Free Internet Press Newsletter - Monday April 2 2007 - (813)

Monday April 2 2007 edition
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New Generation Of Al-Qaeda Chiefs On The Rise 2007-04-02 01:55:36 As al-Qaeda rebuilds in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden  to cement control over the network’s operations, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials. The new leaders rose from within the organization after the death or capture of the operatives that built al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, leading to surprise and dismay within United States intelligence agencies about the group’s ability to rebound from an American-led offensive. It has been known that American officials were focusing on a band of al-Qaeda training camps in Pakistan’s remote mountains, but a clearer picture is emerging about those who are running the camps and thought to be involved in plotting attacks. Read The Full Story 6 U.S. Soldiers Die; McCain Tours Baghdad 2007-04-02 01:55:03 After a heavily guarded trip to a Baghdad market, Sen. John McCain insisted Sunday that a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital was working and said Americans lacked a "full picture" of the progress. The U.S. military later reported six soldiers were killed in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad. Four soldiers were killed responding to the blast that killed the first two, said the military. Britain, meanwhile, announced that one of its soldiers had been shot to death in southern Iraq - its 104th combat casualty since the war started four years ago. McCain, a Republican presidential hopeful who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, acknowledged a difficult task lies ahead in Iraq, but criticized the media for not giving Americans enough information about the recent drop in execution-style sectarian killings, the establishment of security posts throughout the city and Sunni tribal efforts against al-Qaeda in the western Anbar province. "These and other indicators are reason for cautious, very cautious optimism about the effects of the new strategy," said McCain, who was leading a Republican congressional delegation to Iraq that included Sen. Lindsey Graham. Read The Full Story Fidel Castro Attacks Bush's Biofuel Plan 2007-04-02 01:53:55 The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, today attacked George Bush's new-found fondness for biofuels, warning that food stocks for millions of people could be threatened. In his first foray into international politics following months of recuperation from intestinal surgery, Castro claimed that valuable agricultural land in poorer countries could be taken over for biofuel crops destined for wealthier nations. Castro made his attack in an article for the communist party daily, Granma, which was headlined: "Condemned to premature death by hunger and thirst - more than 3 billion people of the world." "This isn't an exaggerated number; it is actually cautious," said the article by Castro. Read The Full Story Tsunami hits Solomon Islands; 4 missing 2007-04-01 21:02:31 A powerful earthquake struck in the South Pacific Monday off the Solomon Islands, triggering a tsunami several yards high that destroyed a village and left at least four people missing, officials and residents said. Judith Kennedy, a resident of the western town of Gizo, said water "right up to your head" swept through the town. "All the houses near the sea were flattened," she told The Associated Press by telephone. "The downtown area is a very big mess from the tsunami and the earthquake," she added. "A lot of houses have collapsed. The whole town is still shaking" from aftershocks. Police and residents said buildings were inundated when the wave hit Gizo, a regional center. Julian McLeod of the Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office said there were unconfirmed reports that two villages in the country's far west were flooded. "Two villages were reported to have been completely inundated," McLeod told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "We have received reports of four people missing." A town in the west, Munda, was believed to be badly damaged, officials and the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corp. said, but communications were difficult and details were not confirmed. Read The Full Story Pentagon Says Funding Delay Will Affect Troop Rotations, Training, Repairs 2007-04-01 13:53:52 A delay in billions of dollars of supplemental war funding for the Pentagon would cause the Army to curtail training and equipment repair necessary to prepare units in the United States for deployment, which could lead forces now in Iraq and Afghanistan to have their tours lengthened, according to the nation's top general and other senior military officials. "Potentially, you would have troops who are currently serving overseas who would have to be extended" if the funds are delayed past May 15, because other service members would not be ready to replace them, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week