Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday May 27 2007 - (813)

Sunday May 27 2007 edition
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A Longtime Gone For Minnesota National Guardsmen 2007-05-27 02:01:28 As often as he can, 6-year-old Austin Cassavant sits by his mother's computer in Crookston, Minnesota, and watches his father's face appear on the webcam from Iraq. On good days, sitting thousands of miles apart, they will tell stories and play tic-tac-toe. Waiting for his father's return, Austin began writing down his thoughts on slips of paper and dropping them in a jar. No one knows what he writes. "He and his dad can go through them," his grandmother said, "when he's home." By the time winter gave way to spring, the Minnesota National Guard was supposed to be back from war. Austin's father, Sgt. 1st Class Corey Cassavant, would be fishing for walleye and bass and grilling his catch. Spec. Corey Stusynski would be behind the counter at his paint store and teaching Sunday school. Staff Sgt. Logan Wallace would be plowing the fields near Thief Lake. Read The Full Story U.S., British Troops Clash With Sadr Militia 2007-05-27 02:01:02 U.S. and British troops battled Maqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra  on Friday and Saturday, killing about a dozen fighters shortly after the influential Shiite cleric demanded a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced that six American soldiers and two Marines were killed Friday and Saturday in five separate attacks, bringing to at least 101 the number of service members killed in Iraq this month. Most of the latest deaths came in roadside bombings or other attacks against vehicles, the military said. In other violence Saturday, an armed Shiite militia attacked a community in Khalis, about 30 miles north of Baghdad, about noon and killed 17 Sunnis and burned 20 houses, according to Lt. Mohammed Hakman of the Diyala province police. In recent months, the province has been the scene of some of Iraq's worst sectarian violence. During Sadr's Friday sermon in the southern holy city of Kufa, he called on Iraqis of all faiths and sects to stop fighting one another and instead unite against the U.S. military occupation. Read The Full Story U.S. Security Contractors Open Fire In Baghdad 2007-05-27 02:00:04 Employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, said U.S.and Iraqi officials. A Blackwater guard shot and killed an Iraqi driver Thursday near the Interior Ministry, according to three U.S. officials and one Iraqi official who were briefed on the incident but spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation. On Wednesday, a Blackwater-protected convoy was ambushed in downtown Baghdad, triggering a furious battle in which the security contractors, U.S. and Iraqi troops and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were firing in a congested area. Blackwater confirmed that its employees were involved in two shootings but could neither confirm nor deny that there had been any casualties, according to a company official who declined to be identified because of the firm's policy of not addressing incidents publicly. Read The Full Story Iran Claims Western Spy Networks Uncovered 2007-05-26 20:33:59 Iran said Saturday it has uncovered spy rings organized by the United States and its Western allies, claiming on state-run television that the espionage networks were made up of "infiltrating elements from the Iraqi occupiers." The Intelligence Ministry has "succeeded in identifying and striking blows at several spy networks comprised of infiltrating elements from the Iraqi occupiers in western, southwestern and central Iran," said the statement, using shorthand for United States and its allies. The broadcast did not elaborate, saying further details would be published within days. Meanwhile, the state IRNA news agency said the uncovered networks "enjoyed guidance from intelligence services of the occupying powers in Iraq" and also that "Iraqi groups" were "involved in the case." Read The Full Story U.S. Interior Dept. Scraps Species Law Changes 2007-05-26 20:33:05 Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said Friday he has scrapped a proposal that critics said would protect fewer rare plants and animals from extinction. Kempthorne said that while he doesn't think Congress should change the Endangered Species Act, the department is still looking for ways to change how the law is enforced. Environmentalists in March had made public a draft of rule changes the Interior Department was considering that they said would reduce the number of species that could be saved. They said the draft changes were so broad they amounted to gutting the program. "That predated me. I've put a stop to that," Kempthorne said during a lunch with a small group of reporters marking his first anniversary as interior secretary. He did not elaborate on what kind of changes are still under review. Read The Full Story Possible Aztec Offerings Found In Mexico 2007-05-26 20:32:17 Archaeologists diving into a lake in the crater of a snowcapped volcano found wooden scepters shaped