Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday August 19 2007 - (813)

Sunday August 19 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Alaska Vulcanolgists Keeping An Close Watch On Pavlof Volcano 2007-08-19 03:06:31 The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) reported Saturday that it is keeping a close watch on the Pavlof Volcano located on the Alaska Peninsula. The AVO reported steady earthquake activity and lava flow events continue at Pavlof Volcano, and several discrete explosion earthquakes continue to be recorded. "An AVO field party conducted an overflight of the volcano Saturday and report that a vigorous eruption of lava at the volcano continues. While a primary hazard from this eruption is airborne ash, explosions producing ash do not seem to be significant at this time and any ash produced is likely staying below 15,000 ft above sea level. AVO is maintaining aviation color code Orange and volcanic activity alert level WATCH at this time," the AVO reported on its Web site. "If activity continues to increase in intensity, larger ash clouds that could affect aircraft may be produced. The most immediate ground hazard in the vicinity of the volcano includes light ash fall on nearby communities," according to the Observatory report. Read The Full Story New Terror Law Puts Britons, Europeans At Risk Of Unprecedented Surveillance By U.S. Agents 2007-08-18 23:40:37 A new law swept through Congress by the U.S. government before the summer recess is to give American security agencies unprecedented powers to spy on British citizens without a warrant. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was approved by Congress earlier this month to help the National Security Agency in the fight against terrorism. It has now emerged that the bill gives the security services powers to intercept all telephone calls, internet traffic and emails made by British citizens across U.S.-based networks. As much of the world's telecoms networks and internet infrastructure runs through the U.S., the new act will give the security services huge scope for monitoring and intercepting Britons' private communications, as well as those of other foreign citizens. The new act has led to fears it will see a huge increase in the number of British citizens being extradited to the U.S. "Just because it happens to pass through the U.S. they claim they can do whatever they want," said Tony Bunyan, director of Statewatch, the civil rights group that campaigns against state surveillance. "Where is the E.U. saying, 'What's going on here, we've got to protect the rights of our citizens?' " Read The Full Story Putin Revives Long-Range Bomber Patrols 2007-08-18 23:39:59 The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Friday announced Russia had resumed long-range flights of strategic bombers capable of striking targets deep inside the United States with nuclear weapons. Putin said Russia had restarted the Soviet-era practice of sending bomber aircraft on regular patrols beyond its borders. Speaking after Russian and Chinese forces completed a day of war games in Russia's Urals, Putin said 14 Russian bombers had taken off simultaneously Friday on long-range missions. "We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic bombers on a permanent basis," he said, adding, "Russia stopped this practice in 1992. Unfortunately not everybody followed suit. This creates a strategic risk for Russia ... we hope our partners show understanding towards the resumption of Russian air patrols." Read The Full Story Ground Zero Blaze Kills Two Firefighters In New York 2007-08-18 23:39:19 Two firefighters were killed Saturday battling a blaze that tore through several floors of the vacant Deutsche Bank skyscraper opposite ground zero Saturday afternoon, sending potentially toxic plumes of smoke over Lower Manhattan in a scene eerily reminiscent of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. One of the firefighters died of cardiac arrest, said a fire official, adding that it was unclear what had caused the other death. The fire appeared to have started between the 14th and 15th floors and spread from there to other portions of the tower, which once stood 41 stories, including scaffolding propped against its side, said fire officials. Crowds of onlookers watched as burning debris fell to the street below. The cause of the fire was unknown. But the building, which was heavily damaged during the Sept. 11 attack, was being dismantled piece by piece because of toxic leftovers from that day nearly six years ago. Much of that work involved acetylene torches. In addition to asbestos, the building had been laden with excessive levels of seven hazardous substances, including dioxin, lead and chromium. Workers had removed about 15 stories, at 130 Liberty Street, before Saturday. Read The Full Story In Significant Policy Change, Bush Administration Says Medicare Won't Cover Hospital Errors 2007-08-18 22:54:34 In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move they say could save lives and millions of dollars. Private insurers are considering