Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday August 18 2007 - (813)

Saturday August 18 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Dean, Now A Category 4 Hurricane Slams Caribbean 2007-08-18 02:47:17 Hurricane Dean expected to be a Category 5 storm when it hits Yucatan Peninsula On Monday. Hurricane Dean roared into the eastern Caribbean on Friday, tearing away roofs, flooding streets and causing at least three deaths. Winds hit 145 mph as it headed on a collision course with Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, where it is forecast to become a Category 5 storm. The Atlantic season's first hurricane built to a powerful Category 4 storm Friday night after crossing over the warm waters of the Caribbean. The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, forecast that Dean would become a Category 5 storm - with winds surpassing 155 mph - as it approaches Yucatan on Monday. Dean could threaten the United States by Wednesday, said forecasters, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office suggested people get ready. Read The Full Story Recruiting For Iraq War Undercut In Puerto Rico 2007-08-18 02:46:21 The political activists, brown envelopes tucked under their arms, staked out the high school gates just after sunrise. When students emerged from the graffiti-scorched streets of the Rio Piedra neighborhood here and began streaming toward their school, the pro-independence advocates ripped open the envelopes and began handing the teens fliers emblazoned with the slogan: "Our youth should not go to war." At the bottom of the leaflet was a tear sheet that students could sign and later hand to teachers, to request that students' personal contact information not be released to the U.S. Defense Department or to anyone involved in military recruiting. The scene outside the Ramon Vila Mayo high school unfolded at schools throughout Puerto Rico this week as the academic year opened. On this island with a long tradition of military service, pro-independence advocates are tapping the territory's growing anti-Iraq war sentiment to revitalize their cause. As a result, 57 percent of Puerto Rico's 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders, or their parents, have signed forms over the past year withholding contact information from the Pentagon -- effectively barring U.S. recruiters from reaching out to an estimated 65,000 high school students. "If the death of a Puerto Rican soldier is tragic, it's more tragic if that soldier has no say in that war," said Juan Dalmau, secretary general of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). His efforts are saving the island's children from becoming "colonial cannon meat," he said. Read The Full Story Hotel Tries To Evict Nobel Prize Winner - Thought She Was A Bag Lady 2007-08-18 02:45:47 She was wearing a Mayan dress, the traditional attire of indigenous people in central America, and the hotel's response was also traditional: throw her out. Staff at Cancun's five-star Hotel Coral Beach appear to have assumed this was another street vendor or beggar, so without asking questions they ordered her to leave. Except the woman was Rigoberta Menchu, the Nobel peace prizewinner, UNESCO goodwill ambassador, Guatemalan presidential candidate and figurehead for indigenous rights. Article continues The attempted eviction, an example of discrimination against indigenous people common in central and south America, backfired when other guests recognised Ms. Menchu and interceded on her behalf. The human rights activist was in the Mexican coastal resort at the request of President Felipe Calderon to participate in a conference on drinking water and sanitation and was due to give interviews at the hotel. Read The Full Story Rain Stalls Wildfire Near Yellowstone National Park 2007-08-18 02:45:10 Rain and cooler weather Friday halted the advance of a fire that threatened a century-old hunting lodge built by Buffalo Bill Cody outside Yellowstone National Park, but officials remained cautions because warm, dry conditions were forecast to return early next week. The fire has burned 29 square miles since it began Aug. 9, after a lightning strike inside Yellowstone National Park. "It's good to smell rain after smelling smoke for so long," said Laurie Ash, owner of the Green Creek Inn in nearby Wapiti, Wyoming. Seven-tenths of an inch of rain had been recorded by Friday afternoon. Fire commander Mark Grant said that should dampen the blaze for at least four or five days. Read The Full Story In Alaska, Scandal Flows Like Crude Oil 2007-08-17 15:15:34 Many of the investigations lead to oil man Bill J. Allen. The scope of corruption threatens to reshape the state's political landscape and touch U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. There are generally two views here about the career trajectory of Bill J. Allen, an oilman and political wheeler-dealer who over four decades built his VECO Corp. into one of the state's largest and most influential companies. He was driven by greed, or by a thirst for political power. How Allen wielded his considerable influence is a major strand in a knot of political scandals that have touched both of Alaska's U.S. senators - including longtime powerhouse Republican Ted Stevens - its sole congressman and at least six members of the state Legislature. And the scandals - some overlapping, some stand-alone - have shaken the state's small political world to its core. Read The Full Story Underground Search For 6 Trapped Miners In Utah Suspended Indefinitely 2007-08-17 15:15:05 The desperate underground drive to reach six trapped miners will be suspended indefinitely after a