Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday June 29 2007 - (813)

Friday June 29 2007 edition
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Iranian Unrest Grows Amid Gas Rationing 2007-06-29 02:19:57 Unrest spread in Tehran on Thursday, the second day of gasoline rationing in oil-rich Iran, with drivers lining up for miles, gas stations being set on fire and state-run banks and business centers coming under attack. Dozens were arrested, and the Tehran police chief, Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, complained to reporters that the police had been caught unaware by the decision to ration fuel. The anger posed a keen threat to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected two years ago on a platform of bringing income from oil to the nation’s households. Instead, even though Iran is one of the world’s largest producers of crude oil, it has been forced to import about 40 percent of its gasoline at an annual cost of $5 billion to make up for shortfalls in its archaic refining industry. Some analysts said the decision to ration gasoline was intended to prepare for the possibility of more United Nations economic sanctions as a result of concern over Iran’s nuclear program. Read The Full Story U.S. Blocks Chinese Seafood Shipments 2007-06-29 02:19:26 The list of quality-compromised goods from China grew longer Thursday, as federal authorities slapped a highly unusual hold on shrimp and certain fish from that country after tests showed contamination from potentially harmful drugs. The Food and Drug Administration said it would block all shipments from China of farm-raised shrimp, catfish, eel and two other kinds of fish until importers can produce independent test results showing the items to be free of drugs banned in U.S. fish farming. Agency officials said there was no immediate threat to human health. An industry expert said he didn't expect shortages of shrimp because of the FDA action, since there was more than enough available on the world market. Read The Full Story Israel Drops Rape Charges As President Agrees To Quit 2007-06-29 02:18:43 The Israeli government has dropped rape charges against President Moshe Katsav in exchange for his agreement to step down and to plead guilty to lesser charges, the attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, announced Thursday. Katsav, 61, will receive a suspended sentence and will pay a total of $11,695 in compensation to two of the women who accused him, said Mazuz. One of them had worked for Katsav when he was tourism minister in the late 1990s; the other worked in his office in 2003 and 2004. Katsav will plead guilty to committing indecent acts without consent, sexual harassment of the two women and harassing a witness. He is expected to resign on Friday. His seven-year term as president, a largely ceremonial post, was to end in July. Shimon Peresis expected to take office as president on July 15. The announcement of a plea bargain caused debate and expressions of anger from Israelis who said Katsav was being treated too lightly. Read The Full Story Poll Of Democrats Shows Gore Could Steal The Show 2007-06-28 21:11:53 A presidential election poll suggesting Democratic voters would prefer former vice-president Al Gore to any of the declared contenders, including frontrunner Hillary Clinton, has highlighted continuing dissatisfaction among supporters of both main parties with the choice of candidates to succeed George Bush. The poll, conducted in New Hampshire by 7News and Suffolk University, confirmed Ms. Clinton's nationwide double-digit lead over her main rival, Illinois senator Barack Obama. The former first lady and New York senator attracted 37% support, against Obama's 19%. John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, was on 9%. But if Gore were to seek the Democratic nomination, 29% of Clinton's backers would switch their support to him, the poll found. When defections from other candidates are factored in, the man who controversially lost to Bush in the 2000 election takes command of the field, with 32% support. Read The Full Story Supreme Court Limits Race To Achieve Diversity In Schools 2007-06-28 21:11:28 A splintered Supreme Court Thursday threw out school desegregation plans from Seattle and Louisville but,  without a majority, holding that race can never be considered as school districts try to ensure racially diverse populations. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., authored the most important opinion of his two terms leading the court. He held that both plans, which categorize students on the basis of race and use that in making school assignments, violate the constitution's promise of equal protection, even if the goal is integration of the schools. "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race," wrote Roberts. Read The Full Story Rain Continues To Plague Texas 2007-06-28 21:10:59 More rain fell Thursday in flood-weary parts of Texas, where evacuations were under way and residents were bracing for even more of the constant downpours that have killed 11 people in recent days. Officials reported calls for dozens of rescues in San Antonio, and hundreds of people were being ordered to leave their homes near the bloated Brazos River in North Texas. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, acting as governor while Gov. Rick Perry is out of the country, surveyed damage Thursday in the lakeside community of Marble Falls, which was drenched by as much as 18 inches of rain early Wednesday. No one was killed, but there were 32 water rescues and widespread damage. "I haven't seen so much destruction since I was on the ground right after Hurricane Rita," said Dewhurst. "What these folks need is just a break in the rain and a chance to dry out." Read The Full Story Egyptian Said To Have Spied For Israel's Mossad Dies In Fall From Apartment 2007-06-28 21:08:54 A multimillionaire Egyptian businessman who was accused of being an agent for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, has been found dead at the foot of the luxury apartment block in London where he had lived for more than 20 years. Ashraf Marwan, 63, the son-in-law of the former Egyptian leader Gamel Abdel Nasser, is understood to have been seriously ill for some time before his death in Mayfair on Wednesday afternoon. Marwan