Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday May 30 2007 - (813)

Wednesday May 30 2007 edition
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Editorial: The Coal Trap 2007-05-30 02:30:47 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Thursday, May 30, 2007. There is a rule for judging solutions to the twin problems of energy dependence and global warming: A policy designed to solve one problem should not make the other worse. But that is a likely outcome of the many “energy independence” bills circulating in Congress that aim to build a whole new generation of coal-to-liquid plants to convert coal into automotive fuel. These bills have already acquired an enthusiastic constituency and will be offered as amendments to what is now a relatively simple and sound energy bill designed to increase the fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks, encourage the production of biofuels and provide research and development money for the capture and storage of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. There are, of course, ways to make this bill better. Senator Jeff Bingaman will offer a useful amendment to require utilities to generate a percentage of their electricity from renewable sources like wind. But there are also ways to make the bill a lot worse. One of them is to require the expenditure of billions of dollars in loans, tax incentives and price guarantees to lock in a technology that could end up doing more harm than good. Read The Full Story Chavez Attacks Another Private TV Channel 2007-05-30 02:30:18 President Hugo Chavez condemned Venezuela's last remaining opposition-aligned TV station Tuesday, two days after pulling the plug on another critical broadcaster. The president called cable news channel Globovision an enemy of the state, and accused it of fomenting violence and attempts to assassinate him. "Enemies of the homeland, particularly those behind the scenes, I will give you a name: Globovision. Greetings gentlemen of Globovision. You should watch where you are going," he said, in a speech all stations were obliged to air. He accused it of distorting reaction to the closure of RCTV, a network which closed on Sunday after the government refused to renew its license. "I recommend they take a tranquilizer, that they slow down, because if not, I'm going to slow them down." Tens of thousands of mostly youthful protesters have marched through the capital, Caracas, and other cities for four days chanting slogans accusing the government of drifting towards Cuba-style authoritarianism. Clashes with police have left dozens injured. Read The Full Story Rice Cautions Israel On Syria 2007-05-30 02:29:38 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday cautioned against a growing sentiment in Israel to pursue peace with Syria instead of with warring Palestinian factions, saying there is "no substitute" for creating a Palestinian state. Rice, who will discuss the stalled peace process with diplomats here Wednesday, has worked for months to lay the groundwork for Palestinians and Israelis to begin discussing what she calls a "political horizon" - the parameters of a possible Palestinian state. But with violence erupting between Palestinian factions - and with Israel under constant attack from rockets launched from the Gaza Strip - Rice has faced criticism from some outside experts for spending so much time on a diplomatic long shot, rather than seeking to quickly end the violence. Read The Full Story U.S. Seeks Fliers Possibly Exposed To Drug-Resistent TB, 1 Person Quarantined 2007-05-29 19:26:01 Federal health authorities are looking for people who may have been exposed aboard a plane to someone infected with a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis known as XDR-TB. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday that the case involves a U.S. citizen who traveled on two international flights. XDR-TB was recently defined as a subtype of multiple-drug resistant tuberculosis. It can be fatal. As with all TB, the disease can be spread through the air. "In this case, the infected patient traveled on two trans-Atlantic air flights and, in doing so, may have exposed passengers and crew to XDR-TB," said the agency. Read The Full Story 10 U.S. Soldiers Killed On Memorial Day, 5 British Nationals Kidnapped 2007-05-29 15:23:38 Gunmen dressed in police uniforms kidnapped five Britons from Iraq's Finance Ministry Tuesday, the same day that two suicide bombings killed at least 44 people and U.S. officials announced the Memorial Day deaths of 10 American soldiers. Four of the abducted British nationals were bodyguards from a private Canadian security firm and the fifth was their client, said a spokesman for the firm, GardaWorld Security Corp. "A client and four GardaWorld security professionals were forcibly taken from a work site this morning," spokesman Joe Gavaghan said, adding that the firm is "supporting recovery efforts." Among its various services, GardaWorld offers "contingency planning and response" for "kidnap and ransom" incidents around the world, according to its Web site. The British Foreign Office confirmed the kidnappings but would not immediately provide any details. Read The Full Story Obama Offers Universal Health Care Plan 2007-05-29 15:23:04 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday offered a sweeping health care plan that would provide every citizen a means for coverage and calls on government, businesses and consumers to share the costs of the program. Obama said his plan could save the average consumer $2,500 a year and bring health care to all. Campaign aides estimated the cost of the program at $50 billion to $65 billion a year, financed largely by eliminating tax cuts for the wealthy that are scheduled to expire. President Bush wants to make those cuts permanent. "The time has come for universal, affordable health care in America," Obama said in a speech in Iowa City, at the University of Iowa's medical school. While Obama's plan is aimed at expanding coverage, he said cutting costs is also essential. Read The Full Story 3 Americans Charged With Espionage By Iran 2007-05-29 15:22:12 Iran Tuesday formally charged three Americans with espionage and endangering national security, the judicial spokesman said, in a move that widens Tehran's clampdown against U.S. citizens. The three are prominent Washington scholar Haleh Esfandiari, social scientist Kian Tajbakhsh of the Open Society Institute, and Parnaz Azima, correspondent for U.S.