Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday January 23 2007 - (813)

Tuesday January 23 2007 edition
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Republican Opposition To Bush's Iraq Plan Grows 2007-01-23 03:30:34 Congressional Republicans pushed back Monday against President Bush's decision to increase troop strength in Iraq, some voicing opposition while others urged holding the administration and Iraqi government more accountable for the war effort. "We've had four other surges since we first went into Iraq," said Sen. Susan Collins, referring to the administration's plan for an additional 21,500 troops. "None of them produced a long-lasting change in the situation on the ground. So I am very skeptical that this surge would produce the desired outcome," said the Maine Republican. In the Senate, Collins joined two Republicans and one Democrat to unveil nonbinding legislation expressing disagreement with Bush's plan. The president should consider "all options and alternatives" involving a smaller force, said the measure. In the House, members of the leadership drafted a series of what they called "strategic benchmarks," and said the White House should submit monthly reports to Congress measuring progress. Read The Full Story Reports: Russia Fulfills Iran Missile Deal 2007-01-23 03:29:48 Russia has fulfilled a contract to sell air defense missiles to Iran, Russian news agencies quoted the head of the country's state-run weapons exporter as saying Tuesday. Russia fulfilled its contract obligations and "completed in full the delivery of Tor M-1 missiles to Iran," ITAR-Tass quoted Rosoboronexport chief Sergei Chemezov as saying in Bangalore, India, where he was on a visit along with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. Defense Ministry officials have previously said Moscow would supply 29 of the sophisticated missile systems to Iran under a US$700 million (euro540 million) contract signed in December 2005, according to Russian media reports. Read The Full Story Public Funding Of Elections In Jeopardy Of Extinction 2007-01-23 03:28:35 The public financing system for presidential campaigns, a post-Watergate initiative hailed for decades as the best way to rid politics of the corrupting influence of money, may have quietly died over the weekend. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, of New York, became the first candidate since the program began in 1976 to forgo public financing for both the primary and the general election because of the spending limits that come with the federal money. By declaring her confidence that she could raise far more than the roughly $150 million the system would provide for the 2008 presidential primaries and general election, Sen. Clinton makes it difficult for other serious candidates to participate in the system without putting themselves at a significant disadvantage. Officials of the Federal Election Commission and advisers to several campaigns say they expect the two candidates who reach Election Day 2008 will raise more than $500 million apiece. Including money raised by other primary candidates, the total spent on the presidential election could easily exceed $1 billion. Read The Full Story Vatican Divided As Cardinal Says Patients Should Have The Right To Die 2007-01-23 03:27:35 The Vatican's rigid opposition to euthanasia has come under fire from within its own ranks after it denied a religious funeral to a paralyzed man who had asked to be removed from a life-saving respirator. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the influential former archbishop of Milan, said on Sunday that terminally ill patients should be given the right to refuse treatments and that the doctors who assist them should be protected by law. On December 20 a doctor in Rome unplugged the respirator which for many years had kept alive Piergiorgio  Welby, who had muscular dystrophy. Read The Full Story Auckland, Other Cities, At Risk Of Simultaneous Multiple Volcanic Eruptions 2007-01-22 19:38:44 At least five volcanoes in Auckland, New Zealand, were born together and could be at risk of simultaneous eruptions, according to a study released today. The Auckland University results showed that the volcanoes of Puketutu, Crater Hill, Wiri, Mt. Richmond and Taylor Hill all erupted within 50 to 100 years of each other, possibly at the same time. The research further suggested that Auckland and some other major cities around the world could be at risk of future simultaneous multiple eruptions, said Dr. John Cassidy, of the University's School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Science department. "This is the first evidence that multiple volcanic eruptions in such fields may have occurred at the same time and could have tremendous consequences for people living in these highly active areas," he said. Read The Full Story At Least 88 Dead, 160 Wounded In Bagdhad Car Bombings 2007-01-22 16:09:25 Raising the prospect of yet more intensified sectarian fighting here, two powerful car bombs ripped through a crowded market in central Baghdad today, killing at least 88, wounding 160 and leaving the area littered with pieces of human bodies amid the flotsam of second-hand goods that drew customers to the area. The bombings, among the most deadly in the past year, were timed to inflict maximum carnage in the Shiite neighborhood, occurring around noon local time, when shoppers and commuters, who use the area as an informal transportation hub, tend to gather. The force of the explosion turned everyday items like lotions and DVD’s into deadly weapons. “Bottles of perfumes and deodorants were flying in the air like small rockets,” said Ali Hussein 47, a biologist who was heading home when he was knocked off his feet by the explosion. “I was wounded in my right leg,” he said outside the Kindi hospital, which was quickly overwhelmed with victims. Read The Full Story Iran Bars 38 U.N. Nuclear Inspectors 2007-01-22 16:08:44 Iran said Monday it has barred 38 members of a U.N. nuclear inspection team from entering the country, in what appeared to be retaliation for sanctions imposed last month over its contentious atomic program. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said some inspectors were admitted, but maintained that Iran could decide who should be turned away. "The International Atomic Energy Agency submits a long list of inspectors to member countries and the countries have the right to oppose the visit by some inspectors," Mottaki told the official Islamic Republic News Agency. The head of the parliamentary committee of national security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Borojerdi, had been quoted by a students' news agency as saying Iran had barred 38 inspectors. Read The Full Story Supreme Court Rejects California Sentencing Law 2007-01-22 16:07:52 The Supreme Court struck down a California sentencing law Monday, ruling that judges cannot impose increased sentences based on aggravating factors that were not determined by a jury. The 6-3 decision in Cunningham v. California effectively requires California to overhaul its Determinate Sentencing Law and could eventually result in shorter prison terms for thousands of state prisoners who may have to be resentenced in accordance with the Supreme Court's ruling. The court sided with the plaintiff in the case, John Cunningham, a police officer who was convicted by a jury in Contra Costa County, California, of sexually abusing his young son. The judge in the case imposed the maximum prison sentence of 16 years based on six aggravating factors. Cunningham argued that the judge based the sentence on facts not determined by the jury in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial and his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. He claimed that five of the six aggravating factors should have been excluded from the sentencing decision because the jury had not found them proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Read The Full Story Pfizer To Lay Off 10,000 Workers To Cut Costs 2007-01-22 16:07:21 The drug giant Pfizer said Monday that it would lay off 10,000 workers and close several manufacturing and research sites in an effort to bolster earnings hurt by the loss of patent protection on certain drugs and setbacks in developing new products. The company said the employee reductions were equivalent to about 10 percent of its worldwide work force and would take place by the end of next year. Among the cuts would be a 20 percent reduction in its European sales force. That move would follow a similar reduction announced two months ago in the company’s American sales force and is included in the 10,000 figure. Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, said it would cut manufacturing sites in Brooklyn, New York, and in Omaha, Nebraska, and would seek to sell a third site in Germany. It would close three research sites in Michigan and said it hopes to close one in Japan and another France. Read The Full Story Pollution Destroying Pre-Aztec Mexican Ruins 2007-01-22 16:06:09 Oil refineries and power stations pumping acid air pollutants along Mexico's Gulf coast threaten to erase carved stone murals at the pre-Aztec ruined city of El Tajin, a scientist said on Sunday. Air pollution specialist Humberto Bravo said acid levels in the air around El Tajin, in oil producing Veracruz state, were among the highest in Mexico. El Tajin's architecture is famous for intricate reliefs, many depicting an ancient Mesoamerican ball game sometimes compared to basketball. "If nothing is done, within 10, 20 or 100 years, the hieroglyphics will disappear," said Bravo, from Mexico's UNAM university. Read The Full Story NATO Forces Chief: More Money, More Troops Needed To Defeat Taliban 2007-01-22 04:14:49 The head of NATO forces in Afghanistan warned Monday that the military effort needs more money and more troops for a year-long push that he believes will defeat the Taliban. While NATO troops had frustrated the Taliban's plans to mount a winter campaign for the first time, it had been "against the odds" and the result of "exceptionally skilled and brave fighting", General David Richards told the Guardian newspaper. It had been achieved with fewer troops than were required, he said. "I am concerned that NATO nations will assume the same level of risk in 2007, believing they can get away with it. They might, but it's a dangerous assumption to believe the same ingredients will exist this year as they did last. And anyway a stabilized situation is not a good enough aim. We should and can win in Afghanistan but we need to put more military effort into the country ... We must apply ourselves more energetically for one more year in order to win." Read The Full Story Tony Blair Likely To Quit If His Aides Are Charged In