is said to have feared assassination after being identified by Israeli sources as the agent who had tipped off Mossad just hours before Egypt and Syria launched the Yom Kippur war in 1973. However, Scotland Yard is investigating the possibility that he took his own life. A spokeswoman said: "It is understood he may have fallen from a balcony, but inquiries continue." Read The Full Story Immigration Bill Looks Dead After Senate Vote, No Resurrection Foreseen 2007-06-28 15:15:33 The most dramatic overhaul of the nation's immigration laws in a generation was trounced this morning by a bipartisan filibuster, with the political right and left overwhelming a coalition of Republicans and Democrats who had been seeking compromise on one of the most difficult social and economic issues facing the country. The 46-53 tally fell dramatically short of the 60 votes needed to overcome opponents' dilatory tactics and parliamentary maneuvers that have dogged the bill for weeks. The failure marked the second time in a month the bill was pulled from the Senate floor, and this time, Democratic leaders of the Senate indicated it would not be back. The vote was a major defeat for President Bush, dealt largely by members of his own party. The president made a last-ditch round of phone calls this morning to senators in an attempt to rescue the bill, but with his poll numbers at record lows, his appeals proved fruitless. Bush has now lost what is likely to be the last, best chance at a major domestic accomplishment for his second term. Read The Full Story Bombings, Beheadings Roil Iraq 2007-06-28 15:14:39 A massive car bomb exploded at a street-side bus depot during Baghdad's Thursday morning rush hour, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 40 others in a tremendous explosion that set fire to scores of vehicles, said Iraqi police. The 8:15 a.m. blast occurred at a large central bus stop in the predominantly Shiite Baya'a neighborhood, where residents from the southeast quadrant of Baghdad catch buses for trips across the capital. It was at least the third time that the site has been targeted by bombings. Arabia TV showed a huge crater in the street where the car bomb exploded. The Associated Press reported that as many as 40 empty minibuses were incinerated in the blast and subsequent fires. The attack followed a late-night car bombing on Wednesday that killed at least 14 people near a major Shiite shrine in the Kadhimiya neighborhood in northern Baghdad, police reported. Read The Full Story	Commentary: The Coming Biofuels Disaster 2007-06-29 02:19:45 Intellpuke: The following commentary is by Joe Brewer, a Research Fellow at The Rockridge Institute. This commentary was initially posted at the Truthout.org website on Thursday, June 28, 2007, but I believe it merits a broader audience and hope Mr. Brewer and Truthout agree. Mr. Brewer's commentary follows. Have you ever tried to solve a problem only to discover that you made things worse in the process? This is happening right now with biofuels. We are on the road to disaster because the problem we are trying to solve has been framed inadequately. Harmful impacts from large-scale biofuel production are largely overlooked. And we aren't even addressing the right problem! The truth can be seen when we frame issues in the context of livability. Solving the Wrong Problem Policymakers have been grappling with the fact that an excessive amount of carbon dioxide is polluting our atmosphere, disrupting global weather patterns and shifting the world's climate beyond safe boundaries. The solution required by this problem is that we stop increasing greenhouse pollution levels. This can be accomplished by shifting our energy sector in a direction that ultimately reduces the amount of heat-trapping gases that have accumulated since the dawn of the industrial revolution. On the surface, biofuels present the ideal solution to this problem. We can grow them in large amounts, and the carbon that is released by burning them is equal to the amount they breathe in as they grow. This simple mental accounting is very appealing, but woefully inaccurate for describing what is really going on. The real problem is that the way we use energy is out of balance with natural processes, driving us away from the equilibrium necessary for our communities to survive. This is evident in the planet's atmosphere where global warming is running rampant; our cities are submerged in toxic gases, and the protective ozone shield is tattered. It is also evident in the biosphere, where we are in the midst of the Earth's sixth mass extinction (the first in the planet's 4.5 billion-year history caused by a single species - humans). Soils in our agricultural plains are lost to wind and water, reducing the land's capacity to produce food. And our water supplies are being diverted, drained and contaminated by toxic run-off. We need to find livable solutions to this problem. Read The Full Story Russian Probe Shuts U.S.-Funded Media Foundation 2007-06-29 02:19:12 A Russian nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. government to train journalists and improve management at local television stations has been shuttered by a criminal investigation that critics charge is politically motivated. Authorities targeted the Educated Media Foundation after its head was found with slightly more than $12,500 in undeclared currency at a Moscow airport, an offense that routinely would be settled with a fine, said lawyers. Instead, Manana Aslamazyan, 55, is facing up to five years in prison on smuggling charges. Her organization, previously called Internews Russia, is accused of money laundering - an allegation that Russian journalists and civic activists, as well as Western diplomats, dismissed as absurd. Read The Full Story DNA Study Traces Cats' Ancestry To Middle East 2007-06-29 02:18:23 Some 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Near East, an audacious wildcat crept into one of the crude villages of early human settlers, the first to domesticate wheat and barley. There she felt safe from her many predators in the region, such as hyenas and larger cats. The rodents that infested the settlers’ homes and granaries were sufficient prey. Seeing that she was earning her keep, the settlers tolerated her, and their children greeted her kittens with