Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday January 20 2007 - (813)

Saturday January 20 2007 edition
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New Winter Storm Stalks U.S. Southern Plains 2007-01-19 22:49:08 A storm carrying the threat of more snow and ice moved across the Southern Plains on Friday as more than 100,000 homes and businesses remained in the dark from earlier blasts of cold, wet weather. Winter storm warnings covered much of New Mexico and parts of Texas and Oklahoma, with a half-foot to more than a foot of snow and sleet expected. In Texas, 90 National Guard members were activated. At a plaza in El Paso, Texas, where large crowds usually gather near bus stops and restaurants, only a few people braved the biting wind. Read The Full Story Families Of Child Sex Victims Sue MySpace 2007-01-19 22:48:38 The families of five abused teenagers in America are suing the social networking website MySpace, claiming that it did not do enough to protect their children. They are seeking millions of dollars in damages after the teenagers were approached by sex offenders on the site and attacked. "Hopefully these lawsuits can spur MySpace into action and prevent this happening to another child somewhere," said Jason Itkin, a lawyer for the families. The suits, filed in a Los Angeles, California, court, accuse MySpace and its parent company, News Corp. - the media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch - of negligence, fraud and misrepresentation. Read The Full Story Democrats Vow To Combat Global Warming 2007-01-19 16:09:38 Democratic leaders in Congress vowed Friday to push forward with legislative efforts to combat global warming and promote energy independence, issues that they said have not been adequately addressed by President Bush because his administration has been "overwhelmed" by the war in Iraq. In a news conference at Washington's National Press Club ahead of Bush's State of the Union speech on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nevada) also denounced Bush's plan to send 21,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq and called for greater efforts to reach a political solution there. Reid warned Bush against launching U.S. military action against Iran without congressional approval and said the way to deal with that country's ruling Shiite Muslim hard-liners is to connect with young Iranians and pursue energy independence in the United States. Read The Full Story Israel Transfers $100 Million To Abbas 2007-01-19 15:59:18 Israel transferred $100 million in tax revenues to the office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as part of a plan to bolster him and keep money out of the hands of the Hamas government, officials said Friday. The money is intended to meet Palestinian humanitarian needs and other basic expenses, but is not to be used to pay the overdue salaries of Palestinian government workers, according to Israeli officials. The money was transferred “to a special account to ensure the money does not reach the Hamas government and cannot be used for perpetrating terror against Israel,” according to a statement from the office of Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert. Read The Full Story Surge In Carbon Levels Raises Fears Of Runaway Warming 2007-01-19 03:37:10 Carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere much faster than scientists expected, raising fears that humankind may have less time to tackle climate change than previously thought. New figures from dozens of measuring stations across the world reveal that concentrations of CO2, the main greenhouse gas, rose at record levels during 2006 - the fourth year in the last five to show a sharp increase. Experts are puzzled because the spike, which follows decades of more modest annual rises, does not appear to match the pattern of steady increases in human emissions. At its most far reaching, the finding could indicate that global temperatures are making forests, soils and oceans less able to absorb carbon dioxide - a shift that would make it harder to tackle global warming. Such a shift would worsen even the gloomy predictions of the Stern Review which warned that we had little over a decade to tackle rising emissions to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Read The Full Story Cool: Scientists Find Way To Store Images In Light Waves 2007-01-19 03:35:17 Scientists said Thursday that they had achieved a long-sought goal of slowing waves of light to a relatively leisurely pace and using those harnessed pulses to store an image. Physicists said the new approach to taming light could hasten the arrival of a futuristic era in which computers and other devices will process information on optical beams instead of with electricity, which for all its spark is still cumbersome compared with light. Even the best fiber-optical systems today rely on intervening electrical signal processors, because no one has figured out a practical means of putting the brakes on light at critical junctions. The new experiments bring scientists closer to that goal. Read The Full Story U.S. Senate Pass Ethics, Lobbying Legislation 2007-01-19 03:34:18 Senate Democrats and Republicans broke a difficult stalemate last night and approved 96 to 2 expansive legislation to curtail the influence of lobbyists, tighten congressional ethics rules and prevent the spouses of senators from lobbying senators and their staffs. The Senate legislation, hailed by proponents as the most significant ethics reform since Watergate, would ban gifts, meals and travel funded by lobbyists, and would force lawmakers to attach their names to special-interest provisions and pet projects that they slip into bills. Lawmakers would have to pay charter rates on corporate jets, not the far-cheaper first-class