like lightning bolts that match 500-year-old descriptions by Spanish priests and conquerors writing about offerings to the Aztec rain god. The lightning bolts - along with cones of copal incense and obsidian knives - were found during scuba-diving expeditions in one of the twin lakes of the extinct Nevado de Toluca volcano, at more than 13,800 feet above sea level. Scientists must still conduct tests to determine the age of the findings, but the writings after the Spanish conquest in 1521 have led them to believe the offerings were left in the frigid lake west of Mexico City more than 500 years ago. Read The Full Story Centers For Disease Control Warn About Contact Lens Solution 2007-05-26 14:29:57 Government officials are warning people to throw away a contact lens solution after an investigation linked it to a rare eye infection. The warning concerns AMO Complete Moisture Plus Multi-Purpose Solution, used for cleaning and storing soft contact lenses, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The solution seems to be a factor cases of Acanthamoeba keratitis, a painful eye infection that can lead to permanent vision loss or blindness. The CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating 138 confirmed cases. The solution is made by Advanced Medical Optics Inc., a publicly traded company based in Santa Ana, California. The company issued a statement Friday night saying it was "immediately and voluntarily recalling" the solution. Read The Full Story U.S. Anti-Terrorism Role Criticized By European Anti-Terrorist Officials 2007-05-26 14:29:33 Two of Europe's most prominent counter-terrorism officials on Friday criticized the United States for not being fully cooperative in the global fight against Islamist extremism, saying its unwillingness to share information and evidence in a timely manner had compromised important investigations and prosecutions. The remarks were made by senior investigative magistrates Armando Spataro, of Italy, and Baltasar Garzon, of Spain, at a counter-terrorism conference here that was attended by senior U.S. officials. The Americans acknowledged some problems in sharing information and evidence, but said the situation was improving and that no relevant material was being withheld intentionally. "It happens both ways," said one senior U.S. counter-terrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing diplomatic sensitivities. Read The Full Story Special Prosecutor Seeks 30 - 37 Months Jail Time For Libby 2007-05-26 14:28:19 Former top Bush administration aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby should spend 30 to 37 months in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald contended in court documents filed Friday. Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, has shown no remorse for lying to investigators and "about virtually everything that mattered" in the probe of who disclosed the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame to the media in 2003, Fitzgerald wrote. "Mr. Libby, a high-ranking public official and experienced lawyer, lied repeatedly and blatantly about matters at the heart of a criminal investigation concerning the disclosure of a covert intelligence officer's identity," Fitzgerald said in court papers. "He has shown no regret for his actions, which significantly impeded the investigation." Read The Full Story U.N. Peacekeeper In Darfur Fatally Shot 2007-05-26 14:22:46 A United Nations peacekeeper who was among a small group of reinforcements sent to Darfur was shot to death at his residence - the world body's first casualty since its long-negotiated arrival in the troubled region, officials said Saturday. Gunmen looted the home of the U.N. peacekeeper - an Egyptian lieutenant colonel - in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and fatally shot him late Friday, said the African Union (A.U.) and U.N. "The senseless killing of an innocent man in the confines of his residence is beyond comprehension," said Hassan Gibril, the deputy head of the A.U. mission, at a memorial for Lt. Col. Ehab Nazir. Read The Full Story 'Noah's Ark' Of 5,000 Rare Animals Found Floating Off China's Coast 2007-05-26 01:38:06 Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now abandoned, 5,000 of the world's rarest animals have been found drifting in a deserted boat near the coast of China. According to the local media, the cargo included 31 pangolins, 44 leatherback turtles, 2,720 monitor lizards, 1,130 Brazilian turtles as well as the bear paws. Photographs showed other animals, including an Asian giant turtle. All of these southeast Asian species are critically endangered, banned from international trade and yet openly sold in restaurants and markets in China's southern province of Guangdong, which is famous for its exotic cuisine. The pangolins, Asian giant turtles and lizards were crushed inside crates on a rickety wooden vessel that had lost engine power off Qingzhou island in the southern province of Guangdong. Most were alive, though the cargo also contained 21 bear paws wrapped in newspaper. Read The Full Story Pentagon Warns That China Is Building