Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday March 31 2007 - (813)

Saturday March 31 2007 edition
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Home Foreclosures Hit Record Numbers In Michigan 2007-03-31 02:16:30 Janet Laitis leaned on a chain-link fence in her front yard, dragged on a cigarette and pointed to the homes on her block that lenders have seized in just the past two weeks. "There. There. There," said Laitis, 70, pointing across the street, down the street and then to the modest ranch house next door. "This neighborhood is deteriorating before my eyes." Within a square mile of Laitis' house in this bedroom community outside Detroit, more than half the 96 homes on the market are foreclosed properties. The situation is not uncommon in pockets of the industrial Midwest, where a record number of people are missing their mortgage payments and losing their homes. While lax lending policies have been blamed for the unfolding home-mortgage crisis across the country, the distress in the Midwest has been exacerbated by fundamental problems with the economy. The region has been devastated by a severe drop in manufacturing jobs as the U.S. automobile industry shrinks. Read The Full Story Bush Apologizes To Soldiers At Walter Reed 2007-03-31 02:15:57 President Bush Friday paid his first visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center since the uproar over shoddy conditions at the facility and emerged after a two-hour tour to publicly apologize for the physical and bureaucratic ordeals inflicted upon soldiers recovering from injuries on faraway battlefields. The president inspected new accommodations for patients who had been living in squalid quarters and visited a physical therapy room to talk with soldiers who lost arms or legs in Iraq only to find themselves lost in a broken system back home. The stories they told him about their frustrations at Walter Reed, he said later, left him troubled and reinforced his commitment to resolve their grievances. "I was disturbed by their accounts of what went wrong," he said in a speech to hospital staff members after the tour. "It is not right to have someone volunteer to wear our uniform and not get the best possible care. I apologize for what they went through, and we're going to fix the problem." Read The Full Story Australian Hicks To Serve 9 Months In Terrorism Case 2007-03-31 02:14:14 David Hicks, the Australian high-school dropout whose detention became an international issue, will serve nine more months in custody, most of it in Australia, under the terms of a plea deal unsealed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Friday. The sentence came at the end of a long day in Guantanamo’s military commission courtroom and followed the deliberations of an eight-member panel of military officers. Having deliberated for two hours, the panel returned at 8 p.m. with a sentence of seven years, the maximum it was permitted to impose under the deal in which Hicks pleaded guilty on Monday. But the deal also provided that he actually serve the lesser of nine months or whatever sentence the panel arrived at. The balance of the seven years that could have been imposed is considered suspended. The agreement for just nine additional months of imprisonment was remarkable for a detainee who, before the plea negotiations, had faced a potential life term and had become an international symbol of many of the 385 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Read The Full Story GAO: Looming Threat To U.S. Oil Supply 2007-03-30 21:21:44 A report released Thursday by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office concludes that worldwide oil production will eventually grind to a halt and the United States has no strategy in place to deal with the possible catastrophic results. The report, titled "CRUDE OIL - Uncertainty About Future Oil Supply Makes It Important to Develop a Strategy for Addressing a Peak and Decline in Oil Production," outlines the threat to oil supply posed by global political instability and the lack of new oil field discovery. According to the report, "More than 60 percent of world oil reserves, on the basis of Oil and Gas Journal estimates, are in countries where relatively unstable political conditions could constrain oil exploration and production." These countries include Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Nigeria. Energy market analysts agree that the significant threat of instability in oil producing nations has inflated the price of oil. As the report demonstrates, it is quite unclear when peak oil production will occur: "The amount of oil remaining in the ground is highly uncertain, in part because the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) controls most of the estimated world oil reserves, but its estimates of reserves are not verified by independent auditors." Despite a lack of reliable information, the report states that "most studies estimate that oil production will peak sometime between now and 2040." Some analysts think world oil production has already peaked. Read The Full Story Commentary: Bush's Long History Of Skewing Justice 2007-03-30 21:21:03 Intellpuke: The following commentary is by Joseph D. Rich and appears in the Los Angeles Times edition for Thursday, March 29, 2007. Mr. Rich spent 35 years in the Justice Department, and was chief of the voting section of the Justice Department's civil rights division from 1999 to 2005. He now works for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Mr. Rich's commentary follows: The scandal unfolding around the firing of eight U.S. attorneys compels the conclusion that the Bush administration has rewarded loyalty over all else. A destructive pattern of partisan political actions at the Justice Department started long before this incident, however, as those of us who worked in its civil rights division can attest. I spent more than 35 years in the department enforcing federal civil rights laws - particularly voting rights. Before leaving in 2005, I worked for attorneys general with dramatically different political philosophies - from John Mitchell to Ed Meese to Janet Reno. Regardless of the administration, the political appointees had respect for the experience and judgment of longtime civil servants. Under the Bush administration, however, all that changed. Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections. Read The Full Story Farmers To Plant Largest Amount Of Corn Since 1944 2007-03-30 21:20:12 American farmers are planning to plant more corn this year than anytime since World War II, as farmers rush to cash in on high prices bolstered by the demand for ethanol. The United States Department of Agriculture released a report Friday on prospective plantings that estimated that American farmers would plant 90.5 million acres of corn in 2007, a 15 percent increase over last year and the most since 1944. Considered one of the most highly anticipated agriculture reports in years, if not decades, the prospective plantings report promises to have broad implications throughout the agriculture, food and energy sectors. Read The Full Story French Nun: John Paul II Cured My Parkinson's Disease 2007-03-30 17:52:51 Smiling broadly, the French nun whose claims could be accepted as the miracle that the Vatican needs to beatify Pope John Paul II said Friday that she was inexplicably and suddenly "cured" of Parkinson's disease - thanks to him. Sister Marie Simon-Pierre stopped short of declaring her recovery a miracle, saying that was for the church to decide. But she said her life "totally changed" after her symptoms vanished in one night of prayer and mystery in 2005. "For me, it is a bit like a second birth," the nun, whose identity was long kept secret, said at a news conference. After her sudden recovery, she said she told one of her fellow nuns, "'Look, my hand is no longer shaking. John Paul II has cured me." The 46-year-old, speaking in a clear, poised voice, said she was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2001. Her symptoms worsened with time: Driving became practically impossible, she had difficulty walking, and her left arm hung limply at her side. She also could no longer bear to see John Paul on television, because he, too, was stricken - more seriously - with the disease. Read The Full Story E.U. Adds Pressure On Iran To Release British Hostages 2007-03-30 17:52:24 The European Union Friday called for the unconditional and immediate release of the 15 British sailors by Iran as tensions escalated following the emergence of a third propaganda video from the detainees. Javier Solana, the E.U.'s foreign policy chief, warned Tehran of "appropriate measures" - seen as a threat of trade sanctions - if it did not release the marines and Royal Navy personnel. Solana said British citizens are the concern of the 27-nation bloc. The E.U. foreign ministers, meeting in Bremen, Germany, also called on Iran to "immediately inform" the British government about the whereabouts of the captives. Earlier Friday, Iranian TV screened footage of Royal Marine Nathan Thomas Summers apologizing for "trespassing" in Iranian waters. Read The Full Story FDA Identifies Chemical In Poisoned Pet Food 2007-03-30 13:55:58 The Food and Drug Administration has identified contaminated wheat gluten from China as the likely cause of poisoned pet food that has sickened a number of dogs and cats, and the agency is investigating to determine whether dry pet foods have been affected, officials said Friday. In a news conference, Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said FDA and independent laboratories have found a chemical called melamine in pet food samples, imported wheat gluten and urine and tissue from diseased pets. He said melamine is used in fertilizer in Asia and in plastic products but is not registered as a fertilizer in the United States. "Melamine is an ingredient that should not be in pet food at any level," said Sundlof. Nor does it have any approved use in food for humans. He said the FDA is not aware that any of the contaminated wheat gluten went into human food, but said he could not confirm this "with 100 percent certainty." Read The Full Story Justice Officials Testify On Firings 2007-03-30 13:55:09 Congress pursued more details from another senior Justice Department official Friday in the firing of federal prosecutors and inconsistencies in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' account of it as the White House predicted Gonzales will survive. ''I can tell you that the president has confidence in him,'' said Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino. President Bush ''believes the attorney general can overcome the challenges that are before him,'' she said. Perino said the White House is not interviewing prospective candidates to replace Gonzales and said Bush is satisfied with his and the department's efforts so far to be responsive to Congress. House and Senate investigators spent hours behind closed doors Friday interviewing Michael Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, about inconsistencies in Gonzales' account of his role in the firings of eight federal prosecutors. Read The Full Story Muqtada al-Sadr Blames U.S. For Iraq Woes 2007-03-30 13:54:14 The radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr issued a scathing attack on the United States on Friday, following one of the country's bloodiest days, blaming Washington for Iraq's troubles and calling for a mass demonstration April 9 - the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. As al-Sadr's remarks were read in a mosque, Shiites in Baghdad loaded wooden coffins into vans and shoveled broken glass and other debris into wheelbarrows in the aftermath of a double suicide bombing at a marketplace. At least 181 people were killed or found dead Thursday as Sunni insurgents apparently stepped up their campaign of bombings to derail the seven-week-old security sweep in Baghdad. Violence has increasingly erupted outside the capital in recent weeks, as insurgent fighters take their fight to regions where U.S. and Iraqi forces are thinly deployed. Read The Full Story Decline Of Big Sharks Lets Smaller Predators Decimate Shellfish 2007-03-30 13:53:40 A sharp decline in big sharks along the Eastern Seaboard has prompted a boom in other marine species that is devastating valuable commercial fisheries, researchers are reporting today in the journal Science. The study - by a team of Canadian and U.S. scientists - found that intense fishing for sharks in the northwest Atlantic over the past 35 years has produced a cascade of unexpected effects. With fewer large predators in the sea, the number of rays, skates and small shark species has exploded, and these species are decimating such shellfish populations as North Carolina bay