catastrophic cave-in killed three rescuers inside a mountainside mine, a federal official said Friday. The announcement from Richard Stickler, head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, came after a cave-in Thursday killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them. "Is there any possible way we can continue this underground operation and provide safety for the rescue workers? At this point we don't have an answer," said Stickler. He said mine-safety experts were being summoned to central Utah to discuss the crisis. Read The Full Story Federal Reserve Makes Surprise Move To Calm Markets 2007-08-17 15:14:37 The Federal Reserve Friday cut a key interest rate by a half a percentage point, moving to ease a credit crunch and calm global financial markets by making it cheaper for cash-starved institutions to borrow directly from the central bank. The Fed also said in a statement that recent turbulence in financial markets has significantly increased the risk that the economy will worsen. Investors interpreted the two moves, taken together, as a signal that the central bank is prepared to take serious action to try to prevent disruptions that began in the market for mortgages from spreading widely through the economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 300 points in its opening minutes before settling back to smaller gains, as investors reacted to news that the Fed had reduced the rate at its "discount window" to 5.75 percent from 6.25 percent. European stocks, which had traded slightly lower through the morning, shot up roughly three percent at midday. By 1 p.m., the Dow was up nearly 172 points and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were up 39 and 27 points, respectively. The Fed's action this morning signaled a shift from its public statement issued 10 days ago, when the Fed's policymaking arm identified inflation spurred by an overheated economy as the biggest risk in the near future. But since then, the market for many mortgages and corporate debt have come to a near standstill, investors have dramatically bid up the price of safe assets, and stock values have fallen sharply in the U.S. and around the world. As a result, an economic downturn appears to have supplanted inflation as the Fed's greatest immediate worry. Read The Full Story FBI Probes Contracts To Company With Ties To Sen. Stevens 2007-08-17 03:07:41 The FBI is investigating the National Science Foundation's award of $170 million in contracts to the oil field services company that oversaw renovations on U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' home, McClatchy Newspapers has learned. The firm, Veco Corp., captured a lucrative five-year NSF contract in 1999 to provide logistics and support for polar research, although it had no previous experience in that field. During the same time period, Veco's top executive managed renovations that doubled the size of the longtime Republican senator's Girdwood, Alaska, home - the scene of a July 30 FBI raid. NSF spokesman Dana Cruikshank told McClatchy Newspapers that the FBI has made inquiries into the 1999 award, worth up to $70 million, and a 2004 follow-up contract for as many as seven years that the company values at up to $100 million. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra and spokeswoman Debra Weierman of the FBI's Washington field office, which is leading the investigation, declined comment on the NSF contracts. Veco's founder and CEO, Bill Allen, pleaded guilty this spring to making $400,000 in illegal payments to Alaska lawmakers, including Stevens' son, Ben, who was then president of the Alaska Senate. Allen is cooperating in a sweeping FBI corruption investigation that also has led to the conviction of a second Veco executive, a lobbyist, and a former Alaska state representative. Read The Full Story NASA Decides No Shuttle Repairs Needed 2007-08-17 03:07:10 NASA decided Thursday that no repairs are needed for a deep gouge in Endeavour's belly and that the space shuttle is safe to fly home. Mission Control notified the seven shuttle astronauts of the decision right before they went to sleep, putting an end to a week of engineering analyses and anxious uncertainty - both in orbit and on Earth. Endeavour's relieved commander, Scott Kelly, thanked everyone on the ground for their hard work. Mission Control replied, "It's great we finally have a decision and we can press forward." After meeting for five hours, mission managers opted Thursday night against any risky spacewalk repairs based on the overwhelming - but not unanimous - recommendations of hundreds of engineers. The massive amount of data indicated Endeavour would suffer no serious structural damage during next week's re-entry. Their worry was not that Endeavour might be destroyed and its seven astronauts killed in a replay of the Columbia disaster; the gouge is too small to be catastrophic. They were concerned that the heat of re-entry could weaken the shuttle's aluminum frame at the damaged spot and result in lengthy postflight repairs. Read The Full Story Even Musharraf's Allies Question His Re-Election Goal 2007-08-17 03:06:35 As Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf begins his campaign this week for re-election to another five-year term, senior figures in the governing party have warned that the Supreme Court will almost certainly block his nomination for president and declare it unconstitutional. American efforts to prod General Musharraf into a power-sharing arrangement with the exiled opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, as a way for him to continue as president would run into the same difficulty, said