similar changes, which they said could multiply the savings and benefits for patients. Under the new rules, to be published next week, Medicare will not pay hospitals for the costs of treating certain “conditions that could reasonably have been prevented.” Among the conditions that will be affected are bedsores, or pressure ulcers; injuries caused by falls; and infections resulting from the prolonged use of catheters in blood vessels or the bladder. In addition, Medicare says it will not pay for the treatment of “serious preventable events” like leaving a sponge or other object in a patient during surgery and providing a patient with incompatible blood or blood products. Read The Full Story FISA Court Seeks White House View On Surveillance Program 2007-08-18 18:11:34 ACLU seeking rulings issued on warrantless wiretapping. A secret U.S. intelligence court has ordered the Bush administration to register its views about a records request by the American Civil Liberties Uninon (ACLU),which wants the court to release a series of pivotal orders issued earlier this year about the National Security Agency's wiretapping program. The move is highly unusual, because the court - which approves warrants for electronic surveillance within the United States by intelligence and counterterrorism agencies - operates in almost total secrecy and has made only one ruling public in its 29-year history. In a scheduling order issued Thursday and released Friday by the ACLU, the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court instructed the government to respond to the ACLU's request by Aug. 31. The civil liberties group has until Sept. 14 to file its own response. "This is an unprecedented request that warrants further briefing," wrote U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who serves as the intelligence court's presiding judge. Read The Full Story Commentary: Was The Mortgage A Mistake? 2007-08-18 18:10:57 They bought the house they wanted, and now everything has changed. Two years ago, my wife and I sat at a long conference table in a mortgage-title office in Bethesda [Maryland]. Sitting next to us: our real estate agent, who drew up our bid on a townhouse in Germantown two days after showing it to us. We didn't get an inspection, and I don't recall going back for a second look. We had to act fast or someone else would get it. Our bid won the house - our very own first home - and now we had to close the deal. The owners sat across the table. They seemed more nervous than we did, perhaps fearing we would have second thoughts - about our risky interest-only mortgage, about seeing them walk away with a $120,000 profit, about buying a house just as "bubble" was entering the regional lexicon. They signed. We signed. Price tag: $459,275. And then, as the saying sort of goes, the stuff hit the fan. The sizzling home market almost immediately began to cool off, which my wife and I sort of ignored. Interest rates started to creep up, and we sort of blew that off, too. We have time. This too shall pass. No worries. Life is good! We bought a flat-panel television, took a nice vacation, bought a dog, hired him a daily dog-walker, and then we got pregnant. We have time. This too shall pass. Read The Full Story 181 Chinese Miners Trapped By Flooding 2007-08-18 18:09:51 Rescuers raced Saturday to pump water out of two coal mines flooded by a rain-swollen river in eastern China, where 181 miners are missing and feared dead. Water levels were rising, work areas were submerged and the miners "had only slim chances of survival," the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Wang Ziqi, director of Shandong's coal mine safety agency. Crews installed pipes and five high-speed pumps in the mines in this town southeast of Beijing in Shandong province, Xinhua reported. There was no word on whether there were signs of life. The Huayuan Mining Co. mine flooded Friday afternoon when the Wen river burst a dike, sending water pouring into a shaft and trapping 172 miners, according to Xinhua and state radio and television. Nine more miners were trapped when water poured into the nearby Minggong Coal Mine on Friday evening, according to Xinhua. It was not clear whether the second flood was due to the same dike break. Read The Full Story Iraq Government Leaders Find Few Solutions In Crisis Talks 2007-08-18 18:09:13 Iraq's top five governmental leaders continued talks Saturday but appear not to have arrived at solutions to any of the critical issues that have plunged the country into a political crisis. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, Shiite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi and Masoud Barzani, president of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. Spokesmen for Hashemi and Mahdi and a written statement from Talabani's office characterized the meeting as productive but did not provide any specific information about the progress made during the two-hour gathering. The lack of concrete results from this week's meetings strike yet another blow to hopes of creating a unified government by Sept. 15, when President Bush is scheduled to receive a report about conditions in Iraq. Movement on several key pieces of legislation has been stalled for weeks, while the country's minority Sunni politicians refused to join a new political alliance announced Thursday. Ali Yass, a spokesman for Hashemi, said the meeting was aimed at preparing for a larger political summit, which Maliki hopes will include leaders from every national political party. That meeting was originally scheduled to open earlier this week but has been repeatedly delayed in favor of more planning meetings among the five top leaders. 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	Congress May Have Approved More Survillance Powers Than Bush Administration Sought 2007-08-18 23:41:05 Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include - without court approval - certain types of physical searches of American citizens and the collection of their business records, said Democratic Congressional officials and other experts. Administration officials acknowledged that they had heard such concerns from Democrats in Congress recently, and that there was a continuing debate over the meaning of the legislative language, but they said the Democrats were simply raising theoretical questions based on a harsh interpretation of the legislation. They also emphasized that there would be strict rules in place to minimize the extent to which Americans would be caught up in the surveillance. The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may have given the administration more surveillance powers than it sought. It also offers a case study in how changing a few words in a complex piece of legislation has the potential to fundamentally alter the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a landmark national security law. Two weeks after the legislation was signed into law, there is still heated debate over how much power Congress gave to the president. Read The Full Story Shock Toll Of British Troops Injured In Afghan War 2007-08-18 23:40:16 Half of frontline troops "patched up". Senior officer fear exodus. The human cost of the war in Afghanistan to British soldiers can be revealed as figures show that almost half of frontline troops have required significant medical treatment during this summer's fighting. In a graphic illustration of the intensity of the conflict in Helmand province, more than 700 battlefield soldiers have needed treatment since April - nearly half of the 1,500 on the front line. The figures, obtained from senior military sources, have never been released by the government, which has faced criticism that it has covered up the true extent of injuries sustained during the conflict. Britain's Ministry of Defense (MoD) releases the number of soldiers taken to hospital, a fraction of those who require treatment on the battlefield. The new figures relate to the number of soldiers patched up and sent back to the front line and who do not appear in official casualty reports. By contrast, U.S. official figures take into account soldiers treated on the front line. In their figures, wounded troops include those away from the front line for 72 hours or more. Read The Full Story Commentary: Russia's Muscle-Flexing Is Dangerous Posturing 2007-08-18 23:39:48 Intellpuke: The following commentary appears in The Observer's edition for Sunday, August 19, 2007. The diplomatic atmosphere between Britain and Russia has been getting sharply chillier since Moscow refused to extradite the man Scotland Yard accuses of the murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko. There were tit-for-tat embassy expulsions. Now the BBC World Service has had its licence to broadcast in Moscow revoked. But this is a sideshow in a broader story of Russia's growing suspicion of the West and a tendency towards neo-Soviet grandstanding. President Vladimir Putin last week said that, in response to "strategic threats by other military powers", Russian long-range bombers would resume their Cold War routine of flights around the world. Russian jets have also started testing NATO defenses, "buzzing" targets near U.S. and U.K. bases. Russia is particularly peeved about U.S. plans to deploy an anti-missile defense shield, supported by facilities in former Eastern Bloc countries. Moscow does not believe Washington's claim that the shield is meant to ward off future Iranian or North Korean attacks. Read The Full Story Iran Hangs 30 Over 'U.S. Plots' 2007-08-18 23:38:41 Surge in public executions is a push to silence political activists, say critics. Iran has hanged up to 30 people in the past month amid a clampdown prompted by alleged U.S.