-funded Radio Farda. Iran announced over the weekend that it had wrapped up American spy networks and summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Iran, to protest. The State Department called on Tehran to immediately free the Americans. "These are individuals that have family ties to Iran [and] have done independent research and other kinds of civil society activities there for many years. They certainly pose no threat or challenge to the regime," said spokesman Tom Casey. Read The Full Story Russia Test-Launches New ICBM 2007-05-29 15:21:10 Russia Tuesday test-launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, and a top government official said it could penetrate any defense system, a news agency reported. The new missile would modernize Russia's stockpile at a time of rising tensions with the West. The ICBM was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia, and its test warhead landed on target about 3,400 miles away on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, a statement from the Russian Strategic Missile Forces said. Read The Full Story Congress Members Push For Big Subsidy For Coal Process 2007-05-29 02:37:41 Even as Congressional leaders draft legislation to reduce greenhouse gases linked to global warming, a powerful roster of Democrats and Republicansis pushing to subsidize coal as the king of alternative fuels. Prodded by intense lobbying from the coal industry, lawmakers from coal states are proposing that taxpayers guarantee billions of dollars in construction loans for coal-to-liquid production plants, guarantee minimum prices for the new fuel, and guarantee big government purchases for the next 25 years. With both House and Senate Democrats hoping to pass “energy independence” bills by mid-July, coal supporters argue that coal-based fuels are more American than gasoline and potentially greener than ethanol. Read The Full Story China Embraces Nuclear Future 2007-05-29 02:37:08 Not far from the old Silk Road, Chinese government scientists have begun boring holes deep into granite in the first steps toward building what could become the world's largest tomb for nuclear waste. As governments worldwide look at nuclear power as a possible answer to global warming, China has embarked on a nuclear-plant construction binge that eventually could exceed the one the United States undertook during the technology's heyday in the 1960s. Under plans already announced, China intends to spend $50 billion to build 32 nuclear plants by 2020. Some analysts say the country will build 300 more by the middle of the century. That's not much less than the generating power of all the nuclear plants in the world today. Read The Full Story	Al-Qaeda Video Threatens Attacks On U.S. 2007-05-30 02:30:36 An American member of al-Qaeda warned President Bush on Tuesday to end U.S. involvement in all Muslim lands or face an attack worse than the Sept. 11 suicide assault, according to a new videotape. Wearing a white robe and a turban, Adam Yehiye Gadahn, who also goes by the name Azzam al-Amriki, said al-Qaeda would not negotiate on its demands. "Your failure to heed our demands ... means that you and your people will ... experience things which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11th, Afghanistan and Iraq and Virginia Tech,'' he said in the seven-minute video. Read The Full Story Pfizer Faces Charges In Nigeria 2007-05-30 02:29:57 Nigerian officials have brought criminal charges against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for the company's alleged role in the deaths of children who received an unapproved drug during a meningitis epidemic. Authorities in Kano, the country's largest state, filed eight charges this month related to the 1996 clinical trial, including counts of criminal conspiracy and voluntarily causing grievous harm. They also filed a civil lawsuit seeking more than $2 billion in damages and restitution from Pfizer, the world's largest drug company. The move represents a rare - perhaps unprecedented - instance in which the developing world's anger at multinational drug companies has boiled over into criminal charges. It also represents the latest in a string of public-relations blows stemming from the decade-old clinical trial, in which Pfizer says it acted ethically. Read The Full Story Hamas Leader: Attacks On Israel Will Continue 2007-05-30 02:29:26 Khaled Mashal, the influential political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, insists attacks on Israel will continue despite overwhelming Israeli retaliation that has cost scores of lives in the Gaza Strip in the past two weeks. Speaking in Damascus Tuesday he asserted it was the right of the Palestinians to resist "Zionist aggression" regardless of whether their actions were effective. The continuing siege of the Palestinians would lead to an explosion that would affect the entire Middle East, he predicted. "Under occupation people don't ask whether their means are effective in hurting the enemy," he told the Guardian in a rare interview at his heavily guarded offices, plastered with images of Jerusalem and "martyrs" killed by the Israelis. Read The Full Story Bush Nominates Robert Zoellick To Head World Bank 2007-05-29 19:25:46 President Bush has decided to nominate Robert Zoellick, the former U.S. trade representative and former deputy secretary of state, to be president of the World Bank, a senior administration official said Tuesday. "We believe Bob Zoellick is uniquely qualified for the job," said the official, who requested anonymity because Bush has yet announce the choice. "He really has an incredible resume and he has the trust and respect of many officials around the world. He also believes deeply in the World Bank's mission of lifting people out of poverty." Bush is expected to announce his choice tomorrow, ending a search led by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson,  Jr., for a replacement for Paul D. Wolfowitz, who is leaving at the end of June. Wolfowitz announced plans to step down earlier this month after a bank panel concluded that he broke ethics rules in arranging a generous pay raise for his girlfriend, bank employee Shaha Riza. The deal and resultant uproar proved to be the final straw in what had been a tumultuous relationship between Wolfowitz and the World Bank staff. Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court Limits Pay Discrimination Suits 2007-05-29 15:23:20 A divided Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that workers may not sue their employers for unequal pay because of discrimination that may have occurred years earlier. The court ruled 5-4 that Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at a tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama, did not file her lawsuit against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in the timely manner specified by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A jury had originally awarded her more than $3.5 million because it found it "more likely than not" that sex discrimination during her 19-year career led to her being paid substantially less than her male counterparts. An appeals court reversed, saying the law requires the suit be filed within 180 days "after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred," and Ledbetter couldn't prove discrimination within that time period. She had argued that she was discriminated against throughout her career and each paycheck that was less because of discrimination was a new violation. Read The Full Story Bush Tightens Economic Sanctions Against Sudan Over Darfur Genocide 2007-05-29 15:22:47 President Bush announced Tuesday that he is imposing stiff economic sanctions against Sudan and that he will press the United Nations for additional action to end the violence in Darfur. “The people of Sudan are crying out for help and they deserve it,” he said in a brief statement at the White House. The decision makes good on a threat the president made nearly six weeks ago. Bush warned then that the United States would act if Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, did not permit a full deployment of United Nations peacekeeping forces, allow aid to reach the Darfur region and end his support for the janjaweed, the militias that have been systematically killing civilians there. Read The Full Story China Sentences Former Drug Regulator To Death 2007-05-29 15:21:33 The former head of China’s top food and drug safety agency was sentenced to death today after pleading guilty to corruption and accepting bribes, according to the state-controlled news media. Zheng Xiaoyu, who served as director of China’s Food & Drug Administration from its founding in 1998 until mid 2005, was detained in February as part of a government investigation into the agency that is supposed to be the nation’s food and drug watchdog. Two other top agency officials were also detained in February. The unusually harsh sentence for the former director comes at a time of heightened concerns about the quality and safety of China’s food and drug system after a series of scandals involving tainted food and phony drugs. Read The Full Story U.K. Told To Pay More For Climate Change 2007-05-29 15:19:50 The U.K. should stump up an extra £1.2 billion ($2.4 billion) to help developing countries deal with the effects of climate change, Oxfam said Tuesday. The country is already the biggest global contributor to international "adaptation" funds, paying in £20 million ($40 million), but along with other G8 nations its payments are not enough to reflect its role in producing the emissions and to compensate for the impact of its actions on developing countries, the charity said. While the U.K. has designated £178 million ($356 million) to pay for cooling systems to "climate-proof" the London Underground, the world's richest countries have only pledged around half of that to help other regions. Read The Full Story Hispanic Groups Reconsider Support Of Alberto Gonzales 2007-05-29 02:37:27 Two years ago, major Hispanic groups broke with other civil rights organizations and supported Alberto R. Gonzales' nomination for attorney general, primarily because he would become the highest-ranking Latino ever in a presidential Cabinet. Now, these groups say they are suffering from buyer's remorse. "I have to say we were in error when we supported him to begin with," said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Gonzales, Wilkes said, has not aggressively pursued hate crimes and cases of police profiling of Hispanics. "We hoped for better. Instead it looks like he's done the bidding of the White House." Read The Full Story Campaign Puts Pressure On U.S. Secret Service 2007-05-29 02:36:48 The U.S. Secret Service expects to borrow more than 2,000 immigration officers and federal airport screeners next year to help guard an ever-expanding field of presidential candidates, while shifting 250 of its own agents from investigations to security details. Burdened by the White House's wartime security needs, the persistent threat of terrorism and a field of at least 20 presidential contenders, the Secret Service was showing signs of strain even before the Department of Homeland Security ordered protection for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois) as of May 3, the earliest a candidate has ever been assigned protection in an election season. Its $110 million-plus budget for campaign protection - two-thirds more than the record $65 million it spent for the 2004 election - was prepared when the service did not expect to be guarding Obama or anyone else until January. The agency has already been forced to scale back its efforts to battle counterfeiting and cybercrime. Read The Full Story
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