during a hearing of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense. The $122 billion emergency funding bill passed by the Senate contains more than $47 billion for the Army. That includes $20.5 billion to replenish an operations and maintenance account that will be exhausted by the end of May, according to a senior Army official. Read The Full Story U.N.: Global Warming Could Melt Himalayas By 2030 2007-04-01 13:53:17 Global warming could cause more hunger in Africa and melt most Himalayan glaciers by the 2030s, according to a draft U.N. report due on Friday which also warns that the poorest nations are likely to suffer most. The U.N. climate panel, giving the most authoritative study on the regional impact of climate change since 2001, also predicts more heatwaves in countries such as the United States, and damage to corals including Australia's Great Barrier Reef. "We are talking about a potentially catastrophic set of developments," Achim Steiner, the head of the U.N.  Environment Program, said of the likely impact of rising temperatures, widely blamed on greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. "Even a half meter rise in sea levels would have catastrophic effects in Bangladesh and some island states," he told Reuters. Read The Full Story Iranian Students Protest At British Embassy In Tehran 2007-04-01 13:52:44 About 200 students threw rocks and firecrackers at the British Embassy on Sunday, calling for the expulsion of the country's ambassador because of the standoff over Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines. Several dozen policemen prevented the protesters from entering the embassy compound, although a few briefly scaled a fence outside the compound's walls before being pushed back, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. The protesters chanted ''Death to Britain'' and ''Death to America'' as they hurled stones into the courtyard of the embassy. They also demanded that the Iranian government expel the British ambassador and close down the embassy, calling it a "den of spies". Britain's Foreign Office said there had been no damage to the compound. Read The Full Story New Bar Codes Can Talk To Your Cellphone 2007-04-01 13:52:05 It sounds like something straight out of a futuristic film: House hunters, driving past a for-sale sign, stop and point their cellphone at the sign. With a click, their cellphone screen displays the asking price, the number of bedrooms and baths and lots of other details about the house. Media experts say that cellphones, the Swiss Army knives of technology, are quickly heading in this direction. New technology, already in use in parts of Asia but still in development in the United States, allows the phones to connect everyday objects with the Internet. In their new incarnation, cellphones become a sort of digital remote control, as one CBS executive put it. With a wave, the phone can read encoded information on everyday objects and translate that into videos, pictures or text files on its screen. Read The Full Story Bush: Iran Must Release British Hostages 2007-04-01 01:04:41 President Bush on Saturday condemned Iran's seizure of 15 British sailors and marines as "inexcusable behavior" and demanded that the "hostages" be released, weighing in for the first time as the situation escalates into a sustained confrontation with Tehran. Bush said the sailors had been operating legally in Iraqi territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, as the British have insisted, and not in Iranian waters, and he offered support for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's efforts "to resolve this peacefully." He rejected any "quid pro quo" trade of Iranians held by U.S. forces in Iraq and ducked a question about whether military force would be justified to free the captured sailors. "The Iranians must give back the hostages," the president told reporters at a brief question-and-answer session at Camp David after a meeting with the visiting Brazilian president. "They're innocent, they were doing nothing, and they were summarily plucked out of the water. As I say, it's inexcusable behavior." Read The Full Story U.N. Panel: Global Warming Will Make Some Species Extinct 2007-04-01 01:03:43 From the micro to the macro, from plankton in the oceans to polar bears in the far north and seals in the far south, global warming has begun changing life on Earth, international scientists will report next Friday. "Changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent," says a draft obtained by the Associated Press of a report on warming's impacts, to be issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the authoritative U.N. network of 2,000 scientists and more than 100 governments. In February the panel declared it "very likely" most global warming has been caused by manmade emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Animal and plant life in the Arctic and Antarctic is undergoing substantial change, scientists say. Rising sea levels elsewhere are damaging coastal wetlands. Warmer waters are bleaching and killing coral