Cash-For-Honors Investigation 2007-01-22 04:14:24 Tony Blair is likely to stand down early if charges are brought in the cash-for-honors affair against any of his key aides, including Ruth Turner, arrested on Friday on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. Ministers said they were certain Blair would not seek to stay until his planned departure date of June or July if any of his immediate entourage are charged. One senior Labor Party minister told the Guardian newspaper: "He knows he would need to do the right thing for the party." Read The Full Story Iraq War's Arab Supporters Bitter Over Its Results 2007-01-22 04:08:27 With a certain satisfaction, Lebanese journalist Michael Young watched a local station broadcast images seen across the world on April 9, 2003: the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Firdaus Square, its reverberations rumbling across a stunned Middle East. Out of curiosity, he switched to a satellite station from Syria. It was showing a documentary on a venerable Damascene mosque. He flipped to another channel, where a former Egyptian general was dismissing the idea that day that the Iraqi capital had even fallen. "If they were scared of what was happening in Baghdad, there was more power in this moment than might have been expected. The regimes were truly scared of this moment, truly scared," recalled Young, the opinion editor of the Daily Star in Beirut. "The problem is," he added, "the Americans failed." Read The Full Story Same Old Song, But With A Different Meaning 2007-01-22 04:07:58 Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody/ I've got some money 'cause I just got paid/ Now, how I wish I had someone to talk to/ I'm in an awful way ... It came to him unbidden, that song from his college days. Only now it meant something completely different. There was a man on a stretcher before him, draped in a poncho. Blood dripped off the end of the stretcher, the only sign of life from a lifeless body. It was 1967, but Howard Sherpe had already decided that the war in Vietnam was pointless, that the dead man before him had died for nothing. Sherpe felt lonely, but not the same way he felt back in college when he didn't have a date on a Saturday night. He felt alone, existentially alone. In his mind, he heard Sam Cooke's voice, but the lyrics were different. Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody/ I got all bloody and feel some pain/ I just want to get the hell out of here/ I'm in an awful way. ... Read The Full Story	Rifts Cloud Climate Plan In U.S. House 2007-01-23 03:30:17 The House Democrats had not quite finished their "100 hours" agenda when they met in the Capitol basement Thursday morning, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (California) was already looking ahead. As her colleagues ate bagels and turkey sausage, she warned that their next challenge would be a lot tougher than popular issues such as student loans and ethics reforms. For her next act, she planned to take on global warming. Democrats, she explained, had to show a sense of urgency about the carbon emissions that threaten the planet, and so she was creating a select committee on energy independence and climate change to communicate that urgency. The new committee, she said, would help the caucus speak with one voice - even if it trampled the turf of existing committees. Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Illinois), a close Pelosi ally, raised his gavel and asked whether anyone had anything else to say, in the same pro forma way that question is posed at weddings. "One, do I hear anything?" he asked. "Two do I hear, 2 1/2 do I hear, three." Emanuel's gavel came down. "The caucus meeting is over." Read The Full Story The Dilemma Of A Deadly Disease: Patients May Be Forcibly Restrained 2007-01-23 03:29:21 South Africa is considering forcibly detaining people who carry a deadly strain of tuberculosis that has already claimed hundreds of lives. The strain threatens to cause a global pandemic, but the planned move pits public protection against human rights. The country's health department says it has discussed with the World Health Organization and South Africa's leading medical organizations the possibility of placing carriers of extreme drug resistant TB, or XDR-TB, under guard in isolation wards until they die, but has yet to reach a decision. Pressure to take action has been growing since a woman diagnosed with the disease discharged herself from a hospital last September and probably spread the infection before she was finally coaxed back when she was threatened with a court order. Read The Full Story 10 Corporations Urging Bush To Take Action On Global Warming 2007-01-23 03:27:55 On the eve of the State of the Union address, the chief executives of 10 major corporations urged President Bush to embrace mandatory ceilings on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in order to stem climate change. Monday White House spokesman Tony Snow said that binding caps on carbon dioxide emissions would not be part of the president's proposals Tuesday night, and a member of the corporate delegation said that last week the White House canceled a meeting with the executives that had been scheduled for Monday morning. "The President has always believed, when it comes to climate change, that the best way to achieve reductions is through innovation," said Snow, "and to figure out