scallops and the Chesapeake Bay's American oysters. As many as 73 million sharks are killed each year to supply fins for shark-fin soup, a Chinese delicacy. Read The Full Story Helicopter Downed In Worst Somali Fighting In Years 2007-03-30 13:51:27 Rebels shot down a helicopter gunship in Mogadishu on Friday in a second day of battles as Ethiopian and Somali troops sought to crush an insurgency by Islamists and clan militia. Aid workers said scores of people have died in the capital's worst fighting in years. Shells rained down and deafening tank fire shattered homes as hundreds of guerrillas replied with barrages of mortars, missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. Residents hid in their homes and reporters watched from rooftops as two Ethiopian helicopters fired on an insurgent stronghold before one of them was struck by a missile. "Smoke billowed from the cabin and it turned toward the ocean," one witness, Swiss journalist Eugen Sorg, told Reuters. "It crashed at the south end of the airport runway." Read The Full Story Saudis Publicly Get Tough With U.S. 2007-03-30 01:02:15 Of all the foreign leaders President Bush has dealt with over the past six years, few have been as direct or blunt in private as Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, according to U.S. officials. At one point in 2002, Abdullah showed Bush images of Palestinian children killed by Israeli troops and demanded to know whether he was committed to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now, that private toughness has become public, just as Saudi Arabia has begun to play an uncharacteristically assertive diplomatic role in the region in an effort to calm potential flashpoints in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. In a speech Wednesday before a summit of the Arab League, Abdullah decried what he called the "illegitimate foreign occupation" of Iraq and called for a lifting of the "unjust embargo imposed on the people of Palestine" that has been led by the Bush administration. U.S. officials said they were puzzled by Abdullah's description of the situation in Iraq and will demand an explanation. For months, U.S. officials have said that they were pleased by Saudi Arabia's willingness to shoulder a greater diplomatic burden, but Abdullah's remarks come after disquieting signs that Riyadh is distancing itself from the Bush administration. The king is reported to have canceled a state dinner that Bush had planned to hold in his honor next month - though officially the White House says no dinner was ever scheduled - and last month Abdullah brokered a unity accord among Palestinian factions, including the militant group Hamas, that upended Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's plans for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read The Full Story Arabs Call On Israel To Take Peace Offer 2007-03-30 01:01:40 Arab leaders on Thursday reiterated their offer to normalize ties with Israel and showed signs of flexibility in their terms for peace. At a news conference at the end of a summit where the Arab leaders' peace plan was the main issue on the agenda, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Arab countries would establish normal ties with Israel as soon as it had resolved its disputes with its immediate neighbors. "We cannot change the plan because it offers peace, and changing it would mean we're no longer offering peace," said Faisal, echoing Arab League chief Amr Moussa's insistence that there would be no changes in the plan ahead of negotiations. Faisal said: "Once Israel returns occupied land and comes to an agreement with the Palestinians, returns occupied land to Syria and comes to an agreement with them, and it resolves its land issues with Lebanon, Arab states will immediately establish relations." Read The Full Story	Ex-Partner Of Giuliani May Face Charges 2007-03-31 02:16:15 Federal prosecutors have told Bernard B. Kerik, whose nomination as homeland security secretary in 2004 ended in scandal, that he is likely to be charged with several felonies, including tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wiretapping. Kerik's indictment could set the stage for a courtroom battle that would draw attention to Kerik's extensive business and political dealings with former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who personally recommended him to President Bush for the Cabinet. Giuliani, the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination according to most polls, later called the recommendation a mistake. Kerik rose from being a warden and police detective to become Giuliani's campaign security adviser, corrections chief, police commissioner and eventual partner in Giuliani-Kerik, a security arm of Giuliani Partners, which Giuliani established after leaving office in 2001. Kerik resigned his positions in Giuliani's firm after he was nominated to the homeland security job. The former mayor is not in any legal jeopardy, according to legal sources directly familiar with the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is ongoing. He and his consulting firm have cooperated in the FBI's long-running investigation of Kerik. Read The Full Story Detainee Alleges Abuse In CIA Prison 2007-03-31 02:15:43 A high-level al-Qaeda suspect who was in CIA custody for more than four years has alleged that his American captors tortured him into making false confessions about terrorist attacks in the Middle East, according to newly released Pentagon transcripts of a March 14 military tribunal hearing here. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who U.S. officials believe was involved in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998 and who allegedly organized the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, told a panel of military officers that he was repeatedly tortured during his imprisonment and that he admitted taking part in numerous terrorism plots because of the mistreatment. "The detainee states that he was tortured into confession and once he made a confession his captors were happy and they stopped torturing him," Nashiri's representative read to the tribunal, according to the transcript. "Also, the detainee states that he made up stories during the torture in order to get it to stop." Read The Full Story Conflict-Of-Interest Inquiry at National Institute of Health May Be Reopened 2007-03-31 02:13:56 Federal investigators are reviewing the activities of 103 scientists who may have had improper links to pharmaceutical companies while they were employed at the National Institutes of Health, apparently resurrecting a conflict-of-interest inquiry that many in the agency thought was closed. In a letter sent to several members of Congress on March 23 and made public Friday, Daniel R. Levinson, inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, said his office is looking into the cases "to determine whether investigation is warranted." Levinson also wrote that his office is reviewing whether NIH is adequately monitoring potential conflicts of interest among its thousands of grant recipients - typically university researchers. Members of Congress and watchdog groups have long called for such a review, noting that conflict-of-interest policies at universities are generally more lenient than those at NIH. The concern, critics say, is that federal grant money not go to scientists who may be predisposed to get results that favor their drug company sponsors. Read The Full Story U.S. To Set Steep Duties On Goods From China 2007-03-30 21:21:26 The Bush administration, in a major escalation of trade pressure on China, said Friday that it would reverse more than 20 years of American policy and impose potentially steep tariffs on Chinese manufactured goods on the ground that China is illegally subsidizing some of its exports. The action, announced by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, signaled a tougher approach to China at a time when the administration’s campaign of quiet diplomacy by Treasury Secretary Harry M. Paulson, Jr., has produced few results. The step also reflected the shift in trade politics since Democrats took control of Congress. The widening American trade deficit with China, which reached a record $232.5 billion last year, or about a third of the entire trade gap, has been seized upon by Democrats as a symbol of past policy failures that have led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Gutierrez’s announcement has the immediate effect of slapping duties on two Chinese makers of high-gloss paper, one at 10.9 percent and the other 20.4 percent, calculated by adding up the supposedly illegal subsidies. The duties are effective immediately. Read The Full Story Commentary: The Rise Of A Very 'Loyal Bushie' 2007-03-30 21:20:43 Intellpuke: The following commentary is by Richard L. Fricker and appears on the Consortium News' website for Wednesday, March 28, 2007. Mr. Fricker's commentary follows: If you want to know what the career path of a "loyal Bushie" looks like, let me introduce you to J. Timothy Griffin, a Karl Rove protege who was slipped into the post of U.S. Attorney in Little Rock, Arkansas, and now is at the center of the controversy over whether the Bush administration has sought to politicize federal prosecutions. Since college, the 38-year-old Griffin has been following the stations of the cross for a Republican legal/political operative with ambitions to rise to a position of power and influence in a government like the one headed by George W. Bush. Griffin has pretty much touched them all - the Federalist Society, work for a Clinton-era special prosecutor, the Florida recount battle in 2000, opposition research and voter security duties for the Republican National Committee in Campaign 2004, a brief tour as a military lawyer in Iraq, a deputy in Karl Rove's political shop at the White House. But now this carefully groomed Republican operative stands out as Exhibit A for Democrats as they contend that the Bush administration imposed political litmus tests on federal prosecutors who wield enormous power over the lives of those they investigate. A U.S. Attorney not only has wide discretion over normal prosecutions but can tip a political race by either shutting down or starting up a criminal probe. Beyond being the personification of proof that Bush put political loyalty over legal competence, Griffin has become the test case for the use of new emergency powers in the Patriot Act to circumvent Senate confirmation for U.S. Attorneys. Read The Full Story Obama: Bush Not Respecting Constitution 2007-03-30 17:53:01 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday accused President Bush of failing to respect the Constitution amid the uproar over the firing of eight federal prosecutors. The Illinois senator also took a swipe at embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Obama has joined several other Democrats in calling for Gonzales to resign. "I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution,"  Obama told an audience at a campaign fundraiser. "I believe in an attorney general who is actually the people's lawyer, not the president's lawyer." Obama's remarks drew one of the most enthusiastic responses in a speech often interrupted by applause. Read The Full Story Iran Crisis Bumps Up Crude Prices 2007-03-30 17:52:36 Oil prices shot up to their highest in over six months Friday on continued tension between Britain and Iran over British naval staff held by Tehran. London Brent crude futures jumped over $1 a barrel, pushing through $69 for the first time since early last September during hectic trading. It later retreated towards $68 but dealers said any further escalation in the spat between the two countries would be immediately reflected in the oil price. U.S. light crude futures pushed through $66 a barrel, up more than 50 cents a barrel. Read The Full Story General Tried To Warn Bush On Tillman Death 2007-03-30 17:52:04 Just seven days after Pat Tillman's death, a top general warned there were strong indications that it was friendly fire and President Bush might embarrass himself if he said the NFL star-turned-soldier died in an ambush, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press. It was not until a month afterward that the Pentagon told the public and grieving family members the truth - that Tillman was mistakenly killed in Afghanistan by his comrades. The memo reinforces suspicions that the Pentagon was more concerned with sparing officials from embarrassment than with leveling with Tillman's family. In a memo sent to a four-star general a week after Tillman's April 22, 2004, death, then-Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that it was "highly possible" the Army Ranger was killed by friendly fire. McChrystal made it clear his