More Missiles 2007-05-26 01:37:22 China is modernizing its military in ways that give it options for launching surprise attacks, potentially on targets far from its borders, the Pentagon said Friday. The Chinese are acquiring better missiles, submarines and aircraft and should more fully explain the purpose of their military buildup, the Defense Department said in an annual report to Congress. The Pentagon said China's short-term focus remains the Taiwan Straits, where the nation continues to position more short-range ballistic missiles. By October, China had increased its force of mobile short-range missiles based in garrisons opposite Taiwan to 900, the report said, an increase of at least 14 percent. In late 2005, between 710 and 790 missiles were based there, according to the Pentagon. More broadly, the Defense Department concluded, Beijing is pursuing a strategy that appears designed to give it a capability to fight wars farther from its shores and to thwart any U.S.advances. Read The Full Story Top Foreign Talents Could Lose Fast-Track To U.S. Under Immigration Bill 2007-05-26 01:36:31 Would America open its doors for the next Albert Einstein? Under the new immigration bill, the answer is maybe, but maybe not. For years, foreign-born Nobel Prize winners, corporate officers, and top talents in sports, arts and sciences have had a fast track to permanent residency, and eventually citizenship, in the United States. In the name of attracting the world's greatest and brightest, authorities have granted these luminaries priority access to green cards under a little-known provision offered to "aliens of extraordinary abilities". It has provided a way for a host of notable foreigners - among them John Lennon and Yoko Ono and Venezuelan-born New York Yankee Bobby Abreu - to make America their home. Read The Full Story Mahdi Army Vows Revenge On British Troops After Basra Leader Is Killed 2007-05-26 01:35:27 The Mahdi army Shia militia vowed last night to conduct revenge attacks on British soldiers in southern Iraq after its Basra leader was killed by Iraqi special forces in an operation supported by U.K. troops. Wissam Abu Qader, described by British officials as responsible for criminal activities and attacks against foreign troops, was killed shortly after leaving Friday prayers. A British army spokesman said he died while trying to resist arrest. An Iraqi military intelligence officer said he was travelling in a car with two other men when it came under fire. Major David Gell, a British army spokesman in Basra, said the operation was authorized by the Iraqi government. Iraqi special forces "initiated the operation" with about 200 British troops from the 2nd Battalion the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and 4th Battalion the Rifles "present as advisers", the army said in a statement. The Mahdi army blamed an Iraqi army hit squad, which it says works with the British, for the killing, and promised swift revenge. "The Mahdi army will attack any British unit, they will see to avenge his killing," said a mid-ranking commander, Abu Mujtaba. "Our men are moving all over Basra now in civilian cars carrying RPGs and weapons. We have the full cooperation of the police who will inform us on any moving British vehicles." Read The Full Story Tensions Rise After Ukraine's President Makes Power Grab 2007-05-26 01:34:35 Ukraine descended into further political chaos Friday after President Viktor Yushchenko attempted to seize control of the national guard, prompting accusations he was trying to stage a coup. In a presidential decree signed yesterday, Yushchenko took command of the troops away from the interior ministry, which is loyal to the governing coalition of Viktor Yanukovich, the prime minister. An interior ministry spokesman, Konstantin Stogniy, rejected Yushchenko's decree as illegal. Yanukovich accused the president of "seriously aggravating" the situation. Read The Full Story	Editorial: War Without End 2007-05-27 02:01:13 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Sunday, May 27, 2007. Never mind how badly the war is going in Iraq. President Bush has been swaggering around like a victorious general because he cowed a wobbly coalition of Democrats into dropping their attempt to impose a time limit on his disastrous misadventure. By week’s end, Mr. Bush was acting as though that bit of parliamentary strong-arming had left him free to ignore not just the Democrats, but also the vast majority of Americans, who want him to stop chasing illusions of victory and concentrate on how to stop the sacrifice of young Americans’ lives. And, ever faithful to his illusions, Mr. Bush was insisting that he was the only person who understood the true enemy. Speaking to graduates of the Coast Guard Academy, Mr. Bush declared that al-Qaeda is “public enemy No. 1” in Iraq and that “the terrorists’ goal in Iraq is to reignite sectarian violence and break support for the war here at home.” The next day, in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush turned on a reporter who had the temerity to ask about Mr. Bush’s declining credibility with the public, declaring that al-Qaeda is “a threat to your children” and accusing him of naively ignoring the danger. Read The Full Story Engulfed By Climate Change, Alaska Town Seeks Lifeline 2007-05-27 02:00:39 The sturdy little Cessnas land whenever the fog lifts, delivering children’s bicycles, boxes of bullets, outboard motors and cans of dried oats. And then, with a rumble down a gravel strip, the planes are gone, the outside world recedes and this subarctic outpost steels itself once again to face the frontier of climate change.  “I don’t want to live in permafrost no more,” said Frank Tommy, 47, standing beside gutted geese and seal meat drying on a wooden rack outside his mother’s house. “It’s too muddy. Everything is crooked around here.” The earth beneath much of Alaska is not what it used to be. The permanently frozen subsoil, known as permafrost, upon which Newtok and so many other Native Alaskan villages rest, is melting, yielding to warming air temperatures and a warming ocean. Sea ice that would normally protect coastal villages is forming later in the year, allowing fall storms to pound away at the shoreline. Erosion has made Newtok an island, caught between the ever widening Ninglick River and a slough to the north. The village is below sea level, and sinking. Boardwalks squish into the spring muck. Human waste, collected in “honey buckets” that many residents use for toilets, is often dumped within eyeshot in a village where no point is more than a five-minute walk from any other. The ragged wooden houses have to be adjusted regularly to level them on the shifting soil. Read The Full Story Chinese Media Blast Pentagon Report 2007-05-27 01:59:47 Chinese state media on Sunday blasted a Pentagon report on Beijing's defense plans as misleading and insulting, and said China had to pursue military modernization to avoid falling further behind the United States. The U.S. Defense Department report released on Friday said that while Beijing remained focused on the Taiwan Strait as a potential flashpoint, it also appeared to be looking to project its growing military strength elsewhere. Beijing has yet to give a formal reaction to the report, but the ruling Communist Party's newspaper and other state media signaled China's rancor. While Beijing and Washington have been cooperating on North Korea and other international crises, the tough words underscored the distrust that overshadows military perceptions on both sides. Read The Full Story Ethicists Disagree On Critical Medical Care Without Consent 2007-05-26 20:33:47 The federal government is undertaking the most ambitious set of studies ever mounted under a controversial arrangement that allows researchers to conduct some kinds of medical experiments without first getting patients' permission. The $50 million, five-year project, which will involve more than 20,000 patients in 11 sites in the United States and Canada, is designed to improve treatment after car accidents, shootings, cardiac arrest and other emergencies. The three studies, organizers say, offer an unprecedented opportunity to find better ways to resuscitate people whose hearts suddenly stop, to stabilize patients who go into shock and to minimize damage from head injuries. Because such patients are usually unconscious at a time when every minute counts, it is often impossible to get consent from them or their families, the organizers say. Read The Full Story U.S. Rejects G-8 Climate Proposal 2007-05-26 20:32:47 U.S. officials have raised a second round of unusually bluntly worded objections to a proposed global-warming declaration that Germany prepared for next month's Group of Eight summit, according to documents obtained by  the Washington Post. Representatives from the world's leading industrial nations met the past two days in Heilgendamm, Germany, to negotiate over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposed statement, which calls for limiting the worldwide temperature rise this century to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit and cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Bush administration officials, who raised similar objections in April, rejected the idea of setting mandatory emissions targets as well as language calling for G-8 nations to raise overall energy efficiencies by 20 percent by 2020. With less than two weeks remaining, said sources familiar with the talks, the climate document is the only unresolved issue in the statements the world leaders are expected to sign at the June 6-8 summit. Read The Full Story 7 U.S. Soldiers Die As May Toll Nears 100 2007-05-26 14:30:10 The U.S. military Friday reported the deaths of seven more troops in Iraq, hours after President Bush warned that a bloody summer lay ahead. Military officers in Baghdad predict that insurgents will seek to inflict maximum casualties before the top commander, U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, delivers a review of the troop buildup in September. Three of the U.S. service members died Friday. One soldier was killed by small-arms fire in Baghdad province, another in a roadside bombing north of the capital, and