Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday December 24 2006 - (813)

Sunday December 24 2006 edition
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Are Pakistanis Aiding And Abetting The Taliban? 2006-12-24 02:33:17 The guerrillas followed a dirt road from the Pakistan border through a valley surrounded by low, grassy mountains to their target: an Afghan police post. Not long after sunset, they opened fire from several sides. For almost four hours, scores of suspected Taliban fighters outgunned the lightly armed Afghan border police, and almost overran their camp. Then, as quickly as it started, the fight ended. The militants picked up their dead and wounded and fled back into sanctuaries, three miles away, in one of the loosely governed tribal areas of Pakistan. "A hundred armed Taliban men passed through the Pakistani border with their equipment, and with their rocket-propelled grenade launchers," said Qasim Khail, commander of the Afghan border police's 2nd Brigade, which guards the post here. "And they retreated the same way. There are only two escape routes out of here, and both of them end at a Pakistani border post." Read The Full Story San Francisco Hit By Third Small Earthquake In Four Days 2006-12-24 02:32:41 A third small earthquake in four days rattled the San Francisco Bay Area on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage. The temblor that struck at 9:21 a.m. had a preliminary magnitude of 3.5 and a depth of about 6.1 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was about 2 miles from Berkeley and 3 miles from Emeryville, across the bay from San Francisco. Residents throughout the Bay Area reported feeling the jolt, but police said there were no reports of injuries. Read The Full Story U.N. Security Council Bans Iran Import And Export Of Uranium Enrichment Materials 2006-12-23 21:00:04 The United Nations Security Council on Saturday unanimously approved sanctions intended to curb Iran's nuclear program, capping months of negotiations over how severe and sweeping the restrictions should be. The resolution, prepared by Germany and the Security Council's five permanent members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - bans the import and export of materials and technology used in uranium enrichment, reprocessing and ballistic missiles. Alejandro D. Wolff, the acting American ambassador to the United Nations, hailed the measure as an "unambiguous message that there are serious repercussions" for Iran's pursuit of its nuclear ambitions. He added, however, that it was "only a first step," saying, "If necessary, we will not hesitate to return to this body for further action if Iran fails to take steps to comply." Read The Full Story Israel's Olmert To Release $100 Million In Tax Money To Abbas 2006-12-23 20:59:18 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held their first formal talks on Saturday and agreed to try to revive peace negotiations that collapsed in 2000, officials said. Olmert told Abbas he would unfreeze $100 million in withheld tax funds and remove some checkpoints in the occupied West Bank, but no breakthroughs were made on freeing Palestinian prisoners or extending a shaky Gaza ceasefire to the West Bank, they said. In the first formal talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in nearly two years, Olmert and Abbas agreed to hold a series of meetings in the coming months with the goal of trying to revive peace negotiations, said aides. Read The Full Story U.S. Airstrike Kills Close Ally Of Bin Laden 2006-12-23 20:57:11 A U.S. airstrike near the Pakistan border killed the Taliban's southern military commander, a U.S. military spokesman said Saturday, calling him the highest-ranking Taliban ever slain by American forces. Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani's vehicle was hit by a U.S. airstrike Tuesday as he traveled in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand, the spokesman said. Two associates also were killed. U.S. and Afghan officials said the strike was a major victory. Ahmed Rashid, a leading author on Islamic militancy, said Osmani's death could disrupt planning for a Taliban offensive early next year, designed to extend the recent surge of violence across Afghanistan. Read The Full Story Old Allegiances Crumble In The Battle For Palestinian Hearts And Minds 2006-12-23 03:34:48 Zuhair Abu Latifa's toyshop is the first in a row of shops inside the Qalandia refugee camp, not far from the tall concrete wall that cuts off the occupied West Bank from Jerusalem. It is a single street in a tightly connected community, but it cuts across the entire spectrum of Palestinian politics. In the past, refugee camps like this one, housing families that fled Israel in 1948, would have been strongholds of Fatah, the secular movement that for the past generation has been at the forefront of the Palestinian struggle for independence. But Abu Latifa, 51, having been a lifetime Fatah supporter, voted for Hamas, the hardline Islamic movement that won the last elections. It was his way of