warning should be conveyed to the president. Read The Full Story Testimony By Giuliani Indicates He Was Briefed On Kerik In 2000 2007-03-30 13:55:32 Rudolph W. Giuliani told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik's relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Kerik’s appointment as New York City police commissioner, according to court records. Giuliani, testifying last year under oath before a Bronx grand jury investigating Kerik, said he had no memory of the briefing, but he did not dispute that it had taken place, according to a transcript of his testimony. Giuliani’s testimony amounts to a significantly new version of what information was probably before him in the summer of 2000 as he was debating Kerik’s appointment as New York City’s top law enforcement officer. Giuliani had previously said that he had never been told of Kerik’s entanglement with the company before promoting him to the police job or later supporting his failed bid to be the nation’s homeland security secretary. Read The Full Story Muqtada al-Sadr Blames U.S. For Iraq Woes 2007-03-30 13:54:42 The radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr issued a scathing attack on the United States on Friday, following one of the country's bloodiest days, blaming Washington for Iraq's troubles and calling for a mass demonstration April 9 - the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. As al-Sadr's remarks were read in a mosque, Shiites in Baghdad loaded wooden coffins into vans and shoveled broken glass and other debris into wheelbarrows in the aftermath of a double suicide bombing at a marketplace. At least 181 people were killed or found dead Thursday as Sunni insurgents apparently stepped up their campaign of bombings to derail the seven-week-old security sweep in Baghdad. Violence has increasingly erupted outside the capital in recent weeks, as insurgent fighters take their fight to regions where U.S. and Iraqi forces are thinly deployed. Read The Full Story Amid Scrutiny, Dell Reports It Has Found 'Misconduct' 2007-03-30 13:53:58 With its accounting under scrutiny by federal regulators and prosecutors, Dell said Thursday that “evidence of misconduct” had been uncovered in an internal investigation of its financial practices over several years. Dell said its board’s audit committee had “identified a number of accounting errors, evidence of misconduct, and deficiencies in the financial control environment.” The committee has been examining accounting and financial problems that the company previously said involved accruals, reserves and other balance-sheet items. In a statement issued after the close of regular trading, Dell also said it was working with its independent auditors to determine whether it would have to revise financial statements. A spokesman for the company, based in Round Rock, Texas, declined to comment further. Dell shares, which closed at $23.39 in regular trading, up 4 cents, fell by as much as 8 percent immediately after the announcement. They recovered somewhat, but were still off by more than 2 percent. Read The Full Story Guantanamo Tribunal Sentences Australian Hicks To 7 Years In Jail 2007-03-30 13:51:51 A U.S. military tribunal at Guantanamo convicted Australian al-Qaeda trainee David Hicks on Friday of providing material support for terrorism, the first conviction of one of the hundreds of suspects held for years at the controversial detention center. The tribunal judge accepted Hicks' guilty plea as part of an agreement that limits his sentence to seven years in prison, in addition to the five years he has been held at Guantanamo in Cuba, but the deal allows for at least part of that sentence to be suspended. The 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner from Adelaide is the first person to be convicted in revised military tribunals created by the U.S. Congress after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier version that President George W. Bush authorized to try foreign captives on terrorism charges. Hicks acknowledged that he trained with al-Qaeda, fought with its forces against U.S. allies in Afghanistan in late 2001 for two hours, and then sold his gun to raise cab fare and tried to flee to Pakistan. Read The Full Story Inspector General Faults Interior Appointee On Imperiled Species 2007-03-30 01:02:31 A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has repeatedly altered scientific field reports to minimize protections for imperiled species and disclosed confidential information to private groups seeking to affect policy decisions, the department's inspector general concluded. The investigator's report on Julie A. MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks - which was triggered by an anonymous complaint from a Fish and Wildlife Service employee and expanded in October after a Washington Post article about MacDonald - said she frequently sought to reshape the agency's scientific reports in an effort to ease the impact of agency decisions on private landowners. Inspector General Earl E. Devaney referred the case to Interior's top officials for "potential administrative action," according to the document, which was reported Thursday in the New York Times. The I.G. noted that MacDonald "admitted that her degree is in civil engineering and that she has no formal educational background in natural sciences" but repeatedly instructed Fish and Wildlife scientists to change their recommendations on identifying "critical habitats," despite her lack of expertise. Read The Full Story Bombs Kill More Than 100 In Baghdad, Khalis 2007-03-30 01:02:01 Bombs tore through crowds of after-work shoppers in Baghdad and a town north of the capital on Thursday in an onslaught of violence that killed more than 100 people, according to Iraqi government and hospital officials. Both areas - a bazaar in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Shaab and the farming town of Khalis in Diyala province - are populated predominantly by Shiites, and Iraqi government officials quickly blamed the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.The attacks followed two violent days of bombings and reprisal killings in the northern city of Tall Afar and threatened to increase the likelihood of a resurgence of open sectarian warfare despite the heightened U.S. military presence in Iraq. The bombing in Shaab, which police said killed at least 60 people, took aim at the six-week-old Baghdad security plan, under which U.S. and Iraqi officials have sought to protect public marketplaces from such catastrophic attacks. Read The Full Story Japan Sets Up Missile Defense Shield Near Tokyo 2007-03-30 01:01:22 Japan trucked its first ballistic missile interceptors to an air force base north of Tokyo on Friday in an effort to beef up its defenses against its unpredictable neighbor North Korea. The deployment of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) launchers, capable of shooting down incoming missiles in the final stage of flight as they near their target, was sparked by Pyongyang's firing of a ballistic missile in 1998 that flew over Japan. Tokyo rushed the equipment into service a year ahead of schedule after North Korea unnerved the region last year by firing more missiles and testing a nuclear device. "We consider it very meaningful to deploy the air defense missiles close to metropolitan Tokyo, which is the center of business and political activities," Kazumasa Echizen, the Iruma air base public information chief, said in a statement. "We will continue our efforts to be ready for any possible emergencies." Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday March 30 2007 - (813)

Friday March 30 2007 edition
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Inspector General Faults Interior Appointee On Imperiled Species 2007-03-30 01:02:31 A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has repeatedly altered scientific field reports to minimize protections for imperiled species and disclosed confidential information to private groups seeking to affect policy decisions, the department's inspector general concluded. The investigator's report on Julie A. MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks - which was triggered by an anonymous complaint from a Fish and Wildlife Service employee and expanded in October after a Washington Post article about MacDonald - said she frequently sought to reshape the agency's scientific reports in an effort to ease the impact of agency decisions on private landowners. Inspector General Earl E. Devaney referred the case to Interior's top officials for "potential administrative action," according to the document, which was reported Thursday in the New York Times. The I.G. noted that MacDonald "admitted that her degree is in civil engineering and that she has no formal educational background in natural sciences" but repeatedly instructed Fish and Wildlife scientists to change their recommendations on identifying "critical habitats," despite her lack of expertise. Read The Full Story Bombs Kill More Than 100 In Baghdad, Khalis 2007-03-30 01:02:01 Bombs tore through crowds of after-work shoppers in Baghdad and a town north of the capital on Thursday in an onslaught of violence that killed more than 100 people, according to Iraqi government and hospital officials. Both areas - a bazaar in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Shaab and the farming town of Khalis in Diyala province - are populated predominantly by Shiites, and Iraqi government officials quickly blamed the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.The attacks followed two violent days of bombings and reprisal killings in the northern city of Tall Afar and threatened to increase the likelihood of a resurgence of open sectarian warfare despite the heightened U.S. military presence in Iraq. The bombing in Shaab, which police said killed at least 60 people, took aim at the six-week-old Baghdad security plan, under which U.S. and Iraqi officials have sought to protect public marketplaces from such catastrophic attacks. Read The Full Story Japan Sets Up Missile Defense Shield Near Tokyo 2007-03-30 01:01:22 Japan trucked its first ballistic missile interceptors to an air force base north of Tokyo on Friday in an effort to beef up its defenses against its unpredictable neighbor North Korea. The deployment of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) launchers, capable of shooting down incoming missiles in the final stage of flight as they near their target, was sparked by Pyongyang's firing of a ballistic missile in 1998 that flew over Japan. Tokyo rushed the equipment into service a year ahead of schedule after North Korea unnerved the region last year by firing more missiles and testing a nuclear device. "We consider it very meaningful to deploy the air defense missiles close to metropolitan Tokyo, which is the center of business and political activities," Kazumasa Echizen, the Iruma air base public information chief, said in a statement. "We will continue our efforts to be ready for any possible emergencies." Read The Full Story Data On 45.7 Million Credit, Debit Cards Stolen From T.J. Maxx 2007-03-29 12:34:16 More than two months after first disclosing that hackers accessed customers' financial data from its computers, discount retailer TJX Cos. has revealed that information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen over an 18-month period. In a regulatory filing that gives the first detailed account of the breach initially disclosed in January, the owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshall's and other stores in North America and the United Kingdom also said another 455,000 customers who returned merchandise without receipts had their personal data stolen, including driver's license numbers. The data that was stolen covers transactions dating as far back as December 2002, TJX said in the filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Read The Full Story Texas-Sized Piece Of Antarctica Is Melting 2007-03-29 12:33:48 A Texas-sized area of Antarctica is thinning and could cause the world's oceans to rise significantly in the long-term, polar ice experts said in wrapping up a three-day conference. "Surprisingly rapid changes" are occurring in Antarctica's Amundsen Sea Embayment, an ice drainage system that faces the southern Pacific Ocean, the experts said in a statement, adding that more study was needed to determine how fast it was melting and how much it could cause sea levels to rise. The warning came Wednesday at the end of a conference of U.S. and European polar ice experts at the University of Texas in Austin. Read The Full Story Circuit City Cuts 3,400 'Overpaid' Workers 2007-03-29 12:31:32 Circuit City fired 3,400 employees in stores across the country Wednesday, saying they were making too much money and would be replaced by new hires willing to work for less. The company said the dismissals had nothing to do with performance but were part of a larger effort to improve the bottom line. The firings represent about 9 percent of the company's in-store workforce of 40,000. "Retail is very competitive and store operations just have to contain their costs," said Jim Babb, a Circuit City spokesman. "We deeply regret the negative impact that was had on these folks. It was no fault of theirs." The company gave the dismissed workers severance pay and told them that after 10 weeks they were free to apply for any openings. Employees reached by a reporter said they were notified Thursday morning and told to leave immediately. Read The Full Story Senate OKs War Bill With Iraq Timeline 2007-03-29 12:30:43 Senate Democrats ignored a veto threat and pushed through a bill Thursday requiring President Bush to start withdrawing troops from "the civil war in Iraq," dealing a rare, sharp rebuke to a wartime commander in chief. In a mostly party line 51-47 vote, the Senate signed off on a bill providing $122 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also orders Bush to begin withdrawing troops within 120 days of passage while setting a nonbinding goal of ending combat operations by March 31, 2008. The vote came shortly after Bush invited all House Republicans to the White House to appear with him in a sort of pep rally to bolster his position in the continuing war policy fight. Read The Full Story Troop Surge May Mean Longer Army Tours In Iraq, Afghanistan 2007-03-29 02:05:11 Sustaining the U.S. troop increase in Iraq beyond this summer will not be possible without keeping some Army combat brigades in the war zone for up to 16 months - much longer than the standard year-long tour, a top U.S. general in charge of the military's rotation plans said Wednesday. Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, head of U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia, also said that if the increase of more than 28,000 combat and support troops continues until February, there is a "high probability" that some Army units would have less than a year at home between combat rotations, further compressing the limited time to train and reconnect with families. "It will be very difficult" to sustain the increase past the summer, Smith told defense reporters. "The challenges are really in trying to allow a unit to have enough time at home to train, reset and reinvigorate themselves, and to not have to extend them too long in Iraq beyond the one year boots on the ground." Read The Full Story Attacks On Baghdad's Green Zone Are Increasing 2007-03-29 02:03:59 Iraqi insurgents are increasingly hitting Baghdad's fortresslike Green Zone with rockets and mortar shells, officials said Wednesday. Insurgents have struck inside the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy, on six of the past seven days, once with deadly consequences. A U.S. soldier and a U.S. government contractor were killed Tuesday night by a rocket attack that also seriously wounded a civilian, said military and embassy officials. One soldier and at least three other civilians received minor injuries, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor. The attack stunned a workforce normally blase about Baghdad's habitual wartime booms and blasts. A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said, "There are increasing attacks on the embassy." Read The Full Story Ousted Pakistan Chief Justice Speaks Out 2007-03-29 02:02:48 Pakistan's suspended chief justice received a hero's welcome from some 2,000 lawyers Wednesday as he gave his first address since President Pervez Musharraf removed him from the bench nearly three weeks ago. The Supreme Court judge, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, was showered with rose petals and greeted with boisterous chants of "Go, Musharraf, go!" by supporters who have rallied to Chaudhry's side and want Pakistan's president to resign. The clash between Musharraf and Chaudhry has riveted the nation since the judge was suspended on March 9, and many feel it represents the most serious domestic challenge to Musharraf since he came to power in a military coup eight years ago. Critics say the decision to suspend Chaudhry was an attempt by Musharraf to crush the judiciary ahead of elections planned for later this year. The government has said Chaudhry misused his office, and Musharraf has accused opponents of exploiting the controversy for political gain. Read The Full Story	Saudis Publicly Get Tough With U.S. 2007-03-30 01:02:15 Of all the foreign leaders President Bush has dealt with over the past six years, few have been as direct or blunt in private as Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, according to U.S. officials. At one point in 2002, Abdullah showed Bush images of Palestinian children killed by Israeli troops and demanded to know whether he was committed to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now, that private toughness has become public, just as Saudi Arabia has begun to play an uncharacteristically assertive diplomatic role in the region in an effort to calm potential flashpoints in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. In a speech Wednesday before a summit of the Arab League, Abdullah decried what he called the "illegitimate foreign occupation" of Iraq and called for a lifting of the "unjust embargo imposed on the people of Palestine" that has been led by the Bush administration. U.S. officials said they were puzzled by Abdullah's description of the situation in Iraq and will demand an explanation. For months, U.S. officials have said that they were pleased by Saudi Arabia's willingness to shoulder a greater diplomatic burden, but Abdullah's remarks come after disquieting signs that Riyadh is distancing itself from the Bush administration. The king is reported to have canceled a state dinner that Bush had planned to hold in his honor next month - though officially the White House says no dinner was ever scheduled - and last month Abdullah brokered a unity accord among Palestinian factions, including the militant group Hamas, that upended Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's plans for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read The Full Story Arabs Call On Israel To Take Peace Offer 2007-03-30 01:01:40 Arab leaders on Thursday reiterated their offer to normalize ties with Israel and showed signs of flexibility in their terms for peace. At a news conference at the end of a summit where the Arab leaders' peace plan was the main issue on the agenda, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Arab countries would establish normal ties with Israel as soon as it had resolved its disputes with its immediate neighbors. "We cannot change the plan because it offers peace, and changing it would mean we're no longer offering peace," said Faisal, echoing Arab League chief Amr Moussa's insistence that there would be no changes in the plan ahead of negotiations. Faisal said: "Once Israel returns occupied land and comes to an agreement with the Palestinians, returns occupied land to Syria and comes to an agreement with them, and it resolves its land issues with Lebanon, Arab states will immediately establish relations." Read The Full Story Ex-Aide: Gonzales Played Role In Firings 2007-03-29 12:34:33 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wrongly stated he was not involved in discussions about the firings of federal prosecutors, his former chief of staff told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. "I don't think the attorney general's statement that he was not involved in any discussions of U.S. attorney removals was accurate," testified Kyle Sampson, who quit this month as Gonzales' top aide. "I remember discussing with him this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign." Sampson said Gonzales attended a crucial meeting on the firings Nov. 27, 10 days before they were carried out. Read The Full Story 3 Dead As Major Storms Sweep U.S. Plains States 2007-03-29 12:34:02 An early spring storm swept across the Plains early Thursday, spinning off tornadoes that killed an Oklahoma couple in a home that was blown to pieces and a Colorado woman whose small town was nearly destroyed. A tornado as wide as two football fields carved a destructive path through Holly, Colorado, late Wednesday, destroying five homes, damaging dozens more and littering the streets with broken power lines, tree limbs and debris. “Homes were there and now they’re gone,” county administrator Linda Fairbairn said. “Many, if not all, the structures in town suffered some degree of damage.” A 28-year-old woman who suffered massive injuries during the twister died after she was airlifted to a hospital in Colorado Springs, Prowers County Coroner Joe Giadone said Thursday. Read The Full Story GSA Chief Grilled By House On GOP Political Presentation 2007-03-29 12:33:22 The chief of the General Services Administration testified on Capitol Hill Thursday that she could not recall details of a Jan. 26 videoconference in which a White House official briefed top political appointees at the agency about targeting 20 congressional Democrats in 2008. Lurita Alexis Doan, the GSA's administrator, appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to answer questions about her 10-month tenure at the government's premier contracting agency, including her attempt to award a no-bid job to a business associate and her alleged intervention in a contract dispute with a technology company. Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-California) said the committee was focusing on the videoconference at GSA facilities because it might have violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that restricts government agencies and employees from engaging in political activity on the job. Read The Full Story 15 Million Gallons Of Sewage Disappears? 2007-03-29 12:31:02 About 15 million gallons of partially treated sewage water disappeared from a 250,000-square-foot storage lagoon into a sinkhole, but officials don't know where it went after that. Kent County utility operator Nathan Danenberg, who runs the sewage treatment system for Sand Lake, discovered the leak in the 8-foot-deep lagoon on Friday while taking samples. It wasn't clear when or why the leak occurred. "I don't know if maybe there are old mines in the area," Danenberg told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Tuesday. "It's an odd case. A sinkhole gobbled up all the water, and we don't know where it went.... It seems to have just gone down into the earth. Read The Full Story Prosecutors Assail Gonzales During Meeting 2007-03-29 02:05:24 Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales endured blunt criticism Tuesday from federal prosecutors who questioned the firings of eight United States attorneys,complained that the dismissals had undermined morale and expressed broader grievances about his leadership, according to people briefed on the discussion. About a half-dozen United States attorneys voiced their concerns at a private meeting with Gonzales in Chicago, Illinois. Several of the prosecutors said the dismissals caused them to wonder about their own standing and distracted their employees, according to one person familiar with the discussions. Others asked Gonzales about the removal of Daniel C. Bogden, the former United States attorney in Nevada, a respected career prosecutor whose ouster has never been fully explained by the Justice Department. Read The Full Story Ex-Gonzales Aide To Say Others Knew Of Firings 2007-03-29 02:04:46 The attorney general's former chief of staff plans to testify Thursday that other Justice Department officials knew about the "origins and timing" of the effort to fire eight U.S. attorneys, which began two years earlier in the White House, according to prepared testimony for a Congressional hearing. But D. Kyle Sampson - who resigned earlier this month ahead of revelations that White House political officials helped direct the dismissals - also will tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that he "never sought to conceal or withhold material fact about this matter" while helping prepare witnesses for Congress. Lawmakers are seeking to determine whether top Justice Department officials misled them while testifying on the matter in recent months. "Others in the department knew what I knew about the origins and timing of this enterprise," reads Sampson's statement, obtained Wednesday. "None of us spoke up on those subjects ... not because there was some effort to hide this history, but because the focus of our preparation sessions was on other subjects." Read The Full Story Ex-Senator Fred Thompson May Run For President In 2008 2007-03-29 02:03:14 "Law & Order" star and former U.S. senator Fred Dalton Thompson is considering a bid for the White House that would test whether Hollywood can once again launch a Republican to the world's premier political stage. His interest, confirmed in a brief interview this week, is generating buzz in Washington. He was third among Republican-leaning voters in a recent Gallup-USA Today survey, behind Sen. John McCain (Arizona) and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. The onetime senator from Tennessee is known to many Americans for playing New York District Attorney Arthur Branch on "Law & Order" and an admiral in the film "The Hunt for Red October." But his real-life record as a no-nonsense lawmaker who also served as the minority counsel to the Senate Watergate committee is appealing to party activists dissatisfied with the current crop of Republican hopefuls. Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday March 29 2007 - (813)