ways to come up with energy sources that are going to meet our economy's constant demand for energy, and at the same time, do it in a way that's going to be friendly for the environment." There has been widespread speculation about what Bush might say about climate change tonight. Several legislative proposals have emerged in Congress with different ways for addressing climate change. Read The Full Story ICM Poll: Blair's Unpopularity Hurting His Political Party 2007-01-23 03:27:19 Declining public trust in British Prime Minister Tony Blair is dragging down wider public support for his Labor Party, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published Tuesday. It shows that the Conservatives have secured a lead in policy areas that once helped Blair win three commanding general election victories. The poll underlines the scale of the job facing Gordon Brown if he is to renew support to win a fourth general election. On nine key issues that shape the way people vote, the Labor Party now has a lead in only three. The political map of Britain has been reshaped since 2005, with the Tories now ahead as the party with the best policies in such former Labor stronghold areas as education, tax and public services. Labor leads only on the fight against terrorism, the economy and health. Labor has a one-point lead as the party with the best policy on Britain's National Health Service (NHS) - in contrast to a Guardian/ICM poll in May last year that put the Conservatives narrowly ahead. It can also draw confidence from a narrowing of the gap on some other issues, such as law and order, despite a series of difficulties at the Home Office; but Labor's lead on the economy is slipping - five points ahead of the Conservatives compared with 20 points at the last general election. Read The Full Story Al-Qaeda's Al-Zawahri Mocks Bush's Plan For Iraq 2007-01-22 18:37:29 Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, mocked U.S. President Bush's plan to send 21,000 more troops to Iraq, challenging him to send "the entire army" and vowing insurgents will defeat them in a new videotape, a U.S. group that tracks al-Qaeda messages said Monday. The Washington-based SITE Institute said it had intercepted the video from Ayman al-Zawahri, which had not yet been posted on Islamic militant Web sites, where his messages are usually posted. SITE did not elaborate on how it received the message. Al-Zawahri said the U.S. strategy for Iraq, outlined by Bush in a January 9 speech, was doomed to fail. Read The Full Story Poll: Confidence In Bush Leadership At All-Time Low 2007-01-22 16:09:07 President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday at the weakest point of his presidency, facing deep public dissatisfaction over his Iraq war policies and eroding confidence in his leadership, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. With a major confrontation between Congress and the president brewing over Iraq, Americans overwhelmingly oppose Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to the conflict. By wide margins, they prefer that congressional Democrats, who now hold majorities in both chambers, rather than the president, take the lead in setting the direction for the country. Iraq dominates the national agenda, with 48 percent of Americans calling the war the single most important issue they want Bush and the Congress to deal with this year. No other issue rises out of single digits. The poll also found that the public trusts congressional Democrats over Bush to deal with the conflict by a margin of 60 percent to 33 percent. Read The Full Story Storm-Damaged Ship Spills Fuel And Cargo Off Britain 2007-01-22 16:08:19 A damaged and listing cargo ship was spilling fuel and cargo containers into stormy seas off the southwest coast of England, near Devon, said British officials Sunday night. Some of the containers held hazardous materials. An estimated 150 to 200 containers have slipped off the deck of the heavily damaged ship, the Napoli, which was listing severely, Paul Coley, of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, said at a news conference. The vessel was carrying 2,323 containers, 158 of which were classed as hazardous, according to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code. Dangerous materials in containers on board included nitric oxide and potassium hydroxide, battery acid and chemicals used to make perfume. Read The Full Story Stocks Fall As Tech Worries Deepen 2007-01-22 16:07:36 Stocks skidded lower Monday as growing concerns over technology companies led jittery investors to pull money out of the market. The Dow Jones industrials fell 100 points. The steep decline continued the market's recent erratic trading pattern, with investors cautious about the direction of the economy and treading carefully ahead of this week's big wave of earnings reports. The tech sector so far has been knocked down the most, after Apple Inc.'s and Intel Corp.'s outlooks last week fell below the Street's expectations. With industry leaders like Qualcomm Inc. and Microsoft Corp. releasing their financial results later this week, many investors are staying away from the sector and bracing themselves for disappointing reports. Read The Full Story Political Blog: Sen. Clinton Calls For Federal Help For Sick 9/11 Workers 2007-01-22 16:06:52 Intellpuke: The following political blog, written by Patrick Healy, appears in