Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday April 29 2007 - (813)

Sunday April 29 2007 edition
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82 Inmates Were Cleared But Are Still Held At Guantanamo Bay 2007-04-29 02:29:15 More than a fifth of the approximately 385 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been cleared for release but may have to wait months or years for their freedom because U.S. officials are finding it increasingly difficult to line up places to send them, according to Bush administration officials and defense lawyers. Since February, the Pentagon has notified about 85 inmates or their attorneys that they are eligible to leave after being cleared by military review panels. Yett only a handful have gone home, including a Moroccan and an Afghan who were released Tuesday. Eighty-two remain at Guantanamo and face indefinite waits as U.S. officials struggle to figure out when and where to deport them, and under what conditions. The delays illustrate how much harder it will be to empty the prison at Guantanamo than it was to fill it after it opened in January 2002 to detain fighters captured in Afghanistan and terrorism suspects captured overseas. Read The Full Story Pharmaceutical Industry Gifts, Contracts To Doctors Increasing 2007-04-29 02:28:02 Despite efforts to curb drug companies' avid courting of doctors, the industry is working harder than ever to influence what medicines they prescribe, sending out sales representatives with greater frequency and plying physicians with gifts, meals and consulting fees, according to several new papers. One study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week found that 94 percent of doctors have some type of relationship with the drug industry - most commonly accepting free food or drug samples, which about 80 percent of physicians did. More than one-third of the 1,662 physicians who responded to a survey conducted from November 2003 to June 2004 reported being reimbursed by the drug industry for costs of going to professional meetings or continuing medical education, and 28 percent said they had been paid for consulting, giving lectures or signing up patients for clinical trials. Two other papers examined in detail the strategies that pharmaceutical representatives, or "detailers," use and how effective the industry is at influencing doctors. Read The Full Story Buckingham Palace Warned Blair Aide About Investigator In Cash-For-Peerages Scandal 2007-04-29 02:26:42 Buckingham Palace was thrust into the center of the "cash for peerages" scandal Sunday as The Observer disclosed that the most senior courtier in Buckingham Palace expressed deep unease to Downing Street about the Metropolitan Police (also known as Scotland Yard) officer leading the investigation. In a move that highlights the royal household's discomfort with Assistant Commissioner John Yates, the courtier described him to an aide to Prime Minister Tony Blair as a relentless investigator who turned the royal household "inside out". The Observer understands that the warning was passed to Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, by Sir Robin Janvrin, the Queen's private secretary. Yates was appointed last year to investigate allegations that Downing Street offered peerages in exchange for loans to the Labor party. Powell was told in blunt terms of the palace's anger at Yates' handling of an earlier investigation that led to the trial of Paul Burrell, the former butler to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, on charges that he stole some of her artifacts. The palace felt badly bruised by the trial, which collapsed in 2002 after the Queen recalled a conversation with Burrell in which he said he was keeping some of the princess' effects. Read The Full Story Armored Vehicles For Iraq May Be Delayed 2007-04-28 19:46:01 The armored carrier has a grim black slash across its side, burn marks on the door and a web of cracks along the window. Like most of the Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in Anbar province, this one has been hit as many as three times by enemy fire and bomb blasts. Yet, to date, no American troops have died while riding in one. Yet efforts to buy thousands more carriers - each costing about $1 million - could be delayed if the White House and Congress do not resolve their deadlock over a $124.2 billion war spending bill. About $3 billion for the vehicles is tied up in the legislation. The spending plan has stalled because of a dispute over provisions that would set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Read The Full Story Lightning Sparks Blast, Fire At Oklahoma Oil Refinery 2007-04-28 19:45:27 Flames and smoke poured into the sky Saturday over an oil refinery where lightning set off a fire and an explosion that was felt miles away, said authorities. No injuries were reported and there were no immediate evacuation orders in the southcentral Oklahoma town, said Mike Hancock, a spokesman for Wynnewood Refinery Co. Flames and smoke boiled hundreds of feet into the air from two 80,000-gallon tanks in the Wynnewood Refinery complex, said officials. Firefighters doused the area surrounding the tanks Saturday, said Hancock. Read The Full Story A Saudi Prince Tied To Bush Sounding Out Of Step With Saudi King 2007-04-28 13:15:11 No foreign diplomat has had a closer relationship or more access to President Bush, his family, and his administration than the magnetic and fabulously wealthy Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia.  