attack on the Blair government Wednesday night, accusing it of failing to meet the most basic needs of the country's soldiers who were risking their lives fighting unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In his first public speech since retiring as chief of the general staff this summer, he said the government was failing to give the armed forces the resources they craved, and warned that the army was in danger of becoming a political football. "I am confident that the nation trusts the army to do that which it is directed to do, and in which it succeeds," he said. Then he added: "That trust must be reciprocated - the nation, represented by the duly elected government of the day, must provide all the tools that the job requires." Read The Full Story Iraq: Study Group Report May Fail To Grasp Country's Complex Issues 2006-12-07 03:25:27 The Iraq Study Group's prescriptions hinge on a fragile Iraqi government's ability to achieve national reconciliation and security at a time when the country is fractured along sectarian lines, its security forces are ineffective and competing visions threaten to collapse the state, Iraqi politicians and analysts said Wednesday. They said the report is a recipe, backed by threats and disincentives, that neither addresses nor understands the complex forces that fuel Iraq's woes. They described it as a strategy largely to help U.S. troops return home and resurrect America's frayed influence in the Middle East. Iraqis also expressed fear that the report's recommendations, if implemented, could weaken an already besieged government in a country teetering on the edge of civil war. "It is a report to solve American problems, and not to solve Iraq's problems," said Ayad al-Sammarai, an influential Sunni Muslim politician. Read The Full Story	Egypt Expels 8 French, 2 Belgian Terror Suspects; 1 American, 1 French In Custody 2006-12-08 03:22:59 Authorities expelled two Belgian and eight French suspected terrorists Thursday, but an American and another French citizen remained in Egyptian custody, said officials. The 12, along with an unknown number of Egyptians and Arabs from other countries, were arrested late last month for allegedly belonging to an Islamic terror cell plotting attacks. The two Belgian and eight French suspects left Cairo International Airport under tight security on a charter flight for Brussels, said an airport official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media. Read The Full Story U.N. Plea For Millions In Palestinian Aid, Half Of Population Short On Food 2006-12-08 03:21:43 United Nations aid agencies launched their biggest appeal for funding to tackle the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories Thursday, asking for $453 million (£231 million) for next year and warning of a weakening in the Palestinians' ability to govern. Senior U.N. aid officials in Jerusalem said there were clear signs of a worsening economic crisis. Around two-thirds of the 4 million Palestinian population were living below the poverty line and half the population were "food-insecure", meaning they could not afford the basic foods to meet dietary needs. Unemployment is running as high as 40% in the Gaza strip and at around 25% in the West Bank. Most of the money will be spent on emergency food aid and economic recovery, including job programs. Kevin Kennedy, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator, said the crisis was not only an economic collapse but was also tied to an increase in closures and access restrictions imposed on the occupied territories by the Israeli government and to continued conflict, internal political fighting and a breakdown of law and order. Read The Full Story Hewlett-Packard, California Settle Spying Lawsuit 2006-12-08 03:20:01 California's attorney general announced a $14.5 million civil settlement with Hewlett-Packard over its corporate spying scandal Thursday and said in an interview that he was exploring a possible settlement of criminal charges against the firm's former chairman. Patricia C. Dunn was ousted as chairman in September after the HP ethics and spying scandal became public. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed fraud and conspiracy charges against her in October, a day after Dunn learned that she had suffered a relapse of ovarian cancer. Lockyer said he has been talking to Dunn's attorney, James Brosnahan, about a potential settlement. "I'm sympathetic to her health problems," Lockyer said in an interview, adding that there was "nothing yet that would indicate that settlements are likely." Brosnahan did not return a reporter's call Thursday. Read The Full Story Fannie Mae To Reduce Earnings Statement By $6.3 Billion 2006-12-07 16:43:30 The Federal National Mortgage Association, also known as Fannie Mae, the largest buyer of American mortgages, said Wednesday that it would reduce its earnings by $6.3 billion to correct several years of accounting problems in one of the nation's biggest financial scandals. Federal regulators, meanwhile, said they planned to file a lawsuit before the end of the year in an effort to recover millions of dollars from Fannie Mae's former top two executives, whose bonuses were tied to the manipulated earnings. Franklin D. Raines, the former chairman and chief executive, and J. Timothy Howard, who had been chief financial officer, were ousted from the company in December 2004, and investigators have laid much of the blame on their shoulders. "We will file charges within the next couple of weeks," James B. Lockhart III, director of the Office of Housing and Enterprise Oversight, said in a brief interview yesterday. "Unfortunately, the legal process is very cumbersome." Read The Full Story Litvinenko Buried, 7 Hotel Staff Test Positive For Radiation, Russian Contact In Coma 2006-12-07 15:32:01 The poisoned Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko was buried Thursday in London, as prosecutors in his home country opened their own criminal investigation into his death. The move follows Scotland Yard's announcement last night that it was treating the case as suspected murder. Also