Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday May 25 2007 - (813)

Friday May 25 2007 edition
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U.S. House, Senate Pass War Funding Bill 2007-05-25 02:40:42 The U.S. Congress sent President Bush a new Iraq funding bill Thursday that lacked troop withdrawal deadlines demanded by liberal Democrats, but party leaders vowed it was only a temporary setback in their efforts to bring home American troops. War opponents dismissed the bill as a capitulation to Bush and said they would seek to hold supporters in both parties accountable. Backers said the bill's provisions - including benchmarks for progress that the Iraqi government must meet to continue receiving reconstruction aid - represented an assertion of congressional authority over the war that was unthinkable a few months ago. Bush, who had vowed to veto any legislation with restrictions on troop deployments, announced he would sign the $120 billion package, which was approved 80 to 14 last night in the Senate, after a 280 to 142 House vote. He said the 18 benchmarks should signal to the Iraq government that "it needs to show real progress in return for America's continued support and sacrifice," adding, "We're going to expect heavy fighting in the weeks and months" ahead. Read The Full Story At Least 26 Killed In Iraq Funeral Procession Bombing 2007-05-25 02:40:12 A bomb hidden in a parked car struck the funeral procession of a Sunni tribal leader who was gunned down earlier Thursday, killing at least 26 mourners as al-Qaeda appeared to turn up its campaign of frightening its growing opposition into submission. Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of six U.S. soldiers in separate roadside bombing and shooting attacks across the country. The deaths raised the American death toll for May to at least 88, putting it on pace to be one of the deadliest months for U.S. troops here in years. Last month, 104 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq. The military has warned that U.S. casualties were likely to rise as it pushed ahead with its plan to crackdown on violence in Baghdad and the surrounding areas. Read The Full Story New Home Sales Soar As Prices Plummet 2007-05-25 02:39:38 New-home sales nationwide increased in April by the biggest margin in 14 years, but industry experts remained skeptical about the health of the real estate market, citing a record decline in prices and nagging uncertainty among builders. "In terms of the home builder industry, the bad times are not over," said Gregory E. Gieber, vice president of research at A.G. Edwards,a brokerage firm. "This is probably one of the worst recessions I've ever seen for housing." The Commerce Department reported Thursday that April sales of single-family homes jumped 16.2 percent from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 981,000 homes. The sales figures far surpassed the industry expectation of a 0.2 percent increase, economists said, but fell 10.6 percent short of the April 2006 estimate of nearly 1.1 million homes. Read The Full Story Pope Benedict Faces German Revolt As Anger Grows In Latin America 2007-05-25 02:38:58 Pope Benedict was in trouble on two fronts Thursday, struggling to contain anger over remarks he made in Latin America and facing a revolt by former colleagues in Germany. Following criticism of his views on the spread of Christianity in Latin America, the Pope acknowledged to pilgrims in Rome that "shadows" accompanied the conversion of indigenous groups. He said it was impossible "to forget the suffering [and] injustices inflicted by the colonizers on the indigenous population". His latest statement stopped well short of the apology demanded by, among others, Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, and he repeated his claim that Catholicism had shaped South America's culture favorably. On a tour of Brazil earlier this month, the Pope said indigenous populations had welcomed European priests, who arrived with the conquistadores, and claimed they had been "silently longing" for Christianity. The proclamation of the gospels, he said, "did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture". Read The Full Story Wanted: World Bank President - Experience Required This Time 2007-05-25 02:38:23 As the Bush administration narrows a list of candidates to replace World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz,  experience running a large organization has emerged as a primary requirement for the job, senior administration officials said Thursday. The next World Bank president will be an American, continuing a tradition that has held since the institution's creation after World War II, said the officials, who spoke on condition that they not be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Among the chief contenders under serious consideration are former U.S. trade representative Robert B. Zoellick and Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert M. Kimmitt, said the officials. An official said it was unlikely the administration will settle on a former senator, suggesting that such a profile does not ensure competence in overseeing the bank, which has 10,000 employees in 100 offices around the world. Read The Full Story New Files Link France's 'Chirac To Secret Japanese Bank Account' 2007-05-25 02:37:52 Jacques Chirac came under renewed pressure Thursday to respond to allegations that he held a secret $60 million (£30 million) account with a Japanese bank, amid reports that documents had emerged linking the former French president to the funds. Judges quizzed a retired senior intelligence officer for nine hours over documents, described as "explosive", linking Chirac to the account. Police had swooped on the home of General Philippe Rondot, former head of the DGSE intelligence service, as part of another inquiry but found files labelled Japanese affair, PR1 affair and PR2 affair. PR stands for President of the Republic. The judges were unable to consult the documents until Chirac handed over power to Nicolas Sarkozy on May 16. After opening the files - two days after he left the Elysee Palace - they called an immediate emergency meeting and ordered Gen. Rondot to appear for questioning. Inside the files they reportedly found details of an account allegedly opened in Chirac's name at the Tokyo Sowa Bank in the 1990s and copies of statements. Read The Full Story Poll: Opposition To Iraq War At All-Time High 2007-05-24 14:20:42 Americans now view the war in Iraq more negatively than at any time since the war began, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. Six in 10 Americans surveyed say the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, and more than three in four say that things are going badly there - including nearly half who say things are going very badly, the poll found. Still, the majority of Americans support continuing to finance the war, as long as the Iraqi government meets specific goals. President Bush’s approval ratings remain near the lowest point of his more than six years in office. Thirty percent of poll respondents approve of the job he’s doing overall, while 63 percent disapprove. Majorities of those polled disapprove of Bush’s handling of the situation in Iraq, of foreign policy, of immigration, of the economy and of the campaign against terrorism. Read The Full Story Israeli Troops Arrest More Than 30 Hamas Leaders 2007-05-24 14:19:45 Israeli troops in the West Bank arrested more than 30 senior Hamas members early Thursday, including a Cabinet minister, legislators and mayors - pressing forward with an offensive against the Islamic militant group. The roundup came hours after Israeli planes struck what the military said were money changing offices and other businesses in Gaza used to channel funds to Hamas. Israel has been attacking Hamas targets for more than a week in retaliation for repeated rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli border towns. The Israeli army said it arrested 33 Hamas leaders in its overnight sweep. The most prominent official taken in the roundup was Education Minister Nasser Shaer, considered a pragmatist in the movement. Read The Full Story Oil Industry Says Biofuel Push May Keep Gas Prices Up 2007-05-24 01:54:31 Gas prices are spiking again - to an average of $3.22 a gallon, and close to $4 a gallon in many areas. Some oil executives are now warning that the current shortages of fuel could become a long-term problem, leading to stubbornly higher prices at the pump. They point to a surprising culprit: uncertainty created by the government’s push to increase the supply of biofuels like ethanol in coming years. In his State of the Union address in January, President Bush called for a sharp increase in the use of biofuels, along with some improvement in automobile fuel efficiency to reduce America’s use of gasoline by 20 percent within 10 years. Congress is considering legislation calling for a nearly fivefold increase in the use of ethanol. Read The Full Story Analysis: On War Funding, Democrats Saw No Option But To Cede To Bush 2007-05-24 01:53:58 Congressional contortions over the Iraq spending bill could end up with most House Democrats momentarily occupying the position they were so desperate to vacate: the minority. The decision by the Democratic majority to strip the measure of a timetable for troop withdrawal has raised the prospect that it could be approved mainly by Republicans with scattered Democrat support. The idea that many Democrats would be left on the losing side in a consequential vote has exposed a sharp divide within the party, drawn scorn from antiwar groups, confused the public and frustrated the party rank and file. In recounting the leadership’s thinking, senior Democrats and other officials said that by early this week they had concluded there was no alternative but to