a Marine died of noncombat causes in Al Anbar province, said the military. On Thursday, a soldier was killed by small-arms fire and two died in bombings in Baghdad and north of the capital, the military said. One of the blasts also killed an Iraqi interpreter. A U.S. soldier was killed Tuesday in an explosion near his vehicle in Baghdad province. Read The Full Story Much-Admired University Of California Figure Missing In Iran 2007-05-26 14:29:48 Ali Shakeri is admired for diplomacy through wit. He has a knack, said fellow board members at the University of California Irvine's Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, for cutting through tension with a well-timed joke. He has kidded tirelessly to knit together Orange County's large Iranian American community and has taken his lessons home, sharing meals with another board member who is Jewish. In March, Shakeri told colleagues he was flying to Tehran; his mother was ailing. But when former President Carter spoke at UCI this month, and Shakeri was oddly absent from the event, board members began to wonder whether he was coming home. Read The Full Story Walter Reed Official Returned To Full Duty 2007-05-26 14:29:14 A senior commander at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who was placed on administrative leave earlier this month has been returned to full duty after an internal investigation cleared him of responsibility for leadership failures at the facility, a hospital official said Friday. Col. Virgil T. Deal, who as the health-care system's commander oversaw much of the hospital's operations, was removed from the post on May 3 by Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the hospital commander. "Schoomaker's intent at that time was to relieve Deal of command," Steve Sanderson, a spokesman for Walter Reed, said Friday. Read The Full Story Editorial: Romney's Campaign Finance Flip 2007-05-26 14:27:56 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the Washington Post's edition for Saturday, May 26, 2007. "MY FEAR," former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said at the Republican debate this month, "is that McCain-Kennedy would do to immigration what McCain-Feingold has done to campaign finance and money in politics, and that's bad." Mr. Romney has turned campaign finance reform into one of his stump villains - which represents a dramatic and wrongheaded turnabout from his days running for office in Massachusetts. Massachusetts Romney called for spending limits on candidates and a 10 percent tax on campaign contributions for state elections to finance publicly funded campaigns. Massachusetts Romney wanted to abolish political action committees because they wield too much power, and he bemoaned the influence of money in politics. Presidential candidate Romney vows that, if elected, "a top priority will be to push for the repeal of this deeply flawed measure," referring to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. In an essay posted on the Townhall blog last month, Mr. Romney denounced the law as a product of "Washington's back-scratching political class" that "impos[ed] unprecedented restrictions on the political activities of everyday Americans." Back-scratching? One key provision of McCain-Feingold ended the obscene practice of elected officials soliciting huge "soft money" donations from companies they regulated. You can't get much scratchier than that. Read The Full Story Bush Administration Rejects All Proposals On Climate Change 2007-05-26 01:38:18 The U.S. government has rejected any prospect of a deal on climate change at the G8 summit in Germany next month, according to a leaked document. Despite British Prime Minister Tony Blair's declaration on Thursday that Washington would sign up to "at least the beginnings" of action to cut carbon emissions, a note attached to a draft document circulated by Germany says the U.S. is "fundamentally opposed" to the proposals. The note, written in red ink, says the deal "runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to". "This document is called FINAL but we never agreed to any of the climate language present in the document ... We have tried to 'tread lightly' but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position," it says. Read The Full Story Commentary: Usuitable, Unsustainable 2007-05-26 01:37:34 Intellpuke: The following commentary by Matt Waldman appears in the Guardian edition for Saturday, May 26, 2007. Mr. Waldman works for Oxfam, a humanitarian charity, as its policy director for Afghanistan. He writes that  when Afghan children are forced to eat mud, it is clear we have squandered billions of dollars in aid. Mr. Waldman's commentary follows: The international community is in danger of repeating in Afghanistan the mistakes made in Iraq. Millions of Afghans have seen little material improvement in their lives since 2001, and most still live in desperate poverty. From the start, the damage inflicted by a quarter-century of war was underestimated; this is not about repairing the state but building it from scratch. Rural communities have seen some improvements, but essential