Thursday, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said seven employees at the Millennium hotel in central London, where Litvinenko met a contact the day he fell ill, have tested positive for "low levels" of polonium-210, the radioactive isotope that killed the ex-KGB officer. There was no immediate threat to the health of the staff, all of whom work in the hotel's bar, and the long-term risk was thought to be "very small", said the HPA. Meanwhile, the Russian Interfax agency reported tonight that Dmitry Kovtun, one of the businessmen who met  Litvinenko before he was poisoned, was in a coma in hospital. Read The Full Story Scandal Over Nude Photos Of Top E.U. Official And Staffer 2006-12-07 15:30:26 The European commission's German vice-president Günter Verheugen is battling to save his reputation today after photos emerged of him relaxing on the beach with his female chief of staff wearing only a baseball cap. Verheugen, 62, has dismissed as "pure slander" allegations that he had been having a relationship with his chief of cabinet, Petra Erler, 48. Earlier this year, Verheugen - who is married - promoted his long-term friend to run his private office. Germany's Bild newspaper revealed today that the pair had sunbathed naked together during a holiday in August. Verheugen had worn only a white baseball cap, Bild noted. Describing him as a "naked paddler", the paper said the pair had relaxed in the dunes and gone for a dip in the sea. Read The Full Story Report Says Oil Royalties To Government Go Unpaid 2006-12-07 03:28:55 An eight-month investigation by the Interior Department's chief watchdog has found pervasive problems in the government's program for ensuring that companies pay the royalties they owe on billions of dollars of oil and gas pumped on federal land and in coastal waters. In a scathing report to Congress, the Interior Department's inspector general says the agency's data are often inaccurate, that its officials rely too heavily on statements by oil companies rather than actual records and that only about 9 percent of all oil and gas leases are being reviewed. The report undermines claims by top Interior officials that the department is aggressively pursuing underpayments and outright cheating by companies that drill on property owned by the American public. Read The Full Story Commentary: Arms And The Middlemen 2006-12-07 03:27:41 Intellpuke: The following commentary is written by David Leigh about the arms deal between the U.K. and Saudi Arabia that is now under investigation over bribes and kickbacks to members of the Saudi Royal family. I found Mr. Leigh's column to be intelligent and cogent and felt it should be shared because what he has to say could apply equally well to the U.S. Mr. Leigh's column, which appears in the Guardian edition for Thursday, Dec. 7, 2006, follows: All the Chicken Lickens in Britain's business press have been running about for the past fortnight shouting: "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" The cause of this hysteria, adroitly stoked up by our biggest arms firm, BAE Systems, is that the economy is allegedly in danger because the Saudi royal family may take away a warplane contract worth £10 billion ($20 billion). But a senior British diplomat, Stephen Day, said publicly this week what many sensible people have been thinking for some time. He told the Financial Times that Britain might be better off if it ended its corrupt liaison with Saudi Arabia. The former ambassador to Qatar said there were no political or strategic grounds for continuing with these monster arms deals: "The U.K. now risks fuelling the perception that the British are shoring up a corrupt regime without sound military reasons ... Britain really has to sit back and think from first principles how it can help the Middle East .. Selling arms to Saudi Arabia is not the way." These words are heresy to the arms industry, and no doubt to the entourage of political actors on its payroll, which has included: Lord Powell, the brother of the prime minister's chief of staff; Michael Portillo, the former Tory defense secretary; and Sir Kevin Tebbit, the recently retired permanent secretary at the MoD (Ministry of Defense), now on the board of Smiths Group, a major BAE subcontractor. Read The Full Story Saudi Arabia Fires Security Consultant For Iraq Remarks 2006-12-07 03:26:08 Saudi Arabia said Wednesday it had fired a security adviser who wrote in the Washington Post that the world's top oil exporter would intervene in Iraq once the United States withdrew troops. Saudi Arabia's government said last weekend that there was no truth in Nawaf Obaid's Nov. 29 op-ed column, which suggested that the kingdom would back Iraq's Sunni Muslims in the event of a wider sectarian conflict. Obaid stressed in the column that the views were his own and not those of the Saudi government. "We felt that we could add more credibility to his claims as an independent contractor by terminating our consultancy agreement with him," Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, told the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. Read The Full Story U.S. Senate Confirms Gates As Defense Secretary 2006-12-07 03:24:42 The Senate overwhelmingly approved Robert M. Gates Wednesday as the new defense secretary to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld, sealing a swift confirmation with a vote of 95 to 2 that reflected bipartisan confidence in his willingness to overhaul U.S. strategy in Iraq. Senate Democrats and Republicans lauded Gates's frankness after a day of testimony Tuesday in which he acknowledged that the United States is not winning in Iraq, and said that historians would have to judge whether the decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 was correct. He also pledged to take a fresh approach to Iraq in which "all options are on the table". Two Republican senators - Jim Bunning (Kentucky) and Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania) - voted against Gates, with Bunning saying that Gates's criticism of "our efforts in Iraq" sends the wrong message to U.S. troops and allies. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php