give ground to President Bush despite their view that he had mishandled the war and needed to be put under tighter Congressional rein. Read The Full Story U.S. FDA Was Warned Years Ago Of Avendia's Risks 2007-05-24 01:53:18 A leading diabetes doctor sent the U.S. Food and Drug Administration a letter seven years ago that warned of the heart risks of the drug Avandia. And in the next year, the F.D.A. reprimanded the drug’s maker for playing down safety concerns, according to documents from 2000 and 2001. The documents, found in a reporter’s search of the F.D.A.’s database, indicate that the agency had been warned of safety concerns with the Type 2 diabetes treatment Avandia, and that the drug’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline, was seeking to minimize Avandia’s risks, before some of the same cardiovascular concerns were brought to public attention on Monday in an article and an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine.  The F.D.A. has acknowledged that the company alerted the agency to concerns about a cardiovascular risk as early as 2005, based on the company’s analysis. Read The Full Story Insurers To Pay $4.55 Billion For World Trade Center Destruction 2007-05-24 01:52:16 The administration of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced the settlement of all insurance claims at ground zero Wednesday, ensuring that $4.55 billion will be available for rebuilding the World Trade Center site. The agreement, which the insurers described as the largest single insurance settlement ever undertaken by the industry, ended a protracted legal battle with insurers over payouts related to the terrorist attack. New York State and Port Authority officials said Wednesday that the deal removed any uncertainty over how much money would be available for rebuilding and would enable them to obtain private financing for the $9 billion project. Officials had worried that the insurance dispute might drag on for years, eating up millions of dollars in lawyers’ fees and potentially delaying reconstruction. The settlement is the culmination of a two-month campaign by the state insurance superintendent, Eric R. Dinallo, and involved meetings in Geneva, Paris and Delaware. Read The Full Story	Editorial: Ignoring The Warnings, Again? 2007-05-25 02:40:26 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Friday, May 25, 2007. The latest findings on Avandia, a top-selling diabetes drug, raise concerns both about its safety and about the way the manufacturer and the Food and Drug Administration have responded to signs of danger. It would be rash to make definitive judgments until the F.D.A. completes a detailed analysis. But the handling of this case bears disturbing resemblances to the Vioxx debacle, in which early warning signs were ignored by its manufacturer until the evidence of serious harm became inescapable and the drug was pulled from the market. Avandia was approved for sale in 1999 based on studies showing that it could lower blood glucose levels in patients suffering from Type 2 diabetes, also known as adult-onset diabetes. The assumption was that the drug could alleviate some of the most damaging effects of the disease, such as heart attacks and other cardiovascular ailments. But a paper just published in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that Avandia may instead increase the risk of a heart attack by 43 percent and perhaps the risk of cardiovascular deaths as well. The study - an analysis of the combined results of 42 previous studies that compared people who took the drug with people who did not - is not definitive, and the absolute risk to any given patient is small. But the study points to a risk that could potentially harm thousands of patients a year. Its lead author was Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who blew the whistle on the cardiovascular risks of Vioxx, which adds to the sense of deja  vu. Read The Full Story Iran Interest Rate Cut Sparks Panic Selling 2007-05-25 02:39:58 Iran's financial system suffered a fresh jolt Thursday with panic selling on the stock market after the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, abruptly ordered banks to cut interest rates sharply, despite surging inflation. The order, which Ahmadinejad issued by telephone during a visit to Belarus and which flew in the face of expert advice - has triggered warnings of a financial crisis and spiralling corruption amid fears of a capital flight from the country's lending institutions. Ahmadinejad's decree forced all state-owned and private banks to slash borrowing rates to 12%. Inflation is officially 15% but is generally believed to be much higher. State banks had been offering rates of 14%, while those in the private sector ranged from 17% to 28%. The decision caused panic in the Tehran stock exchange, with private banks losing much of their share value overnight. Shareholders in one bank, Karafarin, queued