-backed plots to topple the regime, The Observer reports. Many executions have been carried out in public in an apparent bid to create a climate of intimidation while sending out uncompromising signals to the West. Opposition sources say at least three of the dead were political activists, contradicting government insistence that it is targeting "thugs" and dangerous criminals. The executions have coincided with a crackdown on student activists and academics accused of trying to foment a "soft revolution" with U.S.  support. The most high-profile recent executions involved Majid Kavousifar, 28, and his nephew, Hossein Kavousifar, 24, hanged for the murder of a hardline judge, Hassan Moghaddas, a man notorious for jailing political dissidents. They were hanged from cranes and hoisted high above one of Tehran's busiest thoroughfares. Read The Full Story How Missed Signs Contributed To Mortgage Meltdown 2007-08-18 22:54:20 All through last year, Jim Melcher saw the signs of a rapidly deteriorating American housing market - riskier mortgages, rising delinquencies and more homes falling into foreclosure. And with $100 million in assets at his hedge fund, Balestra Capital, he was in a position to do something about it. So in October, as mortgage-backed bonds were still flying high, he bet $10 million that these bonds would plunge in value, using complex derivatives available to any institutional investor. As his gamble began to pay off in the first months of 2007, Melcher, a money manager based in New York, plowed the profits into ever bigger wagers that the mortgage crisis would worsen further, eventually risking some $60 million of the fund’s money. “We saw the opportunity of a lifetime, and since then events have unfolded on schedule,” he said. Melcher’s flagship fund has since doubled in value, even as this summer’s market turmoil cost other investors billions, forced the closing of several major hedge funds and pushed the stock market down 7 percent since mid-July. This week, Melcher is heading to Paris for a vacation with his wife. The extent of the turmoil has stunned much of Wall Street, but as Melcher’s case makes clear, there were ample warning signs that a financial time bomb in the form of subprime mortgages was ticking quietly for months, if not years. Read The Full Story Hurricane Dean Hits Eastern Caribbean Islands 2007-08-18 18:11:18 Jamaica opened shelters nationwide on today and Cuba declared a "state of alert" as the Caribbean's warm waters fueled a strengthening Hurricane Dean, with forecasters predicting the storm could grow to a powerful Category 5. Now a Category 4 storm with sustained winds at 150 mph, Dean was expected to pass south of Hispaniola but dump as much as five inches of rain to the two countries on the island - Haiti and the Dominican Republic - which are both prone to devastating floods and mudslides. As dark clouds rolled in from the south and a light rain began to fall, residents of the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, calmly ran errands at stores with fully stocked shelves, despite government advisories about heavy rains and possible flooding. "Nothing's going to happen here - a lot of water of nothing else," said Pedro Alvajar, 61, as he sat in a doorway selling lottery tickets. Read The Full Story U.S. Military Practices Genetic Discrimination In Denying Benefits 2007-08-18 18:10:30 Those medically discharged with genetic diseases are left without disability or retirement benefits. Some are fighting back. Eric Miller's career as an Army Ranger wasn't ended by a battlefield wound, but his DNA. Lurking in his genes was a mutation that made him vulnerable to uncontrolled tumor growth. After suffering back pain during a tour in Afghanistan, he underwent three surgeries to remove tumors from his brain and spine that left him with numbness throughout the left side of his body. So began his journey into a dreaded scenario of the genetic age. Because he was born with the mutation, the Army argued it bore no responsibility for his illness and medically discharged him in 2005 without the disability benefits or health insurance he needed to fight his disease. "The Army didn't give me anything," said Miller, 28, a seven-year veteran who is training to join the Tennessee Highway Patrol. While genetic discrimination is banned in most cases throughout the country, it is alive and well in the U.S. military. For more than 20 years, the armed forces have held a policy that specifically denies disability benefits to servicemen and women with congenital or hereditary conditions. The practice would be illegal in almost any other workplace. Read The Full Story In Hard-Hit Pisco, Peru, Death And Disbelief 2007-08-18 18:09:33 As Pisco begins to bury its earthquake victims, stunned residents complain that aid is slow to reach them. It's a war zone here, a jumble of smashed buildings, downed power lines and dazed inhabitants. Authorities have bolstered police patrols after reports of looters attacking vehicles ferrying aid to the earthquake zone. "People are just completely demoralized," said Maria Consuelo Vargas, as she and hundreds of others gathered Friday in the central Plaza de Armas to watch rescue workers combing through the debris of what once was San Clemente Roman Catholic Church. As if on cue, firemen pulled another black body bag from the rubble of the church, eliciting a stunned gasp from residents bewildered by their town's fate. Read The Full Story 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
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