punishing Fatah for its many failings. "They were crooks, thieves and warlords," he said, sitting on a plastic chair in the sun outside his shop. "They still haven't cleaned themselves up." The rest of his family, including his four teenage children and his brother and sister, are still Fatah supporters. A few yards farther along the street are others who vow to remain lifelong Fatah loyalists. Working next to them are overtly religious families who back Hamas. At least one other shopkeeper in the street refuses to vote at all. All speak anxiously about the factional violence and fear of civil war that has gripped the Palestinian territories in the past weeks, but many also share a profound frustration with all their political leadership. Read The Full Story From Scum, Scientists Find, Perhaps, The Tiniest Form Of Life 2006-12-23 03:33:55 The smallest form of life known to science just got smaller. Four million of a newly discovered microbe - assuming the discovery, reported Friday in the journal Science, is confirmed - could fit into the period at the end of this sentence. Scientists found the microbes living in a remarkably inhospitable environment, drainage water as caustic as battery acid from a mine in Northern California. The microbes, members of an ancient family of organisms known as archaea, formed a pink scum on green pools of hot mine water laden with toxic metals, including arsenic. “It was amazing,” said Jillian F. Banfield of the University of California, Berkeley, a member of the discovery team. “These were totally new.” In their paper, the scientists call the microbes “smaller than any other known cellular life form.” Read The Full Story Royal Intrigue, Unpaid Bills Preceded Saudi Ambassador's Departure 2006-12-23 03:32:53 For more than a year, Saudi Arabia's ambassador journeyed to college campuses, chambers of commerce, town halls and world affairs councils across the United States in an ambitious campaign to improve his country's image. Instead, Prince Turki al-Faisal's goodwill tour produced millions of dollars in unpaid bills - and a tale of murky intrigue in the enigmatic desert kingdom. The debts by one of the world's wealthiest countries - owed to the very lobbyists, advisers and event organizers hired to promote the kingdom - have left a trail that weaves together bitter princely rivalries, diplomatic subterfuge and a policy clash over one of the thorniest issues of the day: what to do about Iran. Read The Full Story They're Home: Space Shuttle Lands In Florida 2006-12-23 03:31:37 The shuttle Discovery returned to Earth at 5:32 p.m. Friday in a gentle sunset landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “Wheels stop,” said the shuttle commander, Mark L. Polansky, as the Discovery rolled to a stop on the 15,000-foot runway. After returning a greeting from mission managers, he said, “It’s going to be a great holiday.” For much of the day - which concluded a 13-day mission to rewire the International Space Station - the astronauts were not sure where they were headed. Read The Full Story	Archbishop Of Canterbury Attacks Britain And U.S. Over Iraq 2006-12-24 02:32:56 The spiritual head of the Anglican Church launched an outspoken attack on the British and U.S. governments on Saturday, saying their "ignorant" policy in Iraq has put Christians in the region at risk. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, said Christians are being attacked and forced to flee the Middle East because their countrymen see them as supporters of a "crusading West". "This Christmas, pray for the little town of Bethlehem, and spare a thought for those who have been put at risk by our short-sightedness and ignorance," Williams wrote in an article for the London Times newspaper. Williams, who is not shy of controversy, has long been a critic of the Iraq war, saying there was no moral basis for military intervention. Read The Full Story Gov. Schwarzenegger Breaks Leg Skiing 2006-12-24 02:32:24 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fell and broke his right leg Saturday morning while skiing with his family in Sun Valley, Idaho, said officials on the governor's staff. The 59-year-old governor will have surgery to repair a broken femur when he returns to Los Angeles after Christmas, the governor's chief of staff, Adam Mendelsohn, said in a statement Saturday night. Schwarzenegger is "at his home in Sun Valley recovering and recuperating," said Julie Soderlund, a spokeswoman for the governor's office. The accident occurred while Schwarzenegger was on a normal run with his family, said Soderlund. She could not provide details on where and how he fell. Read The Full Story Tiny Spanish Farming Village Wins World's Biggest Lottery 2006-12-23 20:59:38 A remote Spanish farming village with 25 inhabitants was Friday several million dollars richer after everybody in the village won a share of the top prize in the world's biggest lottery, El Gordo. The church bells rang in Rebollo de Duero, in the central province of Soria, Friday morning as the handful of farming families celebrated