services are scarce or inadequate. In provinces where Oxfam works such as Daikundi, there is no mains water or electricity, and virtually no paved roads. Average life expectancy in Daikundi is 42 and one in five children dies before the age of five. Afghan children chew on mud they scratch from the walls of their homes to stave off hunger. Most reconstruction work has focused on urban centers and national institutions and structures. It has been supply-driven, not needs-driven. Development urgently needs to go local, but there is confusion among state institutions about their roles, and district councils provided for by the constitution have yet to be elected. For ordinary Afghans, the local or tribal council of elders - the shura or jirga - constitutes the central authority. Yet these bodies have been largely neglected in the state-building process. Read The Full Story Intelligence Warnings Of Iraq Chaos Were Detailed Months Before The War 2007-05-26 01:37:04 Months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted that it would be likely to spark violent sectarian divides and provide al-Qaeda with new opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released Friday by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Analysts warned that war in Iraq also could provoke Iran to assert its regional influence and "probably would result in a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups" in the Muslim world. The intelligence assessments, made in January 2003 and widely circulated within the Bush administration before the war, said that establishing democracy in Iraq would be "a long, difficult and probably turbulent challenge." The assessments noted that Iraqi political culture was "largely bereft of the social underpinnings" to support democratic development. More than four years after the March 2003 invasion, with Iraq still mired in violence and 150,000 U.S. troops there under continued attack from al-Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents, the intelligence warnings seem prophetic. Other predictions, however, were less than accurate. Intelligence analysts assessed that any postwar increase in terrorism would slowly subside in three to five years, and that Iraq's vast oil reserves would quickly facilitate economic reconstruction. Read The Full Story Largess To Clintons Lands CEO In Lawsuit 2007-05-26 01:35:53 For the past four years, the Clintons have jetted around on Vinod Gupta's corporate plane, to Switzerland, Hawaii, Jamaica, Mexico - $900,000 worth of travel. The former president secured a $3.3 million consulting deal with Gupta's technology firm. His presidential library got a six-figure gift, too. Gupta, whose big donations to the Democratic Party earned him a Lincoln Bedroom overnight when Bill Clinton  was president, has emerged as a key benefactor of Clinton's post-presidency - and Hillary Rodham Clinton's  presidential candidacy. Gupta's generosity toward the Clintons has proved so controversial within his firm - a major provider of database-processing services - that it prompted a shareholder lawsuit complaining that hiring the former president was a "waste of corporate assets." Read The Full Story Bush Signs Iraq War Funding Bill 2007-05-26 01:34:59 President Bush signed a bill Friday to pay for military operations in Iraq after a bitter struggle with Democrats in Congress who sought unsuccessfully to tie the money to U.S. troop withdrawals. Bush signed the bill into law at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, where he is spending part of the Memorial Day weekend. In announcing the signing, White House spokesman Tony Fratto noted that it came 109 days after Bush sent his emergency spending request to Congress. Bush had rejected an earlier bill because it contained a timetable for withdrawing troops. However, the New York Times reported Friday night that the Bush administration is working on ideas for cutting U.S. forces in Iraq by as much as half, to roughly 100,000, by mid-2008. Read The Full Story John Major To Tony Blair: Stop Acting Like Nellie Melba And Go Now 2007-05-26 01:34:17 Sir John Major Saturday called on his successor to quit Downing Street and hand over power to Gordon Brown as soon as possible. In an interview with the Guardian, the former Tory prime minister criticized Tony Blair's drawn-out departure from office, mocking him for being "in the middle of the longest farewell since Dame Nellie Melba quit the stage". Sir John warns that it would be "constitutionally desirable for Gordon Brown to become prime minister with the minimum of delay". He argued that the present situation, which will see Blair continue as prime minister until the Labor Party's leadership contest is concluded late next month, is unncessary. "It is clear that Gordon Brown has the support of the majority of the Labor party and is a certainty to become prime minister," he says. "It's known that the present prime minister is going, it's certain who will be replacing him, I can't see any reason for a delay - it is not a presidency." Read The Full Story
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