on Wednesday to sell their stock when previously there had been 1.2 million applicants to buy its shares. Read The Full Story Refugees Warn Clashes May Spread Amid Fury At Lebanese Army 2007-05-25 02:39:25 Lebanon's worst internal violence for two decades is in danger of spreading throughout the country, politicians, diplomats and refugees warned Thursday, as anger grew at the tactics of the Lebanese Army fighting Islamists in a northern refugee camp. Officials representing the 400,000-strong Palestinian community in Lebanon said there is a risk of militant sympathizers in other Palestinian camps rising up, after days of clashes in and around the Nahr al-Bared camp left at least 22 militants and 32 soldiers dead, as well as a dozen civilians. Scores have been wounded. "In the other camps, we have fundamentalists," said Souheil el-Natour, of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He pointed to recent armed demonstrations by a unit known as the Soldiers of the Martyrs. "They were sending a message to say what would happen [if the Lebanese army used more force]. "If the fundamentalists want to get revenge, they will go to Sidon," he added, referring to a large refugee camp in southern Lebanon which is highly symbolic as the birthplace of the assassinated prime minister Rafik Hariri. Read The Full Story British Government Knew Of HIV Risk From Imported Blood - 1,757 Have Died 2007-05-25 02:38:38 The British government's advisers on medicine knew that patients were at risk of contracting AIDS from imported blood products as early as 1983, but ruled against a ban because of fears it would cause a shortage of supply. Minutes obtained by the Guardian of a meeting held on July 13, 1983, reveal that the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) knew that "patients who repeatedly receive blood clotting-factor concentrates appear to be at risk" of AIDS. They also knew that the risks were highest if the blood products came "from the blood of homosexual and IV drug users in areas of high incidence - for example, New York and California" and for those who repeatedly received high doses of the blood plasma products. Despite this, the committee ruled that the risk of contracting AIDS had to be balanced against the "life-saving" benefits of their use to haemophiliacs. They also argued that withdrawing the blood products was "not feasible on the grounds of supply". British patients with the rare inherited condition in which blood does not clot normally were not told of the risks. Critics say they would have preferred to carry on receiving their previous treatment, called cryoprecipitate, manufactured in the U.K. from single donors, even though it meant going to a hospital. Read The Full Story Ex-CIA European Chief: Rendition Flights Put Allies In Difficult Position 2007-05-25 02:38:05 The former head of CIA covert operations in Europe admitted last night that "extraordinary rendition" - the practice of transferring detainees to camps, including Guantanamo Bay, where they risked being tortured - had caused serious problems for America's allies. Tyler Drumheller, who was in charge of the CIA's clandestine activities in Europe until 2005, said: "We have put our allies in a very difficult position." He said the way the issue of rendition flights was handled was one of the reasons he resigned. He told BBC2's Mystery Flights program last night that it affected "the willingness of other countries to work with us - the intelligence services and police forces of other countries we go to". He said: "It makes it difficult even if those countries do want to help us ... because there's all this bad publicity and they're at risk of violating their own laws and that sort of thing." Read The Full Story FIP Chat 2007-05-25 01:36:04   We've added yet another feature to Free Internet Press.    Using the 'Live Chat' link on the left, you may hop in and discuss anything you'd like.  This is intended for the discussion of today's topics, but may be used for anything you'd like.   We would appreciate it if you kept the conversation to news topics.   Please don't be abuse towards your others.  We know conversation will get heated, but try to keep it under control.   You must be logged into your user account to join the chat.   User accounts are free, although we do appreciate your donations.    