reefs, pushing marine species toward the poles, reducing fish populations in African lakes, research finds. Read The Full Story	Seafood Poisoning Increases With Global Warming 2007-04-02 01:55:20 Bowls of piping hot barracuda soup were the much-anticipated treat when the Roa family gathered for a casual and relaxing Sunday meal. Within hours, all six fell deathly ill. So did two dozen others from the same neighborhood. Some complained of body-wide numbness. Others had weakness in their legs. Several couldn't speak or even open their mouths. ''I was scared. I really thought I was going to die,'' said Dabby Roa, 21, a student who suffered numbness in his head, tingling in his hands and had trouble breathing. What Roa and the others suffered that night last August was ciguatera poisoning, a rarely fatal but growing menace from eating exotic fish. All had bought portions of the same barracuda from a local vendor. Experts estimate that up to 50,000 people worldwide suffer ciguatera poisoning each year, with more than 90 percent of cases unreported. Scientists say the risks are getting worse, because of damage that pollution and global warming are inflicting on the coral reefs where many fish species feed. Read The Full Story Clinton, Edwards Set Fundraising Records 2007-04-02 01:54:48 Two Democratic presidential candidates broke previous fundraising records during the first three months of the year, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton setting a high bar of $26 million in new contributions for the quarter. Former Sen. John Edwards raised more than $14 million since the beginning of the year. Clinton also transferred $10 million from her Senate campaign account, bringing her total receipts for the quarter to $36 million. Unlike Edwards, Clinton aides would not reveal how much of her total was available only for the primary election and how much could be used just in the general election, if she were the party's nominee. By not breaking down the amount available for the primaries, the Clinton camp made it impossible to assess how much of an edge she actually has over Edwards. Edwards' aides said about $1 million of his $14 million in contributions could only be used in the general election, should he win the nomination. Read The Full Story UPDATE: Tsunami Hits Solomon Islands, Homes Destroyed, Several People Missing 2007-04-01 21:23:04 A large earthquake with preliminary magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter scale, sent a tsunami crashing into the Solomons' west coast and prompted region-wide disaster warnings, said officials. There were reports of four people missing in a mudslide and 20 homes washed away. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the earthquake hit near the Solomon Islands at 6:40 a.m. Monday, centred about 350 kilometers west-north-west of the capital Honiara at a depth of 10 kilometers. The center's Barry Hirshorn said he had been hearing rumors of 20 houses washed away close to the epicenter of the quake, but further away the tsunami was down to less than half a meter. Police and residents said a wave several meters high crashed ashore at Gizo, a regional center in the country's west, inundating buildings and causing widespread destruction. "All the houses near the sea were flattened,'' as water "right up to your head'' swept through the town, resident Judith Kennedy told the Associated Press by telephone. Read The Full Story BREADKING NEWS: Two Large Earthquakes Trigger Tsunami Alerts In Australia, Pacific 2007-04-01 18:56:24 Two large back-to-back earthquakes centered in the region of the Solomon Islands triggered a tsunami warning Sunday for a huge part of the Pacific including Australia and Indonesia. The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake, magnitude 7.6, took place at 8:40 Coordinated Universal Time (4:40 ET) and was centered 25 miles (45 kilometers) south-southeast of Gizo, New Georgia Islands, and 1,330 miles (2,145 kilometers) north-northeast of Brisbane, Australia. The second, nearby just minutes later, had a magnitude 6.7. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's Fixed Regional Tsunami Warning also included Papua New Guinea and several other islands in the region. Read The Full Story Inspector Lists 14 Computers With Atomic Secrets As Missing 2007-04-01 13:53:40 The office in charge of protecting American technical secrets about nuclear weapons from foreign spies is missing 20 desktop computers, at least 14 of which have been used for classified information, the Energy Department inspector general reported on Friday. This is the 13th time in a little over four years that an audit has found that the department, whose national laboratories and factories do most of the work in designing and building nuclear warheads, has lost control over computers used in working on the bombs. Aside from the computers it cannot find, the department is also using computers not listed in its inventory, and one computer listed as destroyed was in fact being used, said the audit. “Problems with the control and accountability of desktop and