the New York Times online edition for Monday, January 22, 2007. Mr. Healy's blog follows: Targeting President Bush for the first time in her new role as presidential candidate, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton attended a news conference at Ground Zero this morning and called on the White House to seek funding to cover the health needs of ill first responders who worked at the Twin Towers during 9/11. Mrs. Clinton, who can be fiery in her attacks on Mr. Bush, was relatively measured in her remarks this morning. She said that the sick workers needed immediate help and urged the Bush administration to devote money to them in its forthcoming federal budget request to Congress. “This is an issue that demands attention from the president and the Congress,” Senator Clinton said at a news conference with Senator Charles Schumer and Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Jerry Nadler, and Vito Fossella. Read The Full Story Infantry Officer Named As New Israeli Army Chief 2007-01-22 16:05:48 The new commander of the Israeli army will be reserve general Gabi Ashkenazi, the government said Monday. He replaces Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, who resigned last week under stiff criticism for the military's performance in last summer's inconclusive war in Lebanon against Hezbollah guerrillas. Ashkenazi, now the director of the Defense Ministry, was the deputy chief of staff and commander of the northern front in previous postings. He left the army two years ago with the rank of major general when Halutz was appointed chief of staff instead of him. The resignation of Halutz increased pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz to follow his example and resign. Public support of both leaders has plummeted since the war. Moshe Yaalon, who preceded Halutz as military chief of staff, called Monday for Peretz to step down. Read The Full Story 700,000 Passengers Could Be Hit As British Airways Cabin Crews Vote For Strikes Beginning Next Monday 2007-01-22 04:14:36 British Airways (BA) warned that 700,000 passengers face "massive disruption" after cabin crews called three 72-hour strikes beginning next Monday. Thousands of flights may be cancelled if the three-day strikes go ahead on January 29, February 5 and February 12 following the collapse Sunday night of negotiations over working conditions. It would be the third standstill in a year for air passengers, after a terror alert on August 10 and the heavy fog that caused chaos at Heathrow airport before Christmas. The financial cost to BA is expected to run into the tens of millions of pounds, on top of the estimated £125 million ($250 million) that it lost from the last year's disruption. Read The Full Story 5 U.S. Troops Killed In 'Unprecedented' Ambush In Karbala, Iraq 2007-01-22 04:08:41 The armored sport-utility vehicles whisked into a government compound in the city of Karbala with speed and urgency, the way most Americans and foreign dignitaries travel along Iraq's treacherous roads these days. Iraqi guards at checkpoints waved them through Saturday afternoon because the men wore what appeared to be legitimate U.S. military uniforms and badges, and drove cars commonly used by foreigners, said the provincial governor. Once inside, however, the men unleashed one of the deadliest and most brazen attacks on U.S. forces in a secure area. Five American service members were killed in a hail of grenades and gunfire in a breach of security that Iraqi officials called unprecedented. The attack, which lasted roughly 20 minutes, came on a day when the United States lost at least 20 other troops, including a dozen in a helicopter crash, making it the third most lethal day for American forces in Iraq. Read The Full Story Military Surplus Parts Find Their Way Illegally To Iran 2007-01-22 04:08:11 Fighter-jet parts and other sensitive U.S. military gear seized from front companies for Iran and brokers for China have been traced in criminal cases to a surprising source: the Pentagon. In one case, federal investigators said, contraband purchased in Defense Department surplus auctions was delivered to Iran, a country President Bush has branded part of an "axis of evil". In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say those parts reached Iran. Read The Full Story Czech Republic Give Go-Ahead To U.S. 'Son-Of-Star-Wars' Base 2007-01-22 04:07:41 The Czech government announced that it wants to host a large U.S. military site for the Pentagon's much-criticized missile shield system, confirming for the first time that Washington had asked Prague for permission to build a radar site for the national missile defense program. Russia had warned earlier this month that any extension of the U.S. missile project to eastern Europe would force it to review its military planning. In one of his first acts as the new Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek said that building the facilities in the Czech Republic, the first extension of the "son-of-star-wars" project beyond the U.S., would boost European security. Topolanek referred only to a radar site, a strong indication that the Pentagon is hoping to locate the bigger part of the European project - a large missile interceptor silo that would theoretically fire off rockets to destroy incoming missiles - in neighboring Poland. Read The Full Story
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