Thursday March 29 2007 edition
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Prosecutors Assail Gonzales During Meeting 2007-03-29 02:05:24 Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales endured blunt criticism Tuesday from federal prosecutors who questioned the firings of eight United States attorneys,complained that the dismissals had undermined morale and expressed broader grievances about his leadership, according to people briefed on the discussion. About a half-dozen United States attorneys voiced their concerns at a private meeting with Gonzales in Chicago, Illinois. Several of the prosecutors said the dismissals caused them to wonder about their own standing and distracted their employees, according to one person familiar with the discussions. Others asked Gonzales about the removal of Daniel C. Bogden, the former United States attorney in Nevada, a respected career prosecutor whose ouster has never been fully explained by the Justice Department. Read The Full Story Ex-Gonzales Aide To Say Others Knew Of Firings 2007-03-29 02:04:46 The attorney general's former chief of staff plans to testify Thursday that other Justice Department officials knew about the "origins and timing" of the effort to fire eight U.S. attorneys, which began two years earlier in the White House, according to prepared testimony for a Congressional hearing. But D. Kyle Sampson - who resigned earlier this month ahead of revelations that White House political officials helped direct the dismissals - also will tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that he "never sought to conceal or withhold material fact about this matter" while helping prepare witnesses for Congress. Lawmakers are seeking to determine whether top Justice Department officials misled them while testifying on the matter in recent months. "Others in the department knew what I knew about the origins and timing of this enterprise," reads Sampson's statement, obtained Wednesday. "None of us spoke up on those subjects ... not because there was some effort to hide this history, but because the focus of our preparation sessions was on other subjects." Read The Full Story Ex-Senator Fred Thompson May Run For President In 2008 2007-03-29 02:03:14 "Law & Order" star and former U.S. senator Fred Dalton Thompson is considering a bid for the White House that would test whether Hollywood can once again launch a Republican to the world's premier political stage. His interest, confirmed in a brief interview this week, is generating buzz in Washington. He was third among Republican-leaning voters in a recent Gallup-USA Today survey, behind Sen. John McCain (Arizona) and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. The onetime senator from Tennessee is known to many Americans for playing New York District Attorney Arthur Branch on "Law & Order" and an admiral in the film "The Hunt for Red October." But his real-life record as a no-nonsense lawmaker who also served as the minority counsel to the Senate Watergate committee is appealing to party activists dissatisfied with the current crop of Republican hopefuls. Read The Full Story Captured Britons Shown On Iranian T.V., Female Captive May Be Released 2007-03-28 18:08:52 Iranian television tonight broadcast footage of the 15 British sailors and marines seized while on patrol off Iraqi shores last week. The film included an interview with Faye Turney, the only woman among the group, who apologized for "trespassing" into Iranian waters. Dressed in a headscarf and smoking a cigarette, Ms. Turney said she had been well treated by "friendly and hospitable" people. "My name is leading seaman Faye Turney. I come from England. I have served in Foxtrot 99. I've been in the navy for nine years," she said in the broadcast on al-Alam, an Arabic-language, Iranian state-run television station carried across the Middle East by satellite. Read The Full Story Abramoff Emails Raise New Questions In Attorney Firings 2007-03-28 18:08:23 A Congressional probe into the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys last year has raised new questions about the role that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff played in the 2003 demotion of Frederick Black, the former U.S. attorney in Guam. At issue is whether a report compiled by the Department of Justice's inspector general took into account the fact that White House officials had been using email accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee before concluding that Black was not demoted for political reasons. Black had served as interim U.S. attorney in Guam for twelve years and was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush before being abruptly replaced in May 2003. His dismissal stirred controversy at the time because Black was a political enemy of Abramoff, who had been retained as a lobbyist by numerous individuals that were being investigated by Black for public corruption. Read The Full Story 15 U.S. And Iraqi Troops Injured As 2 Chlorine Attacks Repulsed In Falluja 2007-03-28 18:07:21 Iraqi security forces shot two suicide truck bombers carrying highly toxic chorine before they could reach a government complex in Fallujah on Wednesday, but the explosives detonated, wounding 15 U.S. and Iraqi forces, said the American military. The chlorine gas attack was the eighth since Jan. 28, when a suicide bomber driving a dump truck filled with explosives and a chlorine tank struck a quick-reaction force and Iraqi police in Ramadi, killing 16 people. The attack on the government compound began with mortar fire, the military said. Iraqi police fired on the first suicide bomber, and Iraq soldiers shot at the second. Both trucks exploded before they could get inside the compound that houses the mayor's office, U.S. military offices, the city jail and police station. Read The Full Story U.S. Association Of Holocaust Survivors Urges Germany To Open Nazi Archive Soon 2007-03-28 18:06:26 A Jewish leader who survived the Holocaust as a boy by hiding in basements and attics urged countries on Wednesday to speed the opening of millions of files on Nazi concentration camps and their victims. Leo Rechter, president of the U.S.-based National Association of Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors, told Congress that Nazi war records stored in Bad Arolsen, Germany, should be opened urgently for a dying generation of survivors. "Of all the public archives in the world, what possible justification can there be to prevent us from learning the truth about what happened to our families during the Holocaust?" he asked, according to testimony prepared for delivery to the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Europe subcommittee. Rechter, an Austrian Jew whose family fled to Belgium and survived the Nazi occupation after his father was deported and murdered in Auschwitz, spoke at a hearing aimed at stepping up pressure on an 11-nation body that oversees the secret Nazi archive. Wednesday's hearing follows the approval by a House panel Tuesday of a resolution urging the countries to speed up ratification of plans to open the archive to researchers. Read The Full Story Flaming Objects Miss Jetliner In New Zealand Air Space 2007-03-28 18:05:20 Pilots of a Chilean commercial jetliner spotted flaming objects falling past their plane as it headed for a landing in New Zealand, airline officials said Wednesday. U.S. experts suggested the objects were likely meteors burning up in the earth's atmosphere and questioned Australian media reports they were probably pieces of a falling Russian spacecraft. LAN Chile airline said in a brief statement that the pilot, who was not identified, "made visual contact with incandescent fragments" several miles away on Monday. The Airbus 340 had just entered New Zealand airspace when the space debris was spotted. The airline said it reported the incident to authorities in Chile and New Zealand. Read The Full Story Oil Prices Jump Near $65 A Barrel On Iraq/British Tensions 2007-03-28 13:11:52 Oil climbed near to $65 a barrel on Wednesday, after a $5 spike to six month highs overnight on a rumor, quickly dismissed by the United States, that a U.S. naval vessel had clashed with Iran. Britain denied another market rumor that it had sent troops to release 15 British military personnel being held in Iran. "Although it didn't happen this time, people think it could happen," said Christopher Bellew of oil brokers Bache Financial. Oil's surge to $68.09, its highest since September 6, highlighted anxiety over supplies from the Gulf and in particular Iran, the world's fourth-biggest exporter, which is at odds with the United Nations over its nuclear program. Read The Full Story McCaffrey Paints Gloomy Picture Of Iraq 2007-03-28 12:54:58 An influential retired Army general released a dire assessment of the situation in Iraq, based on a recent round of meetings there with Gen. David H. Petraeus and 16 other senior U.S. commanders. "The population is in despair," retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey wrote in an eight-page document compiled in his capacity as a professor at West Point. "Life in many of the urban areas is now desperate." McCaffrey is widely respected in the military, having fought in the Vietnam War, commanded a division in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and later served as the commander for U.S. military operations in Central America and South America. After retiring, he became President Bill Clinton's director of drug policy. McCaffrey, who has met twice with President Bush to discuss the war, most recently in December, was scheduled to brief White House officials on his conclusions late Tuesday. Read The Full Story Children Held Hostage On Bus In Manila Are Freed 2007-03-28 12:54:30 The owner of a daycare center gave himself up after taking a busload of his students hostage in Manila Wednesday. He had driven them to Manila City Hall, where he railed against corruption in Philippine politics through a loudspeaker and criticized the government for failing to provide education for the poor. Police said Armando Ducat, Jr., and at least two other men were armed with hand grenades and other weapons when they took over the bus with 32 children and two teachers who were on their way to a field trip. Later, after nearly 10 hours since the stand-off began, the hostage-takers released the schoolchildren and the teachers unharmed. One by one, the children - some of them holding up toys that Ducat had given to them earlier in the day - stepped out of the tourist bus. Read The Full Story Saudi King Condemns U.S. Occupation Of Iraq 2007-03-28 12:53:35 Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah told a summit of Arab leaders that Sunni-Shi'ite violence in Iraq threatened the stability of the oil-producing Gulf region and he called for an end to the international blockade on the Palestinian people. "In beloved Iraq, blood flows between brothers in the shadow of illegitimate foreign occupation and hateful sectarianism, threatening a civil war," he added. But his focus was on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which Sunni Arab leaders see as a major cause of violent radicalism in their own countries and threat to regional stability. In his speech to Arab monarchs and presidents at a two-day meeting in his capital, the king called on Arabs to overcome their disputes and unify to face dangers threatening them in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. Read The Full Story 70 Killed, 20 Injured In Gasoline Truck Fire In Nigeria 2007-03-28 12:52:34 A fire ignited as people were scavenging spilled fuel from an overturned tanker truck in northern Nigeria, killing 70 and wounding 20, an official said Wednesday. The truck was carrying about 8,700 gallons of fuel when it overturned on a curve in the road late Monday in northern Kaduna state, said Saad Yahaya, a police spokesman for the region. The driver told passers-by not to collect fuel gushing from the disabled vehicle, but they ignored him, said Yahaya. It wasn't known what caused the fuel to ignite, he said. Read The Full Story 32 Children Taken Hostage In Philippines 2007-03-28 01:50:15 A day-care center owner hijacked a busload of his students and teachers and drove them to Manila's city hall Wednesday to demand better housing and education for the children. Jun Ducat and at least one other hostage-taker scribbled in large letters on a sheet of paper, taped to the bus' windshield, that they were holding 32 children and two teachers and were armed with two grenades, an assault rifle and a pistol, said officer Mark Andal. One child with a fever was released after four hours, and then was driven away in an ambulance. They said they were demanding improved housing and education for 145 children in a day-care center in Manila's poor Tondo district where the incident, televised live around the world, appeared to have begun. The driver was released soon afterward. Read The Full Story	Troop Surge May Mean Longer Army Tours In Iraq, Afghanistan 2007-03-29 02:05:11 Sustaining the U.S. troop increase in Iraq beyond this summer will not be possible without keeping some Army combat brigades in the war zone for up to 16 months - much longer than the standard year-long tour, a top U.S. general in charge of the military's rotation plans said Wednesday. Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, head of U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia, also said that if the increase of more than 28,000 combat and support troops continues until February, there is a "high probability" that some Army units would have less than a year at home between combat rotations, further compressing the limited time to train and reconnect with families. "It will be very difficult" to sustain the increase past the summer, Smith told defense reporters. "The challenges are really in trying to allow a unit to have enough time at home to train, reset and reinvigorate themselves, and to not have to extend them too long in Iraq beyond the one year boots on the ground." Read The Full Story Attacks On Baghdad's Green Zone Are Increasing 2007-03-29 02:03:59 Iraqi insurgents are increasingly hitting Baghdad's fortresslike Green Zone with rockets and mortar shells, officials said Wednesday. Insurgents have struck inside the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy, on six of the past seven days, once with deadly consequences. A U.S. soldier and a U.S. government contractor were killed Tuesday night by a rocket attack that also seriously wounded a civilian, said military and embassy officials. One soldier and at least three other civilians received minor injuries, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor. The attack stunned a workforce normally blase about Baghdad's habitual wartime booms and blasts. A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said, "There are increasing attacks on the embassy." Read The Full Story Ousted Pakistan Chief Justice Speaks Out 2007-03-29 02:02:48 Pakistan's suspended chief justice received a hero's welcome from some 2,000 lawyers Wednesday as he gave his first address since President Pervez Musharraf removed him from the bench nearly three weeks ago. The Supreme Court judge, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, was showered with rose petals and greeted with boisterous chants of "Go, Musharraf, go!" by supporters who have rallied to Chaudhry's side and want Pakistan's president to resign. The clash between Musharraf and Chaudhry has riveted the nation since the judge was suspended on March 9, and many feel it represents the most serious domestic challenge to Musharraf since he came to power in a military coup eight years ago. Critics say the decision to suspend Chaudhry was an attempt by Musharraf to crush the judiciary ahead of elections planned for later this year. The government has said Chaudhry misused his office, and Musharraf has accused opponents of exploiting the controversy for political gain. Read The Full Story FBI Agent Told To Keep Quiet Over U.S. Attorney Firings 2007-03-28 18:08:39 An FBI agent was warned to keep quiet about the dismissal of a U.S. attorney after he told a newspaper her firing would hurt the agency's ongoing investigations and speculated politics was involved, a U.S. Senate panel heard on Tuesday. FBI Director Robert Mueller defended the handling of the incident, saying: "I do not believe it's appropriate for our special agents in charge to comment to the media on personnel decisions that are made by the Department of Justice." "I profoundly disagree," replied Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, who told the panel of the warning to the agent. "He (the agent) was simply saying that it would affect cases that were ongoing. And I think he's entitled to his opinion." The exchange came as Mueller's testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is ramping up its investigation into the firing last year of eight of the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys. Read The Full Story Sen. Schumer's Office: Subpoenas Ready For Rove, Miers 2007-03-28 18:07:50 Senator Charles Schumer finds it "hard to believe" that embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales can continue in office for much longer. At the same time, Schumer believes that the practical consequences for the Republican Party resulting from Gonzales' actions - the culling of eight U.S. Attorneys - will be lasting. "Clearly, it will affect 2008, because the credibility of the President and the people close to him is lower now today than it was a month ago, and that's going to hurt," he said. Read The Full Story Berezovsky To Be Interviewed By Russian Detectives - After They've Been Frisked For Poisons 2007-03-28 18:06:52 The Russian tycoon Boris Berezovksy has agreed to meet Russian detectives as part of their investigation into the murder of the former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko - but only on the condition that they are frisked for poisons. The team of Russian prosecutors arrived in London on Monday. Berezovsky will meet them on Friday after they agreed to a series of conditions including being searched for "weapons and poisons" first. The Russian investigators' visit comes two months after they first submitted a request to Scotland Yard to be allowed to carry out their own separate inquiry into the ex-agent's death. It follows a visit by British detectives to Moscow in December. Speaking before flying to Britain, Alexander Zvyagintsev, the Russian deputy prosecutor, said his team planned to interview at least 100 people, including Berezovsky, in Britain. "We have already reached an agreement with the U.K.," he added. Read The Full Story Fears Rise Over Killings In Ukraine 2007-03-28 18:05:53 A sniper's brazen, daylight assassination of a Russian businessman outside a courthouse fueled fears Wednesday that contract killings are again on the rise in this former Soviet republic. Premier Viktor Yanukovych demanded answers from Ukraine's top police chief about the slaying of Maxim Kurochkin, as opponents seized on the killing and a series of other slayings to criticize Yanukovych's government. Kurochkin, known as "Mad Max", was shot in the heart Tuesday evening as he stepped out of a Kiev courthouse where he was on trial for extortion. The shot apparently came from an attic window of a nearby building and seriously injured one of the officers escorting him. Witnesses said two men wearing black masks fled the scene. The killing was not only shocking for its bold character - Kurochkin had repeatedly pleaded with the court to free him on bail, saying his life was in danger - it was also the latest in a string of assassinations and attacks against business leaders in the country. Read The Full Story 3 Dead, Girl, 14, Missing As Ferry Collides With Private Boat In Sydney Harbor 2007-03-28 18:04:57 Three people were killed, several were injured and a 14-year-old girl is missing after a collision between a ferry and a private boat on Sydney harbor, police said on Thursday. An empty harbor ferry collided with a 10-meter (33-feet) wooden motor cruiser carrying about 12 people at about 11 p.m. (0800 GMT) on Wednesday underneath the Sydney harbor Bridge. The cruiser rolled over after the impact, police said in a statement. A passing ferry and another vessel pulled people out of the water. Eight people were in hospital and two were seriously hurt. One woman lost part of a leg and a six-year-old boy suffered minor injuries, said the statement. Television pictures showed helicopters shining searchlights onto the waters of the harbor. Police divers and a navy vessel were also searching for the missing girl. Read The Full Story French Trains Nazi Ruling Quashed 2007-03-28 13:11:30 A court on Tuesday struck down a ruling that French railways must compensate the family of a Jewish man transported to an internment camp in Nazi-occupied France, dealing a blow to hundreds more claims. Judges in an administrative appeals court in southwestern Bordeaux said administrative courts were not competent to rule on the legal liability of state rail operator SNCF. The ruling means plaintiffs will have to bring their cases before civil or criminal courts where lawyers say they have far less chance of success. Read The Full Story At Least 50 Killed In Reprisal Attacks In Tal Afar, Iraq 2007-03-28 12:54:43 As many as 50 people were killed in what appeared to be reprisal attacks in Tal Afar after a double suicide-vehicle bombing there on Tuesday killed 85 people and wounded 150, Iraqi officials and a witness said today. Armed attacks broke out against Sunnis in the Sunni neighborhood of Al Wahda, with Shiite Iraqi security forces suspected of taking part, they said. “Some of the families of the victims were enraged, and with cooperation of some policemen they attacked the Sunni areas,” said a resident in the city, Muhie Muhammad Ebrahim. “I can say that a public slaughtering took place, but there was no reaction from the authorities.” Twelve police officers suspected of taking part in the reprisal killings were arrested, said an official in the Iraqi army, who declined to be identified. And the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, ordered a committee be formed to investigate allegations the gunmen included some Iraqi police. Read The Full Story Fed Chairman Bernanke: 'Uncertainties' Have Grown 2007-03-28 12:54:10 Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, acknowledged Wednesday that “uncertainties” about the economic outlook have “increased somewhat in recent weeks” and that “turmoil” in the market for subprime home mortgages has created “severe financial problems for many individuals and families.” Bernanke reiterated in testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress his broadly sanguine view that the United States economy was likely to expand at a moderate pace this year and that inflation was likely to slightly decline. “The uncertainties around the outlook have increased somewhat in recent weeks,” said Bernanke but, in his prepared testimony, Bernanke offered little indication that he wanted to clamp down more tightly on subprime mortgage lenders, which lend money to people with poor credit, or on what a growing number of Democrats view as predatory mortgage lending practices. Read The Full Story Standoff Over British Marines, Sailors Held In Iran Escalates 2007-03-28 12:53:16 Escalating its dispute with Iran, Britain Wednesday froze all “bilateral business” with Tehran to retaliate for the seizure of 15 British naval personnel six days ago in what the Royal Navy insists were Iraqi territorial waters. “It is now time to ratchet up international and diplomatic pressure” on Iran to demonstrate its “total isolation,” Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament after the Royal Navy released details of what it said was the sailors’ position when they were apprehended. Meanwhile, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a Turkish television station Wednesday that Iran would release “today or tomorrow” the only woman among the 15 British captives, Faye Turney, 26, the mother of a 3-year-old girl. In London, the Royal Navy took the highly unusual step of making public charts, photographs and previously secret navigational coordinates purportedly proving that the sailors were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters, and not in Iranian waters, when they were seized. Read The Full Story White House Withdraws Ambassador Nominee Fox 2007-03-28 12:52:21 President Bush on Wednesday withdrew the ambassadorial nomination of businessman Sam Fox after Democrats denounced Fox for giving money to a controversial conservative group that undermined Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. Kerry, D-Massachusetts, had criticized Fox because of a $50,000 contribution that Fox made in 2004 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Many Democrats blame the group for sinking Kerry's presidential hopes that year after it aired a series of controversial ads that impugned Kerry's military record in the Vietnam War. "Sam Fox had every opportunity to disavow the politics of personal destruction and to embrace the truth," Kerry said Wednesday. "He chose not to. The White House made the right decision to withdraw the nomination. I hope this signals a new day in political discourse." Read The Full Story Arizona Veterans Director Resigns After Violations 2007-03-28 01:50:04 The director of the Arizona Department of Veterans Services resigned Tuesday, days after the public disclosure of health and safety violations at a nursing home for veterans. The violations included patients left in soiled undergarments and covered in bodily fluids leaking from medical devices. The list of violations was in a report dated March 16 and released last week by state health investigators who, acting on an anonymous complaint, examined the Arizona State Veteran Home in central Phoenix over an eight-day period last month. The report was obtained last week by the Arizona Republic newspaper and has been widely publicized around the state. The home, which has 200 beds serving primarily veterans of World War II and the Korean War, was fined $10,000 by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a result of the report. Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday March 28 2007 - (813)