the politicians. The Supreme Court has a new-found independence since Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry fought off an attempt by General Musharraf this year to dismiss him and won reinstatement on July 20, said the legislators. The chief justice has made clear his determination to uphold the Constitution and see an end to autocratic government, and he now represents the biggest obstacle for General Musharraf’s efforts to stay on as president. Read The Full Story	Rainsoaked Texas Closely Watching Hurricane Dean 2007-08-18 02:47:01 Rescuers in Texas searched Friday for people swept away in flash floods caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin, as wary residents across the Gulf Coast watched Hurricane Dean charging through the Caribbean. At least five people died Thursday and another two were missing because of Erin's thunderstorms. The storms dropped up to 11 inches of rain in parts of San Antonio, Houston and the Texas Hill Country. Officials throughout central and south Texas expected more rain Friday, with forecasts of 8 inches in West Texas. "The ground's already saturated, then with the amount of rain we got today it's just running off and causing flash flooding, so if we get additional rain it will be a major concern for us," said Orlando Hernandez, emergency management coordinator for Bexar County, where San Antonio is located. Read The Full Story Russia Forces World Service, A BBC Partner, Off The Air 2007-08-18 02:46:04 The fallout from the diplomatic dispute between Britain and Russia spread to the BBC Friday when Russia announced it is closing down the World Service's main Russian-language broadcasts. The BBC World Service said it had been told it could no longer broadcast on the FM frequency in Russia. All broadcasts ceased at 5 p.m. local time Friday. On Thursday the Russian licensing authorities ordered the BBC World Service's Russian partner, Bolshoye Radio, to drop the BBC from its programming or lose its license. Bolshoye Radio rebroadcasts the BBC Russian service to thousands of listeners across Moscow. It said it had no choice but to comply. It was now working on a new concept, it added. Media commentators said there was little doubt that the move was the result of Kremlin anger at Britain following the recent diplomatic row that culminated last month in the tit-for-tat expulsion of four Russian and British diplomats. Read The Full Story Polonium In Litvinenko Case Traced To 4 New Locations 2007-08-18 02:45:20 British authorities on Friday disclosed four new London locations, including a Moroccan restaurant and a lap-dancing club, at which investigators have found the kind of radiation that killed former Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko in November. The investigation stretched over 47 locations, said the Westminster City Council. The newly disclosed sites were Hey Jo, a lap-dancing club in central London; Litvinenko's personal Mercedes; Dar Marrakesh, the restaurant; and a gray Mercedes taxi. Litvinenko, an exile and harsh critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died at age 43, three weeks after polonium-210 was apparently slipped into his tea in the bar of a London hotel. Investigators have been aided by a series of positive readings for polonium-210 radiation, marking a trail along which the killer or killers and victim moved. Of the 47 locations examined, including eight aircraft, radiation was found at 27 sites, said the Westminster council. Read The Full Story China: All News Must Be Good News 2007-08-18 02:44:51 China has ordered its media to report only positive news and has imprisoned a pro-democracy dissident amid a clampdown on dissent ahead of the most important meeting of the communist party in five years. Media controls have been tightened, AIDS activists detained and non-government organizations (NGOs) shut down as president Hu Jintao prepares for the 17th party congress, when the next generation of national leaders will be unveiled in a politburo reshuffle. Chen Shuqing, who is a founder member of the banned China Democracy party, suffered the toughest punishment meted out so far when he was found guilty on Thursday of "inciting people to overthrow the government". The intermediate people's court in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, sentenced him to four years in prison. Chen was an outspoken critic of the Communist party, although because of the tightly controlled traditional media his campaigning in recent years was largely restricted to the internet. Read The Full Story Powerful Hurricane Dean Bears Down On Caribbean 2007-08-17 15:15:21 Storm has torn off roofs and knocked out power. Hurricane Dean tore through the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and Martinique Friday, ripping roofs from buildings, downing trees and knocking out power. Airports were closed, coastal hotels were evacuated and tourists hunkered down in shelters as 100 mph winds swept over the islands. The Category 2 storm was headed to Jamaica and by next week, when it is projected to reach Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and Central America, it could strengthen into a dangerous Category 4 hurricane. The eye of Dean, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, passed between St. Lucia and Martinique, which are less than 50 miles apart, said the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The winds tore off the roof of the children's ward at Victoria Hospital in Castries, the capital of St. Lucia. The patients had been evacuated and no injuries were reported. Read The Full Story 6.2 Earthquake Strike Eastern Indonesia 2007-08-17 15:14:50 A strong