Prince Bandar has mentored Bush and his father through three wars and the broader campaign against terrorism, reliably delivering - sometimes in the Oval Office - his nation’s support for crucial and sensitive Middle East initiatives requiring the regional legitimacy that Saudi help and approval brings, and keeping the United States apprised of Saudi regional priorities that might appear to be in conflict with United States policies. Now, current and former Bush administration officials are wondering if the administration’s longtime reliance on Prince Bandar has begun to outlive its usefulness. Bush administration officials have been scratching their heads over steps taken by Prince Bandar’s uncle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that have surprised them by going against the American playbook, after receiving assurances to the contrary from Prince Bandar during secret trips he made to Washington, D.C. Read The Full Story Rice Deputy Quits Over Questions About Escort Service 2007-04-28 13:14:21 Randall L. Tobias, the deputy secretary of state responsible for U.S. foreign aid, abruptly resigned Friday after he was asked about an upscale escort service allegedly involved in prostitution, said U.S. government sources. Tobias resigned after ABC News contacted him with questions about the escort service, said the sources. ABC News released a statement last night saying Tobias acknowledged Thursday that he had used the service to provide massages, not sex. Tobias has been Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's point man in an ambitious effort to overhaul how the U.S. government manages foreign aid, a key part of her "transformational diplomacy" agenda. Just two days ago, President Bush lauded Tobias for his work in the administration leading "America's monumental effort to confront and deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the continent of Africa." Read The Full Story World Bank Officials: Wolfowitz Panel Finds Ethics Breach 2007-04-28 13:13:43 A World Bank committee investigating president Paul D. Wolfowitz has nearly completed a report that it plans to give the institution's governing board, concluding that he breached ethics rules when he engineered a pay raise for his girlfriend, three senior bank officials said Friday. Friday evening, the committee was debating whether to explicitly recommend that Wolfowitz resign, according to the sources, who spoke on condition they not be named, citing an ongoing probe into leaks. Wolfowitz is scheduled to appear before the committee with his attorney on Monday morning and mount his defense, and the bank's 24-member board of directors will convene that afternoon to discuss the report. The sources suggested that a vote by the board could come that day. Read The Full Story 22 Die As Suicide Bomber Attacks Pakistan's Interior Minister 2007-04-28 13:13:10 A suicide bomber blocked from approaching Pakistan's interior minister detonated his explosives at a political gathering in the northwestern town of Charsadda Saturday, killing at least 22 people and wounding 35, said officials. State television showed Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao walking to his car after the blast, with blood on his face and white tunic. Asif Iqbal Daudzai, spokesman for the government of North West Frontier Province, said the attack killed 22 people and wounded more than 35. The dead included two staff members and two of Sherpao's security guards, who blocked the attacker from approaching. Read The Full Story	Bush Administration Ignored Most Foreign Aid To Help Katrina Victims 2007-04-29 02:28:56 As the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina were receding, presidential confidante Karen Hughes sent a cable from her State Department office to U.S. ambassadors worldwide. Titled "Echo-Chamber Message" - a public relations term for talking points designed to be repeated again and again - the Sept. 7, 2005, directive was unmistakable: Assure the scores of countries that had pledged or donated aid at the height of the disaster that their largesse had provided Americans "practical help and moral support" and "highlight the concrete benefits hurricane victims are receiving." Many of the U.S. diplomats who received the message, however, were beginning to witness a more embarrassing reality. They knew the U.S. government was turning down many allies' offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina's victims. Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash, but only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent. Read The Full Story Gonzales Heckled At Harvard Reunion 2007-04-29 02:27:37 A small group of student protesters, including one wearing a black hood and an orange jumpsuit, heckled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as he posed with old classmates Saturday during their 25-year Harvard Law School reunion. "When the photographer was getting everybody set up and having people say 'cheese', the protesters yelled: 'say torture, instead', 'resign' and 'I don't recall'," said Nate Ela, a protester and third-year student. Law school spokesman Mike Armini said the impromptu protest was so small that some of those attending the photo shoot did not notice it. Read The Full Story British Defense Ministry Admits Soldiers' Body Parts Sent Home In Wrong Coffins 2007-04-29 02:26:25 Body parts of British soldiers who died on operations in Afghanistan have been mixed up and placed in the wrong coffins. The government has admitted that the remains of at least one serviceman, who died in Britain's worst military disaster in the war, ended up inside another victim's coffin. The issue came to light only when the personal belongings from one of the dead were given by RAF officials to a family who said they were not his. Read The Full Story 'Stagflation' Fears As Dollar Drops To New Low Against Euro 2007-04-28 19:45:42 The dollar fell to its lowest ever level against the European single currency Friday night after weak exports and the slump in America's housing market dragged the U.S. growth rate to its lowest in four years. Analysts warned that the world's biggest economy was on course for mild "stagflation" - slow growth coupled with upward pressures on prices - after Washington said gross domestic product rose just 1.3% at an annual rate in the first quarter of 2007. The pace of expansion was not only below the already modest 1.8% predicted by Wall Street but was accompanied by evidence that the Federal Reserve may be held back from cutting interest rates by inflation running at 4%. On the foreign exchanges the euro traded at close to $1.37, while sterling (i.e. the British pound) pushed back above the $2 barrier after being under pressure on Thursday. Capital Economics analyst Paul Ashworth said rising gasoline prices and a dip in consumer confidence meant that consumption - which makes up 70% of GDP (gross domestic product) in the U.S. - could weaken in the second quarter. "An outright decline in GDP is not out of the question," he said. Read The Full Story Rebel Planes Bomb Sri Lanka Oil Facilities 2007-04-28 19:45:12 Planes of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels dropped bombs on two oil facilities near the capital Colombo on Sunday, slightly damaging one, said Sri Lanka's air force. Residents said they heard explosions and firing as the military responded to the air raid. Hospital officials said two people who worked at a power station were being treated for gunfire wounds. "Tamil Tiger aircraft came and dropped three bombs," said an air force spokesman, adding one fell on the Kolonnawa oil facility 5 kilometers (3 miles) north of Colombo. Two others hit the Kerawalapitiya oil storage site, 15 kilometers north of the city. Read The Full Story Rebuilt Iraq Projects Found Crumbling 2007-04-28 13:14:46 In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle. The United States has previously admitted, sometimes under pressure from federal inspectors, that some of its reconstruction projects have been abandoned, delayed or poorly constructed. This is the first time inspectors have found that projects officially declared a success - in some cases, as little as six months before the latest inspections - were no longer working properly. The inspections ranged geographically from northern to southern Iraq and covered projects as varied as a maternity hospital, barracks for an Iraqi special forces unit and a power station for Baghdad International Airport. At the airport, crucially important for the functioning of the country, inspectors found that while $11.8 million had been spent on new electrical generators, $8.6 million worth were no longer functioning. Read The Full Story Explosion At Shiite Shrine In Karbala Kills At Least 55, Wounds 70 2007-04-28 13:14:02 A parked car exploded Saturday near one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in the city of Karbala as people were headed to the area for evening prayers, killing 55 people and wounding dozens, said officials. The explosion took place in a crowded commercial area near the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, officials said. At least 55 people were killed and 70 wounded, said Salim Kazim, the head of the Karbala health department. A car bomb exploded in the same area on April 14, killing 47 and wounding 224. Saturday's explosion occurred a few hundred yards from the Imam Abbas shrine, setting several cars on fire and causing chaos. The explosion took place as the streets were filled with people heading for evening prayers at the Abbas shrine and the adjacent Imam Hussein shrine, two of Iraq's holiest Shiite sites. Read The Full Story Earthquake Shakes Kent, England 2007-04-28 13:13:27 An earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale shook parts of Kent Saturday, leaving at least one woman with head injuries. The tremor struck just after 8:15 a.m. this morning. The emergency services were inundated with calls as the ground shook and buildings were damaged, with cracks and toppling chimneys. Homes were evacuated and power was cut. Kent Fire and Rescue Service took more than 100 emergency calls, ranging from issues concerning structural damage to gas smells. A spokesman said: "We have had calls from people saying their chimneys have fallen down, large cracks in people's houses." The fire brigade investigated reports of someone trapped under a collapsed building but everyone was accounted for. Read The Full Story
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