Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday February 13 2007 - (813)

Tuesday February 13 2007 edition
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European Officials Agree To Widen Economic Sanctions Against Iran 2007-02-13 03:12:59 European negotiators, yielding to pressure from the United States, have agreed to widen a ban on financial transactions with Iranand the export of materials and technology that Iran could use to develop nuclear weapons. European officials said a resolution embodying the wider ban was negotiated over the last week and should go far toward satisfying the Bush administration, which has been pressing European governments for firmer action against Iranian individuals and companies as part of a campaign to isolate the Tehran government because of its suspected nuclear arms program. “This is a very positive initiative because it takes the European Union beyond where they were until recently,” said R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs. “It’s not everything we would like to see happen. But the trajectory is good and the momentum is good, so we think this is a positive event.” A text of the resolution, released Monday evening by officials of the European Union, calls for steps to carry out a United Nations Security Councilresolution adopted in December. Europeans have been slow to follow through, saying governments do not have the legal tools to act against Iranian companies. Read The Full Story Hamas Government To Soon Step Down 2007-02-13 00:22:53 Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Monday his militant Hamas government will resign in the coming days - a formality that should clear the way for a new coalition with the Fatah movement. Haniyeh acknowledged, however, that last week's power sharing deal between the two sides left key issues unresolved - most notably control over the security forces. Those issues could still cause the deal to unravel, but Haniyeh said in a televised address Monday that both sides were committed to the agreement to bring an end to the bloody infighting that has plagued Gaza in recent months. "All Palestinians have won in this agreement," he said. Read The Full Story Ahmadinejad Puts His Faith In 'Wise People In U.S.' To Avoid Conflict 2007-02-13 00:22:06 Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Monday shrugged off the threat of a U.S. attack and said accusations that Tehran was arming insurgents in Iraq represented an attempt to find a scapegoat for American "defeats and failures". The British government, however, backed Washington's claims of covert Iranian arms supplies to insurgents, including sophisticated armor-piercing roadside bombs. A Downing Street spokesman said Tony Blair had been "at the cutting edge of identifying this problem", first raising the alarm over the alleged influx of Iranian weaponry in October 2005. The row over Iraq has added to growing tension over Iran's nuclear ambitions. A United Nations deadline for Iran to stop uranium enrichment is due to pass next Wednesday, amid simmering speculation that the U.S. is contemplating taking military action against Tehran's nuclear program. Ahmadinejad brushed aside the threat. In an interview with America's ABC News, he said: "Why should we be afraid? First, the possibility is very low, and we think that there are wise people in the U.S. that would stop such illegal actions. But our position is clear - our nation has made it clear that anyone who wants to attack our country will be severely punished." Read The Full Story Commentary: Vladimir Putin - Unilateral Force Has Nothing To Do With Global Democracy 2007-02-13 00:21:22 Intellpuke: The following commentary is an edited extract from a speech delivered on Saturday by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 43rd Munich conference on security policy and posted on the Guardian Unlimited's website edition for Tuesday, February 13, 2007. In his speech, Mr. Putin says that the U.S. has overstepped its borders in every way, and argues that we must build a new world order with security and prosperity for all. His column follows: The universal, indivisible character of security can be expressed as the basic principle that "security for one is security for all". As Franklin D. Roosevelt said at the onset of the second world war: "When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries is in danger." These words remain relevant today. Only two decades ago the world was ideologically and economically divided and it was the huge strategic potential of two superpowers that ensured global security. This global standoff pushed the sharpest economic and social problems to the margins of the world's agenda. And, just like any war, the cold war left behind live ammunition, figuratively speaking. It left ideological stereotypes, double standards and other remnants of cold war thinking. What then is a unipolar world? However one might embellish this term, at the end of the day it describes a scenario in which there is one center of authority, one center of force, one center of decision-making. It is a world in which there is one master, one sovereign. And this is pernicious, not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within. And this, certainly, has nothing in common with democracy. Because democracy is the power of the majority in the light