JWSmythe   Editor   Free Internet Press Read The Full Story Amnesty International: Nations Use Fear To Distract Fr! om Rights Abuses 2007-05-24 14:20:20 Powerful governments and armed groups are spreading fear to divert attention from human rights abuses, exacerbating polarization in an increasingly dangerous world, Amnesty International said Wednesday in its annual assessment of rights worldwide. "The politics of fear is fueling a downward spiral of human rights abuse in which no right is sacrosanct and no person is safe," said Irene Khan, secretary general of the human rights watchdog. Governments are undermining the rule of law and human rights with "short-sighted fear-mongering and divisive policies." The United States is "the leading country using fear to justify the unjustifiable," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "The U.S. used to be in a position to speak out effectively against torture and military tribunals. We can't do that now because we are carrying out some of the same practices," he said. The organization urged the new U.S. Congress to take the lead in restoring respect for humane standards and practices at home and abroad. Read The Full Story SEC To Soften Scope Of Audit Law 2007-05-24 14:19:28 Securities regulators Wednesday voted to overhaul a corporate rule covering financial risks, reacting to intense pressure from Congress and years of criticism from industry groups who claim the directive proved too expensive and burdensome. In a 5 to 0 vote, the Securities and Exchange Commission urged public companies to review only their most critical financial policies for possible fraud and abuse. The agency also cut the amount of work that outside auditors need to perform on clients' financial controls, blamed for rising audit fees over the past three years. The adjustment to a rule known as Section 404 after its location in the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate accountability law is a substantial victory for business. Regulators initially predicted that the rule would cost an average of $91,000 per company. In the years since, large firms racked up bills in the millions of dollars and battled with auditors about whether they were being charged for busywork. Read The Full Story Rules Skirted, Millions Wasted On U.S. Navy Boat Barriers 2007-05-24 01:54:15 The men from al-Qaeda guided their bomb-laden skiff through the harbor and drew near the USS Cole, detonating a quarter-ton of C-4 plastic explosive that killed 17 sailors and tore a 40-foot hole in the side of the Navy destroyer. Pentagon officials vowed that nothing like the Oct. 12, 2000, attack in the Yemeni port of Aden would happen again. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service embarked on a plan to shield U.S. ships around the world with rings of floating, rubberized barriers. The investigative service is responsible for security and probing criminal wrongdoing, including fraud in Navy contracts, but auditors concluded that NCIS hired companies that did little or no significant work on the boat barriers yet collected millions of dollars in fees. Invoices, e-mails and audit documents obtained by the Washington Post also show that the General Services Administration, the agency that awards and oversees federal contracts, allowed the Navy to sidestep federal procurement rules designed to ensure competition and protect taxpayers from abuse and fraud. Read The Full Story Morgue Data Show Increase In Iraq Sectarian Killings 2007-05-24 01:53:45 More than three months into a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive designed to curtail sectarian violence in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq,Health Ministry statistics show that such killings are rising again. From the beginning of May until Tuesday, 321 unidentified corpses, many dumped and showing signs of torture and execution, have been found across the Iraqi capital, according to morgue data provided by a Health Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The data showed that the same number of bodies were found in all of January, the month before the launch of the Baghdad security plan. Such killings are a signature practice of Shiite militias, although Sunni insurgents are also known to execute victims. The number of found bodies is a key indicator of the level of sectarian violence, but the statistics also include some who died from causes unrelated to the political situation. Read The Full Story Candidate To Lead U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Withdraws Nomination 2007-05-24 01:52:54 A senior lobbyist at the National Association of Manufacturers withdrew his nomination to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Wednesday as a growing number of senators questioned both his suitability and a $150,000 departure payment that the association was preparing to give him. Administration officials and Congressional leaders said that the lobbyist, Michael E. Baroody, decided to step aside after it became clear that his nomination would be rejected by the Senate commerce committee. It was scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing on Thursday. Senator Bill Nelson, the Florida Democrat who earlier this month put a hold on the nomination, said in an interview Wednesday afternoon that he believed that Baroody withdrew because he did not want to make public the details of his $150,000 severance package, as several senators had demanded. Read The Full Story
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