Wednesday March 28 2007 edition
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32 Children Taken Hostage In Philippines 2007-03-28 01:50:15 A day-care center owner hijacked a busload of his students and teachers and drove them to Manila's city hall Wednesday to demand better housing and education for the children. Jun Ducat and at least one other hostage-taker scribbled in large letters on a sheet of paper, taped to the bus' windshield, that they were holding 32 children and two teachers and were armed with two grenades, an assault rifle and a pistol, said officer Mark Andal. One child with a fever was released after four hours, and then was driven away in an ambulance. They said they were demanding improved housing and education for 145 children in a day-care center in Manila's poor Tondo district where the incident, televised live around the world, appeared to have begun. The driver was released soon afterward. Read The Full Story On 50 - 48 Vote, Senate Signals Support For Iraq Timeline 2007-03-27 19:21:41 The Senate Tuesday narrowly endorsed a Democratic-led effort to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq a year from now, voting down a Republican amendment that would have stripped the provision from a $122 emergency spending bill. Senators voted 50 to 48 to reject the amendment, which was introduced by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee. In a vote several weeks ago on a similar measure, only 48 senators supported the timeline for withdrawal but, today, the Democrats secured the votes of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska). The vote came after the White House reiterated President Bush's threat to veto any bill that sets deadlines for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Read The Full Story Supreme Court Rules Against Nuclear Whistle Blower 2007-03-27 19:21:18 The Supreme Court left an 81-year-old retired engineer without a penny to show for his role in exposing fraud at a former nuclear weapons plant in a ruling that makes it harder for whistle-blowers to claim cash rewards. James Stone stood to collect up to $1 million from a lawsuit he filed in 1989 against Rockwell International, now part of aerospace giant Boeing Co., over problems with environmental cleanup at the now-closed Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant northwest of Denver. A court eventually ordered Rockwell to pay the government nearly $4.2 million for false claims the company submitted. Stone could have received up to a quarter of Rockwell's payment, under the False Claims Act. Read The Full Story Judge Dismisses Lawsuite Against Rumsfeld 2007-03-27 19:20:09 Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cannot be tried on allegations of torture in overseas military prisons, a federal judge said Tuesday in a case he described as "lamentable." U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan threw out a lawsuit brought on behalf of nine former prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Rumsfeld cannot be held personally responsible for actions taken in connection with his government job. The lawsuit contends the prisoners were beaten, suspended upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked, sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to mock executions. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First had argued that Rumsfeld and top military officials disregarded warnings about the abuse and authorized the use of illegal interrogation tactics that violated the constitutional and human rights of prisoners. Read The Full Story Insurgents Report A Split With Al-Qaeda In Iraq 2007-03-27 12:49:53 Insurgent leaders and Sunni Arab politicians say divisions between insurgent groups and al-Qaeda in Iraq have widened and have led to combat in some areas of the country, a schism that U.S. officials hope to exploit. The Sunni Arab insurgent leaders said they disagreed with the leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq over tactics, including attacks on civilians, as well as over command of the movement. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, on his last day in Iraq, said Monday that American officials were actively pursuing negotiations with the Sunni factions in an effort to further isolate al-Qaeda. Read The Full Story Tests Show That Tony Snow's Cancer Has Returned 2007-03-27 12:49:15 White House press secretary Tony Snow, who has become the face of the Bush presidency over the last year, has cancer again. Snow's deputy, Dana M. Perino, broke into tears at an off-camera briefing this morning as she announced that the cancer has spread to his liver. Doctors discovered it when they operated on Snow on Monday to remove a small growth that had developed in his lower abdomen. President Bush, in brief remarks to reporters later in the White House Rose Garden, asked Americans to pray for his ailing spokesman, who he said called him this morning from the hospital to pass on the information that his cancer had returned. Read The Full Story Dollar Lower, Gold Up In Europe 2007-03-27 12:48:47 The U.S. dollar traded mostly lower against the other major currencies in late European trading Tuesday. Gold rose. The euro was quoted at $1.3346, up from $1.3331 Monday in New York. Later, in midday trading in New York, the euro fetched $1.3351. Other dollar rates in Europe, compared with late Monday, included 117.90 Japanese yen, down from 118.04; 1.2135 Swiss francs, down from 1.2157; and 1.1581 Canadian dollars, down from 1.1621. The British pound was quoted at $1.9652, down from $1.9698. Read The Full Story Gonzales' Senior Counselor Pleads 5th Amendment In Refusing To Testify Before Senate 2007-03-27 02:15:26 Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales' senior counselor Monday refused to testify in the Senate about her involvement in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Monica M. Goodling, who has taken an indefinite leave of absence, said in a sworn affidavit to the Senate Judiciary Committee that she will "decline to answer any and all questions" about the firings because she faces "a perilous environment in which to testify." Goodling, who was also Justice's liaison to the White House, and her lawyers alleged that Democratic lawmakers have already concluded that improper motives were at play in Justice's dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys last year. Goodling also pointed to indications that Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty blames her and others for not fully briefing him, leading to inaccurate testimony to Congress. Goodling's refusal to testify illustrates the rising political and legal stakes surrounding the removal of the federal prosecutors, and underscores the fissures developing among Gonzales and his current and former senior aides as the attorney general struggles to keep his job. Read The Full Story Editorial: Time For Answers 2007-03-27 02:14:50 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Tuesday, March 27, 2007: The news that Monica Goodling, counsel to the attorney general and liaison to the White House, is invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination takes the United States attorney scandal to a new level. Ms. Goodling’s decision comes just days after the Justice Department released documents strongly suggesting that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not been honest about his own role in the firing of eight federal prosecutors. Mr. Gonzales is scheduled to testify before the Senate in three weeks, but that is too long to wait. He should speak now, and explain why he continues to insist that his department did nothing wrong. As the liaison between the White House and the Justice Department, Ms. Goodling seems to have been squarely in the middle of what appears to have been improper directions from the White House to politicize the hiring and firing of United States attorneys. Mr. Gonzales has insisted the eight prosecutors were let go for poor performance, and that the dismissals are an “overblown personnel matter.” But Ms. Goodling’s decision to exercise her Fifth Amendment rights suggests that she, at least, believes crimes may have been committed. Last Friday night, the Justice Department released a calendar entry that directly contradicts Mr. Gonzales’  insistence that he was out of the loop. It shows that he attended an hourlong meeting on Nov. 27 to discuss the upcoming firings of seven of the prosecutors. Previously, he had insisted that he never “had a discussion about where things stood.” Read The Full Story Global Warming: Heat Invades Cool Hights Above Arizona Desert 2007-03-27 02:14:16 High above the desert floor, this little alpine town has long served as a natural air-conditioned retreat for people in Tucson, one of the so-called sky islands of southern Arizona. When it is 105 degrees in the city, it is at least 20 degrees cooler up here near the 9,157-foot summit of Mount Lemmon. But for the past 10 years or so, things have been unraveling. Winter snows melt away earlier, longtime residents say, making for an erratic season at the nearby ski resort, the most southern in the nation. Legions of predatory insects have taken to the forest that mantles the upper mountain, killing trees weakened by record heat. And, in 2003, a fire burned for a month, destroying much of the town and scarring more than 87,000 acres. The next year, another fire swept over 32,000 acres. Read The Full Story U.S. Marines Call Up 1,800 From Ready Reserves 2007-03-27 02:13:17 The Marine Corps is recalling 1,800 reservists to active duty, citing a shortage of volunteers to fill some jobs in Iraq. Members of the branch's Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) will receive letters this week about plans to mobilize them involuntarily for a year, said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Riehl of Marine manpower and reserve affairs. Last week, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates approved the action, under which reservists would report for duty in October and deploy early next year, said Riehl. From the 1,800 Marines called, officials hope to get 1,200 for aviation maintenance, logistics support, combat arms and other skills needed for the early 2008 rotation into Iraq. Read The Full Story Arab Ministers Agree To Revive Initiative For Mideast Peace 2007-03-27 02:12:28 Arab foreign ministers agreed to relaunch a five-year-old peace initiative with Israel, including establishment of a working group to begin negotiations on the plan, according to reports from Riyadh, the Saudi capital. "The initiative includes a mechanism to promote it and gain its acceptance and especially registering it officially at the United Nations," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told reporters. "That's what's going to happen, so that it becomes a basis and a major reference point for peace in the Middle East." Under the plan, Arab nations would recognize Israel if it gave up land occupied after the 1967 