of the interests and opinions of the minority. Read The Full Story Baader-Meinhof Terrorist To Be Freed 2007-02-13 00:20:09 A former leader of the Baader-Meinhof gang that terrorised West Germany in the 1970s and 80s is to be freed from prison after 24 years following a court ruling Monday. Brigitte Mohnhaupt, 57, who is serving five life sentences plus 15 years for her role in the murders of several prominent Germans, including a banker, a prosecutor and an industrialist, will be freed on five years' probation next month. In its ruling, made public on its website, the Stuttgart state court said: "This is not a pardon, rather a decision based on specific legal considerations. The decision ... was reached based on the determination that no security risk exists." The decision was condemned by the families of Mohnhaupt's victims, particularly because she had shown no remorse. Read The Full Story At Least 67 Killed, 155 Wounded In Baghdad Market Attacks 2007-02-12 18:25:41 Four back-to-back explosions at two markets in central Baghdad killed at least 67 people and wounded 155 Monday, charring drivers in their cars, shredding stores and setting ablaze a seven-story building full of clothing stores that burned for more than six hours, said witnesses and officials. The blasts - three at Shorja market, the capital’s largest bazaar, and one at Bab al-Sharji market a few blocks away - struck shortly after Iraq’s Shiite-led government marked the first anniversary, by the Islamic calendar, of an attack that destroyed a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra. That bombing, which shattered the shrine’s golden dome, ignited a wave of sectarian violence in Iraq that has yet to be extinguished. With its timing and severity, Monday’s attack seemed intended to both fuel the country’s sectarian hatreds and upstage the new American-Iraqi security plan for Baghdad. One thunderous explosion could be heard in the middle of an upbeat outdoor news conference by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal Al-Maliki in the Green Zone, roughly two miles from the market. Maliki did not flinch at the sound of the blast or interrupt his remarks. (“I’m very hopeful that the Iraqis will work together to support the Iraqi security forces and police” - boom! - “who are in charge of the operation,” he said.) Read The Full Story Post's Pincus Names Ari Fleischer, Novak Names Karl Rove And Armitage As Sources Of Plame Leak 2007-02-12 18:25:14 Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus testified in court Monday morning that then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, not I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was the first person to tell him that a prominent critic of the Iraq war was married to undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame. Pincus testified as the first defense witness at Libby's perjury trial. He was followed today by five other Washington journalists, including Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward and syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak. All of them testified either that they learned about Plame from other administration officials or that they had conversations with Libby, who did not mention her to them - or both. Pincus for the first time publicly disclosed the confidential source inside the White House who told him in 2003 that the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV worked at the CIA on matters relating to weapons of mass destruction. Fleischer testified last month as a prosecution witness that he mentioned Plame only to two reporters - John Dickerson, then of Time Magazine, and David Gregory of NBC News - during a trip that President Bush took to Africa. Read The Full Story U.S. Troops In Iraq Are Short 4,000 Humvee Armor Kits 2007-02-12 03:39:42 The Army is working to fill a shortfall in Iraq of thousands of advanced Humvee armor kits designed to reduce U.S. troop deaths from roadside bombs - including a rising threat from particularly lethal weapons linked to Iran  and known as "explosively formed penetrators" (EFP) - that are now inflicting 70 percent of the American casualties in the country, according to U.S. military and civilian officials. The additional protection is needed for thousands of U.S. reinforcement troops flowing into Baghdad, where these devastating weapons - used primarily by Shiite fighters - are particularly prevalent, said the officials. U.S. Army units in Iraq and Afghanistan lack more than 4,000 of the latest Humvee armor kit, known as FRAG Kit 5, according to U.S. officials. The Army has ramped up production of the armor, giving priority to troops in Baghdad, but the upgrade is not scheduled to be completed until this summer, Army officials said. That is well into the timeline for major operations launched last week to quell violence by Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias, which the U.S. military now views as the top security threat in Iraq. Read The Full Story Republicans Expect Defections As House Debates Iraq War Resolution 2007-02-12 03:39:11 Three days of intense debate over the Iraq war begins in the House Monday, with Democrats planning to propose a narrowly worded rebuke of President Bush's troop buildup and Republicans girding for broad defections on their side. Both parties will jockey for prime time before