laptop computers have plagued the department for a number of years,” said the report. Read The Full Story Beijing Running Out Of Fresh Water 2007-04-01 13:53:04 The northern Chinese province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing and supplies most of its water, has over-exploited its resources so badly it is suffering subsidence and saline contamination, reports the Xinhua news agency. The arid province had just one-seventh the national average of per capita water supplies and for the last 30 years had had to rely more and more on groundwater, said Xinhua, citing an unnamed provincial official. Hebei also supplies the port city of Tianjin, recently earmarked to become a new growth engine for the Chinese economy with huge investment planned in factories and housing. Parts of the city of Cangzhou, south of Tianjin, have subsided more than 2 meters (6 feet, 6 inches) because of over-extraction of ground water, said the report. And in coastal Qinhuangdao, which will host some football events during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the groundwater has become unpotable due to infiltration of sea water, it added. Read The Full Story Katrina Fraud Stretches Well Beyond Gulf 2007-04-01 13:52:19 An Illinois woman mourns her two young daughters, swept to their deaths in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters. It's a tragic and terrifying story. It's also a lie. An Alabama woman applies for disaster aid for hurricane damage. She files 28 claims for addresses in four states. It's all a sham. Two California men help stage Internet auctions designed to help Katrina relief organizations. Those, too, are bogus. More than 18 months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, authorities are chipping away at a mountain of fraud cases that, by some estimates, involve thousands of people who bilked the federal government and charities out of hundreds of millions of dollars intended to aid storm victims. Read The Full Story Prosecutor Posts Go To Bush Insiders 2007-04-01 01:04:56 About one-third of the nearly four dozen U.S. attorney's jobs that have changed hands since President Bush began his second term have been filled by the White House and the Justice Department with trusted administration insiders. The people chosen as chief federal prosecutors on a temporary or permanent basis since early 2005 include 10 senior aides to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, according to an analysis of government records. Several came from the White House or other government agencies. Some lacked experience as prosecutors or had no connection to the districts in which they were sent to work, the records and biographical information show. The new U.S. attorneys filled vacancies created through natural turnover in addition to the firings of eight prosecutors last year that have prompted a political uproar and congressional investigations. No other administration in contemporary times has had such a clear pattern of filling chief prosecutors' jobs with its own staff members, said experts on U.S. attorney's offices. Those experts said the emphasis in appointments traditionally has been on local roots and deference to home-state senators, whose support has been crucial to win confirmation of the nominees. Read The Full Story IPCC Climate Draft Charts Extinctions 2007-04-01 01:03:55 A key element of the second major report on climate change being released next Friday in Belgium is a chart that maps out the effects of global warming, most of them bad, with every degree of temperature rise. There's one bright spot: A minimal heat rise means more food production in northern regions of the world. However, the number of species going extinct rises with the heat, as does the number of people who may starve, or face water shortages, or floods, according to the projections in the draft report obtained by the Associated Press Some scientists are calling this degree-by-degree projection a "highway to extinction". Read The Full Story Saudi King Told Ahmadinejad Not To Underestimate U.S. Military 2007-04-01 01:02:53 Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during their talks in Riyadh on March 4 that he should not underestimate the U.S. military threat to Iran, according to Newsweek. The magazine quoted Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal as saying in an interview that the king said Tehran should take the threat of a possible U.S. military strike on Iran over its nuclear enrichment program seriously. In the interview, Prince Saud quoted the king as saying: “Why do you want to take a chance on that and harm your country? What is the rush? Why do you have to do it (enrich uranium) this year and not next year or the year after? Or five years from now? What is the real rush in it?” The king “speaks to everybody frankly,” said Saud, adding that Abdullah told Ahmadinejad: “You’re interfering in Arab affairs,” a reference to Iran’s alleged interference in the affairs of other Middle East countries. Read The Full Story
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