Middle East war and granted Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes lost six decades ago when Israel declared it was a state. Read The Full Story	Arizona Veterans Director Resigns After Violations 2007-03-28 01:50:04 The director of the Arizona Department of Veterans Services resigned Tuesday, days after the public disclosure of health and safety violations at a nursing home for veterans. The violations included patients left in soiled undergarments and covered in bodily fluids leaking from medical devices. The list of violations was in a report dated March 16 and released last week by state health investigators who, acting on an anonymous complaint, examined the Arizona State Veteran Home in central Phoenix over an eight-day period last month. The report was obtained last week by the Arizona Republic newspaper and has been widely publicized around the state. The home, which has 200 beds serving primarily veterans of World War II and the Korean War, was fined $10,000 by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a result of the report. Read The Full Story Justice Department Blunder Lets Tax Cheat Avoid $100 Million Repayment 2007-03-27 19:21:29 Poorly written Justice Department documents cost the federal government more than $100 million in what was supposed to have been the crowning moment of the biggest tax prosecution ever. Walter Anderson, the telecommunications entrepreneur who admitted hiding hundreds of millions of dollars from the IRS and District of Columbia tax collectors, was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison and ordered to repay about $23 million to the city. But U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said he couldn't order Anderson to repay the federal government $100 million to $175 million because the Justice Department's binding plea agreement with Anderson listed the wrong statute. Read The Full Story Uranium Ignites 'Gold Rush' In U.S. West 2007-03-27 19:20:24 Given its connotations, Pandora is an oddly appropriate name for an uranium mine. But that does not seem to bother Denison Mines, its Vancouver-based owner, which recently reopened this mine about 30 miles southeast of Moab, Utah, along with several others in nearby western Colorado, after it lay dormant for the years in which the nation shunned nuclear power. The revival of uranium mining in the West, though, has less to do with the renewed interest in nuclear power as an alternative to greenhouse-gas-belching coal plants than to the convoluted economics and intense speculation surrounding the metal that has pushed up the price of uranium to levels not seen since the heyday of the industry in the mid-1970s. “There’s a lot of staking going on,” said Mike Shumway, a 53-year-old Vietnam veteran who owns the contracting business that is working the Pandora mine. “It’s like the Gold Rush.” Read The Full Story At Least 4 Dead As 'Sewage Tsunami' Floods Village In Gaza 2007-03-27 19:17:34 At least 4 people were killed Tuesday in the northern Gaza Strip and more than 30 injured when a sewage system collapsed, flooding a village with waste water, according to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. The agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which helps Palestinian refugees and their families, posted photographs on its Web site showing Palestinians wading through the muck, and waters rising about half way up structures in the area known as Um al-Nasr. The local Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that at least nine people were killed and scores wounded. Hundreds of houses were flooded or damaged, said the U.N. agency and Wafa. “The waters destroyed houses, tents, shelters, everything in its way,” Musa Jaber, a 28 year-old Palestine refugee and father of five, told the U.N. agency. “It was very high, more than a meter. And horrifying! Women and children were screaming at the top of their lungs for help.” Read The Full Story Oops! Aide To Sen. Webb Had Gun In Briefcase 2007-03-27 12:49:36 A top aide to U.S. Sen. James Webb was charged Monday with trying to carry a loaded pistol and extra ammunition into a Senate office building, said U.S. Capitol Police. The staffer, Phillip Thompson, told police that the gun belonged to Webb (D-Virginia), said authorities. Thompson also said he forgot that the gun was in a briefcase and meant no harm, they said. Thompson, 44, a longtime friend of Webb's and the senator's executive assistant, was jailed pending an appearance Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court. He was charged with carrying a pistol without a license and possessing an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition. The gun was discovered at 10:30 a.m. when Thompson arrived at the C Street entrance of the Russell Senate Office Building, according to Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a Capitol Police spokeswoman. An X-ray machine revealed the gun in a briefcase. Police also found two fully loaded magazines, said officials. Read The Full Story U.S. Consumer Confidence Drops 2007-03-27 12:49:01 Rising gasoline prices and stock market turbulence undermined consumer confidence in March, increasing worries about one of the economy's pillars, a widely watched index showed on Tuesday. The New York-based Conference Board said that its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 107.2, down from the revised 111.2 in February. Analysts had expected a reading of 109. The March index was the lowest since November 2006 when the reading was 105.3. ''Apprehension about the short-term future has suddenly cast a cloud over consumers' confidence,'' said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, in a statement. Read The Full Story U.S. Treasury Bond Prices Off To Shakey Start 2007-03-27 12:48:31 Treasury bond prices got off to a rickety start Tuesday, due to tough talk on inflation from a couple of Federal Reserve speakers abroad, which added to the market's nagging suspicion that the central bank may not be as keen on a rate cut as first thought. At 11 a.m. EDT, the 10-year Treasury note was down 31 cents per $1,000 in face value, or 1/32 point, from its level at 5 p.m. Monday. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, was unchanged at 4.61 percent. The 30-year bond fell 5/32 point. Its yield rose to 4.81 percent from 4.80 percent. The 2-year note rose 1/32 point. Its yield fell to 4.57 percent from 4.59 percent. Read The Full Story Private Businesses Flag Ordinary Customers As Terrorists 2007-03-27 02:15:05 Private businesses such as rental and mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of customers against a list of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers made publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying services to ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the list. The Office of Foreign Asset Control's list of "specially designated nationals" has long been used by banks and other financial institutions to block financial transactions of drug dealers and other criminals. But an executive order issued by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has expanded the list and its consequences in unforeseen ways. Businesses have used it to screen applicants for home and car loans, apartments and even exercise equipment, according to interviews and a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area to be issued Tuesday. "The way in which the list is being used goes far beyond contexts in which it has a link to national security," said Shirin Sinnar, the report's author. "The government is effectively conscripting private businesses into the war on terrorism but doing so without making sure that businesses don't trample on individual rights." Read The Full Story Commentary: If We Want To Save The Planet We Need A 5-Year Freeze On Biofuels 2007-03-27 02:14:36 Intellpuke: The following commentary is by Prof. George Monbiot who writes that oil produced from plants sets up competition for food between cars and people. People - and the environment - will lose. His commentary follows: It used to be a matter of good intentions gone awry. Now it is plain fraud. The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good. But they plough on regardless. In theory, fuels made from plants can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by cars and trucks. Plants absorb carbon as they grow - it is released again when the fuel is burned. By encouraging oil companies to switch from fossil plants to living ones, governments on both sides of the Atlantic claim to be "decarbonising" our transport networks. In the budget last week, Gordon Brown announced that he would extend the tax rebate for biofuels until 2010. From next year all suppliers in the U.K. will have to ensure that 2.5% of the fuel they sell is made from plants - if not, they must pay a penalty of 15 pence a liter. The obligation rises to 5% in 2010. By 2050, the government hopes that 33% of our fuel will come from crops. Last month George Bush announced that he would quintuple the U.S. target for biofuels: by 2017 they should be supplying 24% of the nation's transport fuel. So what's wrong with these programs? Only that they are a formula for environmental and humanitarian disaster. In 2004 I warned, on these pages, that biofuels would set up a competition for food between cars and people. The people would necessarily lose: those who can afford to drive are richer than those who are in danger of starvation. It would also lead to the destruction of rainforests and other important habitats. I received more abuse than I've had for any other column - except for when I attacked the 9/11 conspiracists. I was told my claims were ridiculous, laughable, impossible. Well in one respect I was wrong. I thought these effects wouldn't materialize for many years. They are happening already. Read The Full Story Heart Attack Study On Routine Use Of Angioplasty, Stents 2007-03-27 02:13:38 Propping open clogged arteries with a tiny wire-mesh tube called a stent is no better at reducing the risk of heart attack or death in patients with stable heart disease than treatment with medications, according to a large new study that challenges routine use of a procedure that rapidly became standard medical practice. The study of more than 2,000 patients found that those who underwent the expensive procedure, known as angioplasty, in non-emergency situations were no less likely to suffer a heart attack or die than those who took only aspirin and other medicines to lower blood pressure and cholesterol and prevent clots, along with adopting lifestyle changes. The study is the first large, well-designed comparison of angioplasty to non-surgical care for patients who are not having a heart attack or in imminent danger of having one. The procedure, often done to relieve chest pain and to reduce the risk of having or dying from a heart attack, has become one of the most common medical procedures in the United States. Read The Full Story Australian Hicks' Guilty Plea Is First At Guantanamo 2007-03-27 02:12:44 Australian David M. Hicks pleaded guilty to one charge of material support for terrorism during a brief military hearing Monday night, becoming the first Guantanamo prisoner to officially accept criminal responsibility for aiding terrorists since the detention facility opened more than five years ago. The plea during the first day of hearings under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 marks a victory for the Bush administration, which is now likely to secure a conviction in the first case it pursues under Congress's new rules. Col. Ralph H. Kohlmann, the military commission's presiding officer, has not accepted the plea but is expected to do so in hearings this week. Military commission officials at Guantanamo said Kohlmann and lawyers for both sides will work out details of Hicks' plea. Then a full military commissions jury panel will meet to decide on a sentence. Hicks faces a possible life term, but prosecutors said in recent days that they probably will not seek a term longer than 20 years. Read The Full Story U.S. Envoy To Iraqis: 'Our Patience Is Wearing Thin' 2007-03-27 02:12:01 The outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Monday delivered a blunt farewell message to Iraq's leadership, saying the Bush administration's patience is wearing thin and urging them to stem the bloodshed. Zalmay Khalilzad, who is due to leave today after 21 months in Iraq, said that despite encouraging results from the U.S.-Iraqi security plan, which had reduced attacks by 25% in its first six weeks, "there is a lot more that needs to be done." "Success requires Iraq and Iraqi leaders to make the compromises necessary to reduce the sources of violence," he said. 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