the C-SPAN cameras, with leaders claiming the best time slots and rank-and-file members trying to make the most of the five minutes each will be allotted. If all 435 House members use their five minutes, debate will last 36 hours. It is likely to begin by late morning and run until midnight tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. A vote is expected Friday. After watching their counterparts in the Senate stall and sputter last week, unable to agree on ground rules for a debate on Iraq, House leaders are forging ahead, determined to send a statement to the White House to condemn a troop buildup. Read The Full Story Questions Grow About Top CNBC Anchor Maria Bartiromo 2007-02-12 03:38:22 In November 2005, Citigroup gathered top clients at a lush spa resort in Napa Valley for two days of wine tasting and a chance to road test some of the hottest luxury cars on the market. The test drivers included Todd S. Thomson, then the chief executive of Citigroup’s wealth management arm, car collectors, clients of the bank and Maria Bartiromo, the CNBC anchor and celebrity guest. Their charge: To pick the 2006 car of the year for Robb Report, the luxury magazine. Like many of the judges, Bartiromo chose the bright red Ferrari Spider, according to one attendee. So did Thomson, a car enthusiast. “It’s the ultimate package of sex and performance,” he told a reporter for the magazine. Read The Full Story News Media Figures May Be Reluctant Witnesses In Libby Case 2007-02-12 03:37:25 Defense Exhibit 1972, a tape-recorded interview from the "Imus in the Morning" radio show, is another of those revealing moments in the perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. "So ... what happened?" radio host Don Imus asks NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell about her confusing reporting on an undercover CIA officer. "Were you drunk?" "I obviously screwed up," Mitchell responds in the exchange, which Libby's defense hopes to play for the jury in coming days. "I guess I was drunk," she jokes. Just when you thought it was impossible for more harm to come to the national news media's reputation, the defense in the trial of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff is about to present its case. Starting Monday, when Libby's attorneys try to show that he did not intentionally lie about his role in leaking the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, they will rely heavily on a string of journalists as witnesses. In several ways, those witnesses will be asked to raise doubts about the testimony and accuracy of other reporters, and some may end up tarnishing themselves or their sources. Read The Full Story	Armed Man Kills 5 At Mall In Utah 2007-02-13 03:12:45 A lone gunman went on a shooting rampage in a Salt Lake City mall Monday night, killing five and wounding numerous others, before he was shot to death by police, said Salt Lake City police. Witnesses told of the sounds of gunfire, screaming, and crying, creating havoc for almost an hour during the busy dinnertime in the Trolley Square mall, after the gunman, who was carrying a rifle, entered and began shooting around 6:45 p.m. As the shots rang out, merchants and customers throughout the mall dove under tables and barricaded themselves in the stores. The police arrived at the mall around 7 p.m., which is located just east of downtown, according to Detective Robin Snyder of the Salt Lake City police. As people streamed out of the store, the police surrounded the gunman, whose identity and motive was still under investigation Monday night. They authorities offered few details about the shootings except to say that the victims were found scattered throughout the two-story mall. Matt Lund, whose wife manages a children’s apparel store called The Secret Garden, said he was barricaded in the store when he heard the police confront the gunman. Lund said he heard a single police officer shout "Police! Drop your weapon!" twice before a barrage of fire rang out. Read The Full Story CNN Denies Nigerian Allegations Of Staging Report 2007-02-13 00:22:32 A Nigerian government spokesman on Monday accused CNN of paying for and staging a report that showed 24 Filipino hostages being held by masked gunmen in the remote mangrove swamps of southern Nigeria. "We have evidence that some of these people were actually paid to put up a show," Nigerian Minister of Information Frank Nweke, Jr., told CNN International about last week's report by Jeff Koinange, CNN's Africa correspondent. "It was a paid job, and that's exactly why we are very upset about it," he said, without offering evidence. "He had actually approached other people before then to do the same thing and his offer was declined. And he shopped around for more people and found those criminals who were willing to play ball with him and they put on the kind of show that they put up and which was shown around the world." CNN and Koinange flatly denied the charge. In a written statement, CNN said it did not pay for any part of the report, nor does the network pay for interviews. Read The Full Story Putin First Russian President To Visit Saudis 2007-02-13 00:21:47 President Vladimir Putin, making the first visit by a Russian leader to Saudi Arabia, met King Abdullah and other senior officials Sunday for talks that touched on regional tensions including Iraq and the