delight. At least five females of the wildcat subspecies known as Felis silvestris lybica accomplished this delicate transition from forest to village. And from these five matriarchs all the world’s 600 million house cats are descended. A scientific basis for this scenario has been established by Carlos A. Driscoll, of the National Cancer Institute, and his colleagues. He spent more than six years collecting species of wildcat in places as far apart as Scotland, Israel, Namibia and Mongolia. He then analyzed the DNA of the wildcats and of many house cats and fancy cats. Read The Full Story Scientists: Depleted Uranium Shells Leave Lethal Legacy Of Toxic, Radioactive Dust 2007-06-28 21:11:41 Toxic, radioactive dust released from armor-piercing depleted uranium shells lingers for decades in the environment and contaminates land far from where it is used, according to British scientists. The finding raises fears that communities living in or returning to war zones may be forced to live on contaminated ground, in danger of inhaling the substance or consuming it in food or water supplies. Hundreds of tons of tank-busting depleted uranium rounds have been fired by British and American forces in the Balkans and Iraq. On impact the rounds fragment into a shower of fine particles, which have been linked to medical conditions including cancer and birth defects. Scientists initially suspected that even fine particles of the heavy dust would only cause contamination over a confined area. But research conducted by a team at Leicester University found that it can spread nearly 6 kilometers and persists in soils for more than 25 years. Read The Full Story Britain's Flood Death Toll Rises To 6, Emergency Services 'Came Close To Collapse' 2007-06-28 21:11:10 The British government is facing pressure to step up civil emergency measures and increase funding after figures revealed that this week's flood rescues have been one of the biggest peacetime operations of their kind. As the death toll rose to six and the casualty list topped 600, Home Office figures showed that 3,500 people have been rescued from swamped homes and a further 4,000 call-outs carried out by firefighters, ambulance staff and police. The absence of political leaders in the stricken areas, during three days which coincided with the change of government, will be highlighted Friday when Prince Charles visits at least one, and possibly several, of the communities - mostly in Yorkshire and in the Severn valley - which have suffered millions of pounds of damage. The Queen sent a message of sympathy Thursday. Read The Full Story E.U. Bans 'Unsafe' Airlines From Flights To Europe 2007-06-28 21:09:13 All Indonesian airlines have been banned from flying to Europe in a safety crackdown that has also placed several carriers from Russia, Ukraine and Angola on an aviation blacklist. The ban was imposed following a series of accidents involving the countries' aircraft that have included two fatal crashes since the New Year which killed a total of 123 people. The national airline of Indonesia, Garuda, and the 50 other airlines registered in the country, will be kept away from the European Union, although no Indonesian carriers at present fly to the continent. Hours after the ban was announced Angolan national radio reported that a Boeing 737 operated by one of the newly banned carriers, TAAG Angola Airlines, had crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Read The Full Story Surprise! NOT! - Bush Won't Supply Subpoenaed Documents 2007-06-28 15:15:46 The White House said Thursday it would not comply with congressional subpoenas for documents and testimony relating to the firings of federal prosecutors last year, setting up a potential constitutional confrontation over its claim of executive privilege. In a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees, President Bush's counsel, Fred F. Fielding, said the White House refuses to turn over documents that were subpoenaed by the two committees on June 13. The deadline for handing over most of them was today (Thursday). "I write at the direction of the President to advise and inform you that the President has decided to assert executive privilege and therefore the White House will not be making any production in response to these subpoenas for documents," Fielding wrote in the letter to Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vermont), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. John conyers, Jr., (D-Michigan), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Read The Full Story Costs Skyrocket As Homeland Security Dept. Runs Up No-Bid Contracts 2007-06-28 15:14:53 The project started in 2003 with a $2 million contract to help the new Department of Homeland Security quickly get an intelligence operation up and running. Over the next year, the cost of the no-bid arrangement with consultant Booz Allen Hamilton soared by millions of dollars per month, as the firm provided analysts, administrators and other contract employees to the department's Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection offices. By December 2004, payments to Booz Allen had exceeded $30 million - 15 times the contract's original value. When department lawyers examined the deal, they found it was "grossly beyond the scope" of the original contract, and they said the arrangement violated government procurement rules. The lawyers advised the department to immediately stop making payments through the contract and allow other companies to compete for the work. Read The Full Story U.S. Economy Limps In First Quarter 2007-06-28 15:14:23 The economy limped ahead at just a 0.7 percent pace in the first quarter, the slowest in more than four years, as some businesses clamped down on spending given uncertainties about the severity of the housing slump. The Commerce Department's new reading on gross domestic product for the January-to-March period, released Thursday, was a slight upgrade from the 0.6 percent growth rate estimated a month ago, but it still fell short of economists' forecasts for a 0.8 percent pace and will probably turn out to be the weakest point for the economy this year. "Companies were really watching their cash," said Oscar Gonzalez, economist at John Hancock Financial Services. Read The Full Story
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