their good fortune. Soria is one of western Europe's most sparsely inhabited regions, with many villages abandoned by their inhabitants over the past half century. "I don't know what everybody is going to do with it," said the mayor, Jose Maria Garcia, who said he was several hundred thousand euros richer after the draw. "We'll try not to start arguing." Read The Full Story Islamic Forces Urge Muslims To Join Attacks On Somalian Government 2006-12-23 20:58:37 The Islamist forces in Somalia expanded their offensive on Saturday, said witnesses, and began attacking the seat of the transitional government from a new direction. According to residents in the Bakal area north of Baidoa, the inland city where the transitional government is based, Islamist forces rushed in with several dozen pickup trucks bristling with heavy guns. Before this, their attacks had been limited to the south and the east of Baidoa, where they met stiff resistance and suffered many casualties. Meanwhile, in Mogadishu, the seaside capital of Somalia and the Islamists’ stronghold, the Islamist defense chief put out a public call for Muslim fighters to join the war against the transitional government and the Ethiopian forces protecting it. The Islamists vowed to turn their country into a third front of jihad, after Afghanistan and Iraq. Read The Full Story Moscow Wins Natural Gas Price Battle With Georgia 2006-12-23 20:56:51 Georgia caved in Friday and agreed to pay more than double current rates for Russian natural gas after Moscow threatened to cut off supplies if the new price was not accepted. The development revived concerns that Russia is determined to use its mineral assets as a political weapon to intimidate neighbors . Georgia has complained that it is being punished by Russia for leaning closer to the west following its 2003 "rose revolution". It has accused Russia and its state-owned gas group, Gazprom, of "political blackmail" for raising prices to levels that could threaten the Georgian economy. The leadership in Tbilisi has been keen to source supplies from neighboring Azerbaijan, but the Georgian prime minister, Zurab Nogaideli, said Azerbaijani gas would not come on stream for several months at least, leaving the country with no option but to turn back to Russia. Under Friday's deal, prices will more than double to $235 per 1,000 cubic meters. Read The Full Story U.K. Poll: Religion Does More Harm Than Good 2006-12-23 03:34:21 More people in Britain think religion causes harm than believe it does good, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published Saturday. It shows that an overwhelming majority see religion as a cause of division and tension - greatly outnumbering the smaller majority who also believe that it can be a force for good. The poll also reveals that non-believers outnumber believers in Britain by almost two to one. It paints a picture of a skeptical nation with massive doubts about the effect religion has on society: 82% of those questioned say they see religion as a cause of division and tension between people. Only 16% disagree. The findings are at odds with attempts by some religious leaders to define the country as one made up of many faith communities. Most people have no personal faith, the poll shows, with only 33% of those questioned describing themselves as "a religious person". A clear majority, 63%, say that they are not religious - including more than half of those who describe themselves as Christian. Read The Full Story U.S. Selective Service System Gets Flurry Of Calls About Draft 2006-12-23 03:33:34 As the de facto media contact for the Selective Service System, Dick Flahavan is the Maytag repairman of government press people. With the military draft out of business since 1973, the Selective Service just doesn’t get a lot of calls these days. Yet by midday Friday, Flahavan’s office had fielded dozens of inquiries, not just from reporters but from some anxious parents as well, all with some variation of the same urgent question: Are you reinstituting the draft? So adamant was the denial that Flahavan, a bit beleaguered, had his staff members post an unplanned update Friday morning at the top of Selective Service’s Web site: “No Draft on Horizon!” Read The Full Story Appeals Court Reverses Judge, Says FEMA Can Hold Off On Funding Housing For Katrina Victims 2006-12-23 03:32:04 A federal appeals court told the Bush administration Friday that it does not need to immediately restart a housing program for thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit puts a restart on hold at least until March, when the court will hear arguments in the case. The court suspended an order by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, who said last month that the Federal Emergency Management Agency violated the Constitution when it eliminated short-term housing assistance. Leon said the agency did not explain its reasoning and provided victims only confusing computer-generated codes to explain its decisions. Read The Full Story
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