Palestinian territories. Putin's visit to this traditional U.S. ally comes as Saudi Arabia is opening up to other countries, particularly in Asia. Russia is the world's second-largest oil exporter behind Saudi Arabia. Moscow represents a potential ally with considerable political clout as a member of both the United Nations Security Council and the so-called Quartet of Middle East peace mediators. The U.S. is the main supplier of weapons to the oil-rich kingdom but relations have been strained since the Sept. 11 attacks and Saudi Arabia may be looking to Russia to diversify its military suppliers. Read The Full Story Erosion, Rising Seas Threaten Wales' Beaches 2007-02-13 00:20:34 Almost three-quarters of some of the most beautiful and precious stretches of the Welsh coast are threatened by erosion and flooding because of rising sea levels, a study from Britain's National Trust claimed Monday. Fabulous beaches, dune systems, iron age forts, lagoons and seaside villages could all vanish within a century. The report, Shifting Shores, says 55 sites owned by the trust, covering more than 100 miles, are in danger because of erosion caused by global warming and climate change. Within those areas, 47 archaeological monuments and historic structures could be affected. Among the sites highlighted as at risk are Rhossili, the world-famous five-mile sweeping bay on the tip of the Gower peninsula in southwest Wales, and Dinas Dinlle iron age hill fort, which is already perched precariously over the sea in northwest Wales. The report also draws attention to the plight of Porthdinllaen, a village on the Llyn peninsula in north Wales. Already the highest tides reach some houses and the trust says that in the short term it will continue to repair damage to the inn and lifeboat station. But in the long term, it adds, "There may be no option but to allow the coastline to evolve naturally." Read The Full Story Police Investigate 26-Year-Old Chinese Billionairess 2007-02-13 00:19:34 Chinese police are investigating the sudden rise to riches of a young Chinese billionairess who leveraged a foot-massage parlor into a multibillion-yuan conglomerate within 10 years. Wu Ying, a 26-year-old said to be worth 3.8 billion yuan (£240 million or $480 million), is being detained on suspicion that she illegally acquired funds for her Bense business empire, China's state media reported Monday. If charged and found guilty she faces up to 10 years in prison. The case comes amid a crackdown on corruption and wild-lending as Beijing tries to cool a red-hot economy, where many cadres, entrepreneurs and military officials rushed to join the money elite. Rags-to-riches-to-jail stories are increasingly common in the domestic media. But even by the standards of the world's fastest-growing major economy, Ms. Wu's rise has been giddy. Read The Full Story U.S. Envoy: Tentative Deal On Nukes Reached With N. Korea 2007-02-12 18:25:30 Negotiators reached a draft agreement early Tuesday morning on a deal to begin disarming North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, said the chief American negotiator to the talks. “We feel it’s an excellent draft,” said the American envoy, Christopher R. Hill, an assistant secretary of state. The deal is now being reviewed by the governments of the six nations involved in the talks - the United States, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia - and could be announced as soon as late morning. Negotiators agreed to reconvene at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Beijing (9:30 p.m. Monday, Eastern time). “We’ll see if we can get approval of this,” he added. “It’s been a long day.” Read The Full Story Faced with injustices, we prefer distraction 2007-02-12 17:38:32 While the focus in recent days has been on the Super Bowl and the latest rounds of American Idol, a few items of interest have escaped the attention they are due. It's bad enough that they have not sparked any concern, they have barely been noticed. That, in itself, is cause for alarm. In no particular order, then: - Exxon Mobil just reported its profit for last year: $39.5-billion. On revenues of $378-billion. Try to digest those numbers. This may help. Let's say Exxon Mobil were its own country and since it answers to no one, it might as well be. Viewed as gross domestic product, or purchasing power, its revenues would rank the company as No. 17 among the nations of the world. Ahead of such lightweights as Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Egypt, a dozen European nations and most of Asia. The profit was a record for a U.S. company, by the way, topping 2005's obscene peak of $36-billion. That mark was set by, you guessed it, Exxon Mobil. Now, I have no problem with a company being successful. It's the goal of capitalism. But Exxon's appalling profits, and those of its fellow oil companies, came during a year in which prices at the pumps rode an artificial roller coaster, topping $3 a gallon at times. These high prices directly impacted the financial health of the American workers, making a tough challenge to feed and shelter their families even harder. The oil execs and their shareholders pocketed billions and laughed at the plight of ordinary Americans. And no one says a word of protest as the profits climb into stratospheric levels. Where is the outrage? - Here's a scorecard for a