rates they pay now. The House earlier this month approved similar language as part of an internal rules change, but other portions of the Senate-passed measure would carry the weight of law and would have impacts far beyond the Capitol. The House would have to pass comparable legislation for those provisions to take effect. Read The Full Story Storm Kills 27 In Northern Europe 2007-01-19 03:33:31 Hurricane-force winds and heavy downpours hammered northern Europe on Thursday, killing 27 people and disrupting travel for tens of thousands - including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose plane circled for 15 minutes before landing amid winds gusting to 77 mph. The storms were among the fiercest in years, ripping off part of the roof at Lord's Cricket Ground in London, toppling a crane in the Netherlands and upending trucks on Europe's busiest highway. By evening, weather-related accidents had killed 27 people, including a 2-year-old boy hit by falling brick from a toppled wall in London. Read The Full Story GSA Chief Scrutinized For Contract Deal With Friend 2007-01-19 03:32:44 The chief of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) attempted to give a no-bid contract to a company founded and operated by a long-time friend, sidestepping federal laws and regulations, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Washington Post. Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan, a former government contractor appointed by President Bush, personally signed the deal to pay a division of her friend's public relations firm $20,000 for a 24-page report promoting the GSA's use of minority- and woman-owned businesses, the documents show. The contract was terminated last summer after GSA lawyers and other agency officials pointed out possible procurement violations, including the failure to adequately justify the no-bid deal or have it reviewed in advance by trained procurement officers, said officials. Read The Full Story Judge's Footnote On Adultery Stirs Tempest In Michigan 2007-01-19 03:30:05 People who cheat on their spouses know there can be a steep price to pay if they get caught. But life in prison? It's possible in Michigan, though unlikely. In a footnote to a ruling involving a drugs-for-sex case, a Michigan appeals court said that if state law were enforced as written, adulterers could be put away for life. The ruling has generated a little unwanted publicity for Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who acknowledged an extramarital affair in 2005. Read The Full Story	Alleged Serial Killer Finally Faces Trial In Vancouver, B.C. 2007-01-19 22:48:54 Across the road from a Costco superstore and within sight of a McDonald's in a drab corner of Port Coquitlam, the remains of Robert Pickton's pig farm offer clues to how events unfolded. Mounds of earth can be seen where diggers started work in June 2002. By the time they had finished, a year-and-a-half later, they had demolished all the farm buildings on the seven-hectare (17-acre) site 18 miles east of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, sifted 378,000 cubic meters of mud, and taken 200,000 DNA samples. In the wake of the disappearance of 65 women from Vancouver's downtown eastside, the findings confirmed the conclusion that the authorities had been avoiding for years: a serial killer was at work. The evidence removed, including clothing and personal effects, suggested that the bodies of 30 women had been disposed of at the farm. Officials could not rule out the possibility that human remains were in the meat processed at the farm for human consumption. Pickton, 57, has been charged with the murder of 26 women. His trial on six of those charges starts on Monday, following a year of pre-trial hearings. Read The Full Story Hugo Chavez: Fidel Castro 'Is Battling For His Life' 2007-01-19 22:48:21 The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, Friday offered the bleakest medical update yet on Fidel Castro, saying he is "battling for his life". The pessimistic view came days after Chavez, who is one of Castro's closest allies, and who speaks with him regularly, had said his recovery was slow and not without risks. Chavez, attending a summit of Latin American leaders in Brazil, said he had spoken to the Cuban leader in the past few days. He compared his condition to the difficult days in the run-up to the 1959 revolution when he was a guerrilla leader in Cuba's Sierra Maestra. "Fidel is in the Sierra Maestra again, battling for his life," said Chavez. On Tuesday Chavez sounded more hopeful, characterizing his condition as "delicate", though even that assessment was less upbeat than his previous pronouncements. Read The Full Story Ex-Congressman Bob Ney Sentenced To 30 Months In Prison 2007-01-19 15:59:31 Former Congressman Bob Ney was sentenced to 30 months in prison Friday for accepting tens of thousands of dollars in illegal gifts in return for using his legislative influence to help his benefactors. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 27 months and Ney’s lawyers had asked for no more than two years. Ney, a Republican from Ohio, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of conspiracy and making false statement in the scandals linked to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is in jail. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence at the lower lend of the 27- to-33 month range recommended by federal sentencing guidelines because Ney had cooperated with investigators. Read The Full Story Editor Of Turkey's Armenian Newspaper Killed In Front Of Office 2007-01-19 15:58:59 The editor of Turkey’s only Armenian-language newspaper was assassinated today on an Istanbul street. The editor, Hrant Dink, 53, was convicted last year of insulting the Turkish state and identity because of comments he made about the mass deaths of ethnic Armenians before World War I in what is now Turkey -  events that Armenians and many foreign historians say was genocide by the Ottoman army, but the Turkish government denies took place. Dink also criticized ethnic Armenians abroad for trying to make official Turkish recognition of those events a precondition for Turkish entry into the European Union, but that stance attracted less attention. Dink was leaving the office of his newspaper, Agos, in the Sisli district of Istanbul early in the afternoon when he was gunned down in front of the building by one or more assailants, the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency reported Friday. Read The Full Story U.S. House Repeals Tax Break For Big Oil 2007-01-19 03:35:32 House Democrats capped their "100 hours" agenda with the passage of an energy bill Thursday, the sixth piece of legislation approved in two weeks, and Democratic leaders said the package marked "a beginning, not an end" to their legislative ambitions. Though the six measures still face battles in the Senate and possible veto by the White House, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Illinois), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, boasted that "we made promises and we kept our promises". Though Republicans complained that they were not given enough opportunities to amend the six bills, an average of 62 GOP lawmakers voted in favor of the measures. Thirty-six Republicans voted for the energy bill adopted Thursday in a 264-163 vote. Read The Full Story A Third Of Fish Species Killed In China's Yellow River 2007-01-19 03:34:39 Dams, pollution and overfishing have wiped out a third of the fish species in the Yellow River, China's second longest waterway, state media reported Thursday. The news heightens fears that the country's big rivers are losing their ability to support life as rapid and poorly regulated economic growth takes an increasingly heavy toll on the environment. Winding almost 3,400 miles from Tibet to the Bohai Sea, the Yellow River is often described as the cradle of Chinese civilisation. It was traditionally known as China's Sorrow because of its flooding. But its water flow has fallen in recent years as it has become synonymous with over-exploitation of natural resources. As well as providing water for millions of people and 15% of China's farmland, it has been heavily dammed to generate power. The strains are increasingly evident. Read The Full Story Toyota To Recall 533,000 Tundras, Sequoias Over Steering Component 2007-01-19 03:33:45 Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it is recalling 533,000 Tundra pickup trucks and Sequoia sport utility vehicles because of potential steering problems. Toyota said the recall involved 2004-2006 Tundra trucks and 2004-2007 Sequoia full-size SUVs. The automaker has received reports of 11 accidents and six injuries connected to the recall, said Toyota spokesman Bill Kwong. The automaker said there was a possibility of excessive wear to a front suspension lower ball joint that could make it difficult to steer the vehicle and stay in the center of the lane. Drivers may also notice more noise coming from the front suspension, said Kwong. Read The Full Story At Least 12 Dead In Britain As 100 MPH Storm Winds Ripped Through Country 2007-01-19 03:33:17 A two-year-old boy was one of at least 12 people killed as winds gusting up to 100 mph ripped through Britain Thursday. The boy died when a two-meter wall collapsed on him and his childminder as they walked in north London. Three truck drivers were killed in separate accidents, one of them when her vehicle was blown off the road and ended up partly in a canal. A man died when his car collided with a fire engine responding to an emergency and an airport executive died when his car was hit by a tree branch. The crew of a British container ship was lifted out of lifeboats after abandoning the vessel off Cornwall. Salvage experts were last night trying to stop the ship, feared to contain chemicals including pesticides, from sinking in mountainous seas. Read The Full Story Iraq's Mahdi Army Expressing Siege Mentality 2007-01-19 03:32:15 Two Shiite militia commanders said Thursday that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has stopped protecting radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Madhi Army under pressure from Washington, D.C., while the fighters described themselves as under seige in their Sadr City stronghold. Their account of an organization now fighting for its very existence could represent a tactical and propaganda feint, but there was mounting evidence the militia is increasingly off balance and has ordered its gunmen to melt back into the population. To avoid capture, commanders report no longer using cell phones and fighters are removing their black uniforms and hiding their weapons during the day. During much of his nearly eight months in office, al-Maliki, who relies on al-Sadr's political backing, has blocked or ordered an end to many U.S.-led operations against the Mahdi Army. Read The Full Story Breaking News: Key Aide To Al-Sadr Captured In Baghdad 2007-01-19 03:29:50 U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested a top aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday in Baghdad, said an official in his office. Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, al-Sadr’s media director in Baghdad, was captured in the eastern neighborhood of Baladiyat, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. The U.S. military said special Iraqi army forces captured a high-level, illegal armed group leader during a raid in eastern Baghdad, but it did not identify the detainee. Read The Full Story
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