undersea earthquake struck eastern Indonesia on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey and local officials said. No tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage. The temblor had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 and hit 145 miles southeast of Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, said Suhardjono, an official at Indonesia's Meteorological and Geophysics Agency who goes by only one name. The USGS said the quake struck six miles beneath the Banda Sea, but local officials put the depth at around 40 miles. The reason for the discrepancy was not clear. "We have not received any reports of damage," Suhardjono said, adding that the agency did not issue a tsunami warning because the quake was not strong enough to trigger waves. Read The Full Story FBI Director's Notes Show Ashcroft Kept In Dark On Spying 2007-08-17 03:07:53 Notes from FBI Director Robert Mueller, released Thursday by Congress, revealed that Bush administration officials may have prevented Attorney General John Ashcroft from conducting a review of a spying program, while at the same time attempting to gain Ashcroft's approval of the program. Former Counsel to the House of Representatives Stanley Brand said it is "unbelievable" that "the Attorney General of the United States was barred from getting information on a decision that the law required him to make." Brand said, "This notion that the President can seal himself off from his own Attorney General is ludicrous." In May, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told Congressional investigators that in March 2004 a standoff between the White House and the Justice Department ensued because Comey would not authorize a continuation of a warrantless wiretapping program instituted by the Bush administration. According to Comey's testimony, his refusal to reauthorize the spy program resulted in a street race between himself and two White House officials to the hospital, where then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and President Bush's former Chief of Staff Andrew Card tried to coerce a barely conscious Ashcroft to approve the controversial eavesdropping program. Read The Full Story Commentary: Guns For Hire - Secrecy, Torture, Religious Zeal Distinguish Mercenaries 2007-08-17 03:07:25 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Paul J. Nyden, a staff writer for the West Virginia Gazette. It appeared in that newspaper's edition for Sunday, August 12, 2007. Iraq and Afghanistan dominated our news headlines. But our media continue to overlook the growing privatization of military operations - a major historical development. George W. Bush vigorously backs privatization and frequently awards huge contracts to companies owned by political contributors, such as Halliburton and Blackwater. During his years in the Oval Office, Bill Clinton also embraced the emerging military privatization. Today, our government pays mercenaries billions of dollars to fight and kill "enemies," protect government officials and deliver food. American taxpayers pay the bill. But few know much about the growth of private military companies, or PMCs. Two new books - Jeremy Scahill's "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" and Robert Young Pelton's "Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror" - tell that story. Read The Full Story 3 Rescuers Die, 6 Others Injured At Utah Mine 2007-08-17 03:06:59 A cave-in Thursday night killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach six trapped miners, said authorities. Mining officials were considering whether to suspend the rescue effort. It was a major setback on the 11th day of the effort to find miners who have been confined at least 1,500 feet below ground at the Crandall Canyon mine. It is unknown if the six are alive or dead. Six of the injured rescuers were taken to Castleview Hospital in Price, Utah. One died there, one was airlifted to a Salt Lake City hospital, one was released and three were being treated, said Jeff Manley, Castleview's chief executive. The workers suffered injuries to the head and chest, as well as cuts and scrapes, said Rich Kulczewski, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor.Two of the injured are federal mine safety workers, he said. Read The Full Story Remnants Of Storm Erin Deluge Houston, Texas 2007-08-17 03:06:22 The tropical weather season revved up Thursday as the Atlantic's first hurricane formed and quickly strengthened, and as Tropical Storm Erin's remnants soaked rain-weary Texas, snarling rush-hour traffic and killing at least two people. Even as they fetched dozens of stranded drivers, authorities in Houston and San Antonio looked over their shoulders at Hurricane Dean, a Category 2 storm building in the Atlantic as it neared islands in the eastern Caribbean. Hurricane warnings were issued for some islands, and a tropical storm warning was issued for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The thunderstorms from Erin brought 7 inches of rain to parts of San Antonio and Houston, where one person died and another was injured when the waterlogged roof of a storage unit outside a grocery store collapsed, Fire Chief Omero Longoria said. The National Hurricane Center said 10 inches of rain was possible in some areas. In San Antonio, Texas, a man was swept away after apparently getting out of his vehicle in floodwater, said a police spokeswoman. Three people died in a head-on collision on a rainy highway in Comal County, but Department of Public Safety Trooper Rick Alvarez said the cause of the crash was still under investigation. Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php