single week in Iraq. Sunday, Jan. 28, 23 civilians killed by bombs, including five girls who died when their school was mortared; Monday, 36 killed by bombs; Tuesday, 58 killed by bombs; Wednesday, 43 killed by bombs; Thursday, 62 killed by bombs; Friday, 73 killed by bombs. The week concluded with a truck bomb on Saturday that claimed 121 souls. That was just one unremarkable week of civilian slaughter. We have become so numb to the carnage that the dozens of innocent deaths every day no longer register. Even the rising number of American casualties fails to impress. Make no mistake, our leaders triggered this fiasco. And we do not even acknowledge the depths of despair that we have unleashed. Where is the outrage? Read The Full Story Across The Arab World, A Widening Rift 2007-02-12 03:39:28 Egypt is the Arab world's largest Sunni Muslim country, but as a writer once quipped, it has a Shiite heart and a Sunni mind. In its eclectic popular culture, Sunnis enjoy a sweet dish with raisins and nuts to mark Ashura, the most sacred Shiite Muslim holiday. Raucous festivals bring Cairenes into the street to celebrate the birthdays of Shiite saints, a practice disparaged by austere Sunnis. The city's Islamic quarter tangles like a vine around a shrine to Imam Hussein, Shiite Islam's most revered figure. The syncretic blend makes the words of Mahmoud Ahmed, a book vendor sitting on the shrine's marble and granite promenade, even more striking. "The Shiites are rising," he said, arching his eyebrows in an expression suggesting both revelation and fear. The growing Sunni-Shiite divide is roiling an Arab world as unsettled as at any time in a generation. Fought in speeches, newspaper columns, rumors swirling through cafes and the Internet, and occasional bursts of strife, the conflict is predominantly shaped by politics: a disintegrating Iraq, an ascendant Iran, a sense of Arab powerlessness and a persistent suspicion of American intentions. But the division has begun to seep into the region's social fabric, too. The sectarian fault line has long existed and sometimes ruptured, but never, perhaps, has it been revealed in such a stark, disruptive fashion. Read The Full Story Monsanto Dumped Toxic Waste In U.K. 2007-02-12 03:38:48 Evidence has emerged that the Monsanto chemical company paid contractors to dump thousands of tons of highly toxic waste in British landfill sites, knowing that their chemicals were liable to contaminate wildlife and people. Sunday, Britain's Environment Agency said it had launched an inquiry after the chemicals were found to be polluting underground water supplies and the atmosphere 30 years after they were dumped. According to the agency it could cost up to £100 million ($200 million) to clean up a site in south Wales that has been called "one of the most contaminated" in the country. A previously unseen government report read by the Guardian shows that 67 chemicals, including Agent Orange derivatives, dioxins and PCBs which could have been made only by Monsanto, are leaking from one unlined porous quarry that was not authorized to take chemical wastes. The Brofiscin quarry on the edge of the village of Groesfaen, near Cardiff, erupted in 2003, spilling fumes over the surrounding area, but the community has been told little about the real condition of what is in the pit. Sunday the government was criticized for failing to publish information about the scale and exact nature of this contamination. Read The Full Story Noxious Fumes Cause Hundreds To Be Evacuated From Spokane Mall 2007-02-12 03:37:50 Hundreds of people were evacuated from a Spokane, Washington, mall Sunday afternoon after noxious fumes of unknown origin sickened people inside, fire officials said. KREM-TV reported late Sunday night that 37 people had sought treatment at area hospitals. Spokane police called the fumes a "possible chemical irritant," but officials were unsure what the irritant was. Of those seeking treatment, 32 went to Holy Family Hospital and another four went to Sacred Heart Medical Center. Most complaints were about eye, nose and throat irritation. None of the conditions were considered life threatening, Fire Chief Bobby Williams told The Spokesman-Review newspaper. Read The Full Story Princeton ESP Lab To Shut Down After 30 Years 2007-02-12 03:35:42 A laboratory dedicated to extra-sensory perception and telekinesis at the prestigious Princeton University in New Jersey is to close after nearly 30 years of research. The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory was set up in 1979 by Richard Jahn, the university's former dean of applied science and engineering, to investigate whether human consciousness could interfere with sensitive computers and machinery, a possibility described as "functionally devastating" for people in aeroplane cockpits, medical operating rooms and intercontinental ballistic missile silos. The lab, which raised eyebrows among university staff and drew ridicule from Nobel prizewinners, attracted an estimated $10 million (£5 million) from philanthropists and is set to transfer to a nearby non-profit organization called the International Consciousness Research Laboratories. The announcement was posted on the lab's website, for those who had failed to sense that the closure was imminent. Read The Full Story
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