Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday May 3 2007 - (813)

Thursday May 3 2007 edition
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Virulent New Tuberculosis Strain Raising Fears Of Pandemic 2007-05-03 02:19:30 A virulent strain of tuberculosis resistant to most available drugs is surfacing around the globe, raising fears of a pandemic that could devastate efforts to contain TB and prove deadly to people with immune-deficiency diseases such as HIV-AIDS. Known formally as extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, the strain has been detected in 37 countries. It arises when the bacterium that causes TB mutates because antibiotics used to combat it are carelessly administered by poorly trained doctors or patients don't take their full course of medication. Rather than being killed by the drugs, the microbe builds up resistance to them. At least 50 percent of those who contract this strain of TB will die of it, according to medical experts. In trying to stop the spread of the disease, which can be transmitted through coughing, spitting or even speaking, health officials have imposed sometimes extreme controls on infected people. Read The Full Story Former Aide To Gonzales Accused Of Bias 2007-05-03 02:18:39 The U.S. Justice Department has launched an internal investigation into whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former White House liaison illegally took party affiliation into account in hiring career federal prosecutors, officials said Wednesday. The allegations against Monica M. Goodling represent a potential violation of federal law and signal that a joint probe begun in March by the department's inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility has expanded beyond the controversial dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys attorneys last year. The revelations about Goodling were among several developments yesterday in connection with the firings, including a new subpoena seeking presidential adviser Karl Rove's e-mails and new accusations from two of the dismissed U.S. attorneys. In newly released statements, the two alleged that they were threatened by Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty's chief of staff immediately before Gonzales testified in the Senate in January. Read The Full Story Britain's Ministry Of Defense Opens Its UFO Files To Public 2007-05-03 02:17:46 Britain's Ministry of Defense plans to open its "X-Files" on UFO sightings to the public for the first time. Officials have not yet decided on a date for the release of the reports, which date back to 1967, but it is hoped to be within weeks. The move follows the decision by the French national space agency to release its UFO files in March, the first official body in the world to do so. UFO buffs will be keen to find out what officials knew about some of the U.K.'s most famous sightings and whether any action was taken. One celebrated event - at Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, in 1980 - has been dubbed "Britain's Roswell" after the UFO incident in the U.S. in 1947. At Rendlesham there were several witness reports of a UFO apparently landing. The released files should support or discount claims that radiation was detected at the site after the event. Read The Full Story Israel's Foreign Minister Says Olmert Should Resign 2007-05-02 15:03:03 The Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Wednesday that he should resign in the wake of a damning report about  Olmert’s performance in last summer’s war against Hezbollah. “I expressed my opinion to the prime minister that the right thing to do would be for him to resign,” she said in a press conference in Jerusalem Wednesday after meeting with Olmert. Ms. Livni, who also holds the post of deputy prime minister, said she had no intention of resigning from the government herself. In her first public statement since the report was released on Monday, she disappointed some of Olmert’s critics, who were expecting her to lead the rebellion against the embattled prime minister. Instead, she said she wanted to dispel what she called “rumors” that she was working to oust him. Read The Full Story FDA Seeks Antidepressant Warning 2007-05-02 15:01:30 Young adults beginning treatment with antidepressants should be warned about an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior, federal health officials said Wednesday. The Food and Drug Administration proposed labeling changes that would expand a warning now on all antidepressants. The current language applies only to children and adolescents. The expanded warning would apply to adults 18-24 during the first month or two of treatment with the drugs, said the FDA. The proposed labeling changes also would note that studies have not shown this increased risk in adults older than 24, and that adults 65 and older taking antidepressants have a decreased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior, it said. Read The Full Story U.S. House Fails To Override Bush On Iraq 2007-05-02 15:00:52 The Democratic-controlled House failed Wednesday to override President Bush's veto of an Iraqi war spending bill with timetables for troop withdrawals. The 222-203 vote, far short of the two-thirds majority needed for a veto override, occurred just ahead of a White House meeting that Bush called to begin compromise talks with congressional leaders of both parties on new legislation to finance the war, now in its fifth year. ''The president has turned a tin ear to the wishes of the American people,'' Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said during the hour-long debate before the vote. ''The president wants a blank check. The Congress will not give it to him.'' Read The Full Story Patriot Act Residency Clause Adds Fuel To Dispute Over U.S. Attorneys 2007-05-02 02:32:15 On Nov. 10, 2005, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales sent a letter to a federal judge in Montana, assuring him that the U.S. attorney there, William W. Mercer, was not violating federal law by spending most of his time in Washington as a senior Justice Department official. That same day, Mercer had a GOP Senate staffer insert into a bill a provision that would change the rules so that federal prosecutors could live outside their districts to serve in other jobs, according to documents and interviews Congress passed the provision several months later as part of the USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill, retroactively benefiting Mercer and a handful of other senior Justice officials who pull double duty as U.S. attorneys and headquarters officials. Justice officials say the measure was a necessary clarification to ensure that prosecutors could fill temporary postings in Washington, Iraq and elsewhere, and that it also applies to assistant U.S. attorneys. The episode, which received little notice at the time, provides another example in which Gonzales' statements appear to conflict with simultaneous actions by his aides in connection with U.S. attorney policies. Lawmakers investigating the department's handling of the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys have repeatedly accused Gonzales of being less than truthful about the roles played by himself and the White House. Read The Full Story Pentagon Study Says Oil Reliance Strains Military 2007-05-02 02:31:43 A new study ordered by the Pentagon warns that the rising cost and dwindling supply of oil - the lifeblood of fighter jets, warships, and tanks - will make the U.S. military's ability to respond to hot spots around the world "unsustainable in the long term." The study, produced by a defense consulting firm, concludes that all four branches of the military must "fundamentally transform" their assumptions about energy, including taking immediate steps toward fielding weapons systems and aircraft that run on alternative and renewable fuels. It is "imperative" that the Department of Defense "apply new energy technologies that address alternative supply sources and efficient consumption across all aspects of military operations," according to the report, which was provided to the Boston Globe. Weaning the military from fossil fuels quickly, however, would be a herculean task - especially because the bulk of the U.S. arsenal, the world's most advanced, is dependent on fossil fuels and many of those military systems have been designed to remain in service for at least several decades. Read The Full Story Wolfowitz's Story Disputed By Ex-World Bank Official 2007-05-02 02:30:54 The former chairman of the World Bank's ethics committee Tuesday accused the institution's embattled president, Paul D. Wolfowitz, of misleading a panel investigating his role in granting his girlfriend a substantial pay raise. In a written submission to the investigating committee, the former ethics chairman, Ad Melkert, contradicted Wolfowitz's assertion that he fully informed bank officers of his handling of his girlfriend's transfer to the State Department and that his actions had their blessing. "I am deeply hurt by efforts to manipulate information," Melkert said in his statement, maintaining that his committee was never consulted on the details of a promotion-and-raise package for Wolfowitz's girlfriend. His comments to the committee were an elaboration on a statement he released late Monday. Read The Full Story	Kurdish, Sunni Iraq Blocs Opposed To Draft Oil Bill 2007-05-03 02:19:08 Kurdish and Sunni Arab officials expressed deep reservations on Wednesday about the draft version of a national oil law and related legislation, misgivings that could derail one of the benchmark measures of progress in Iraq laid down by President Bush. The draft law, which establishes a framework for the distribution of oil revenues, was approved by the Iraqi cabinet in late February after months of negotiations. The White House was hoping for quick passage to lay the groundwork for a political settlement among the country’s ethnic and sectarian factions, but the new Kurdish concerns have created doubts about the bill even before Parliament is to pick it up for debate. The issue comes at a delicate moment for Bush, who on Wednesday began negotiations with Congressional Democrats over a new war-spending measure. The president vetoed a $124 billion bill on Tuesday because it included timetables for troop withdrawals, and a House vote on Wednesday fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto, with 222 voting in favor and 203 opposing the override. Read The Full Story E.U. Protests Over Russian Attacks On Ambassadors 2007-05-03 02:18:09 The confrontation between Russia and Estonia over second world war graves and monuments spread to the international stage Wednesday with protests to the Kremlin by the European Union, attacks on European diplomats in Moscow, and calls for the cancellation of an upcoming E.U.-Russia summit. Germany, which is chairing the E.U., delivered a diplomatic protest to the Russian government after the Estonian and Swedish ambassadors in Moscow were assaulted by youth activists loyal to President Vladimir Putin. In Brussels, the European commission voiced "deep concern regarding the increasing violence around the Estonian embassy in Moscow" and demanded that the Russian authorities honour their obligations to protect foreign diplomats. The president of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, sent a terse message to Russia: "Try to remain civilized." Read The Full Story Giuliani's Ties To Texas Law Firm May Pose Campaign Risk 2007-05-02 15:03:54 For a native New Yorker mounting a first bid for national office, Rudolph W. Giuliani has shown an impressive ability to raise money in Texas, where his Republican presidential campaign collected $2.2 million in the first quarter of the year, far more than any other candidate. Giuliani has drawn support from Texans who were notable donors to President Bush, including a former Enron president, Richard D. Kinder, and business executives who direct many of the nation’s oil, gas and energy producers. A good part of this success, analysts say, stems from his affiliation with a well-established and politically connected law firm that is based in Houston and bears his name, Bracewell & Giuliani. That affiliation adds to Giuliani’s personal wealth but also could pose political risks for him. The firm is perhaps the nation’s most aggressive lobbyist for coal-fired power plants, heavy emitters of air pollutants and carbon dioxide, a gas associated with global warming. Environmentalists say the firm played a significant role in persuading the Bush administration to roll back major provisions of the Clean Air Act. Read The Full Story Our Diet: Why We Should Give A Buzz About Bees On The Brink 2007-05-02 15:02:39 Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet. Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons. In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Read The Full Story Turkey's Prime Minister Calls For Early Elections 2007-05-02 15:01:17 Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked the Turkish parliament Wednesday to approve early national elections for June 24 and his party began to press for several constitutional changes that would bring it advantages in the coming political battle. Elections had been scheduled for November 4, but will be held early because Turkey’s highest court on Tuesday annulled a parliamentary vote for president, effectively blocking Erdogan’s candidate, a close ally with a background in Islamic politics. The ruling placed Erdogan’s party in a standoff with Turkey’s secular establishment. “Bringing forward the general election will reduce uncertainty,” said Bulent Arinc, the speaker of parliament and a senior member of Erdogan’s party, Reuters reported. Read The Full Story Time Warner 1st Quarter Profits Down 18 Percent 2007-05-02 15:00:11 Media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday its first-quarter profit slipped 18 percent, but beat Wall Street expectations as growth in its cable segment helped lift revenue by 9 percent. Net income slipped to $1.20 billion, or 31 cents per share, from $1.46 billion, or 32 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding one-time gains, profit from continuing operations totaled 22 cents per share in the latest period, ahead of the 20 cents per share that analysts polled by Thomson Financial had been expecting and also above the 20 cents per share that the company earned on a comparable basis in the same period a year ago. Revenue grew to $11.18 billion from $10.24 billion, led by growth in cable television. Read The Full Story Editorial: Spying On Americans 2007-05-02 02:31:57 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Wednesday, May 2, 2007. For more than five years, President Bush authorized government spying on phone calls and e-mail to and from the United States without warrants. He rejected offers from Congress to update the electronic eavesdropping law, and stonewalled every attempt to investigate his spying program. Suddenly, Mr. Bush is in a hurry. He has submitted a bill that would enact enormous, and enormously dangerous, changes to the 1978 law on eavesdropping. It would undermine the fundamental constitutional principle - over which there can be no negotiation or compromise - that the government must seek an individual warrant before spying on an American or someone living here legally. To heighten the false urgency, the Bush administration will present this issue, as it has before, as a choice between catching terrorists before they act or blinding the intelligence agencies. But the administration has never offered evidence that the 1978 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, hampered intelligence gathering after the 9/11 attacks. Mr. Bush simply said the law did not apply to him. Read The Full Story U.S. Seeks To Close Visa Loophole For Britons 2007-05-02 02:31:11 Omar Khyam, the ringleader of the thwarted London bomb plot who was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday, showed the potential for disaffected young men to be lured as terrorists, a threat that British officials said they would have to contend with for a generation. The 25-year-old Khyam, a Briton of Pakistani descent, also personifies a larger and more immediate concern: as a British citizen, he could have entered the United States without a visa, like many of an estimated 800,000 other Britons of Pakistani origin. American officials, citing the number of terror plots in Britain involving Britons with ties to Pakistan, expressed concern over the visa loophole. In recent months, the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, has opened talks with the government here on how to curb the access of British citizens of Pakistani origin to the United States. At the moment, the British are resistant, fearing that restrictions on the group of Britons would incur a backlash from a population that has always sided with the Labor Party. The Americans say they are hesitant to push too hard and embarrass their staunch ally in the Iraq war, Prime Minister Tony Blair, as he prepares to step down from office. Read The Full Story Millions Of Chickens Fed Tainted Pet Food 2007-05-02 02:30:32 At least 2.5 million broiler chickens from an Indiana producer were fed pet food scraps contaminated with the chemical melamine and subsequently sold for human consumption, federal health officials reported Tuesday. Hundreds of other producers may have similarly sold an unknown amount of contaminated poultry in recent months, they added, painting a picture of much broader consumption of contaminated feed and food than had previously been acknowledged in the widening pet food scandal. Officials emphasized that they do not believe the tainted chickens - or the smaller number of contaminated pigs that were reported to have entered the human food supply - pose risks to people who ate them. "We do not believe there is any significant threat of human illness from this," said David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's chief medical officer. FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach named Acheson yesterday the agency's new "food czar" - officially, assistant commissioner for food protection. Read The Full Story
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