Inspector Finds Broad Failure In U.S. Program To Collect Billions From Oil Companies
2007-09-26 03:22:59
Report says program is plagued with ethical lapses.
The U.S. Interior Department's program to collect billions of dollars annually from oil and gas companies that drill on federal lands is troubled by mismanagement, ethical lapses and fears of retaliation against whistle-blowers, the departmentâs chief independent investigator has concluded.
The report, a result of a year-long investigation, grew out of complaints by four auditors at the agency, who said that senior administration officials had blocked them from recovering money from oil companies that underpaid the government.
The report stopped short of accusing top agency officials of wrongdoing, concluding that the whistle-blowers were sometimes unaware of other efforts under way to recover the missing money and that they sometimes simply disagreed with top management.
It offered a sharp description of failures at the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the agency within the Interior Department responsible for collecting about $10 billion a year in royalties on oil and gas. Many of the issues, including the complaints by whistle-blowers, were initially reported last year by the New York Times.
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Commentary: For All This Talk, Still We Head Steadfastly For Catastrophe
2007-09-26 03:22:16
Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Kevin Watkins, director of the U.N.'s Human Development Report Office. In his commentary, which appears in the Guardian edition for Wednesday, September 26, 2007, Mr. Watkins writes that this week's summit on climate change will accomplish nothing if rich countries don't finally show some leadership. His commentary follows:
If talking could cut greenhouse gas emissions, then this would be a good week for international action on climate change. It opened with more than 80 speeches from governments at a special session on the issue at the United Nations, and will close with a two-day "summit" in the White House bringing together all the world's major emitters. The bad news is that we are still heading steadfastly in the direction of an avoidable climate catastrophe.
The special session was a bold effort by the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to instill urgency into climate negotiations. His aim: to prepare the ground for an international treaty with real, enforceable limits on greenhouse gas emissions. That means a more ambitious, and inclusive, successor to the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012. Negotiations begin in earnest in December at a summit in Bali - or they might if governments can bring themselves to stop dithering and start acting.
It's hard to exaggerate the importance of Bali. There is still a window of opportunity for avoiding the worst effects of climate change - but that window is closing. Most governments broadly accept the need to restrict average temperature increases to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Business-as-usual will take us over twice that level by the end of the century, so every year of delay will make it more difficult to achieve the target.
Climate change threatens to cause unprecedented reversals in human progress in our lifetime. Increased exposure to droughts, floods, storms and climatic uncertainties will reinforce the poverty trap affecting millions of the world's most vulnerable people. Future generations will have to live with potentially catastrophic ecological risks.
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Iran's Ahmadinejad Considers Nuclear Dispute 'Closed', Vows To Resist U.N. Sanctions
2007-09-26 03:21:24
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, said Tuesday he considered the dispute over his countryâs nuclear program âclosedâ and that Iran would disregard the resolutions of the Security Council, which he said was dominated by âarrogant powersâ. In a rambling and defiant 40-minute speech to the opening session of the General Assemly, he said Iran would from now on consider the nuclear issue not a âpoliticalâ one for the Security Council, but a âtechnicalâ one to be decided by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nationsâ nuclear watchdog.
Ahmadinejadâs assertion that the matter belonged with the nuclear agency indicated his preference to work with Mohamed ElBaradei,its director.
Dr. ElBaradei has been at odds with Washington, and some European powers, who have accused him of meddling in the diplomacy by seeking separate accords with Iran, and in their eyes undercutting the Security Council resolutions.
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Burma's Junta Declares Curfew, Bans Assembly
2007-09-26 03:20:41
Troops move into the streets of Rangoon.
Troops moved into the streets of Rangoon, Burma in apparent readiness for a confrontation with pro-democracy protesters as the U.S. and U.K. Tuesday stepped up pressure on Burma's military government, threatening punitive measures against the regime. The Burmese junta last night imposed a 60-day 9 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew and ban on gatherings of more than five people, according to reports from the country's two biggest cities, Rangoon and Mandalay.
Truckloads of armed security forces in riot gear surrounded several of the key protest sites, including Rangoon's city hall and the nearby Sule pagoda, in advance of Wednesday's planned marches. Earlier tens of thousand of monks and pro-democracy demonstrators defied government warnings and paraded through the streets of the old capital Tuesday, as they have for the past week.
Ministers from the Burmese junta met in emergency session in the new capital, Naypyidaw, to discuss the growing threat to their regime. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, 62, had been moved to the notorious Insein prison on Sunday from the lakeside villa where she was under house arrest.
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Bush Administration Trying To Block California's Effort To Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions
2007-09-25 17:55:07
The Bush administration has conducted a concerted, behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to try to generate opposition to California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, according to documents obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
California, along with 11 other states, is hoping to enact rules that would cut global warming pollution from new motor vehicles by nearly 30 percent by 2016. To do so, California needs a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency, a request that has been pending for nearly two years. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has threatened to sue if EPA does not rule on the waiver by Oct. 22.
A flurry of e-mails among Transportation Department (DOT) officials and between its staffers and the White House, released Monday, highlights efforts that administration officials have made to stir up public opposition to the waiver. Rather than attacking California's request outright, Bush officials quietly reached out to two dozen congressional offices and a handful of governors to try to undermine it.
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U.S. Supreme Court To Consider Technology Patent Case
2007-09-25 17:54:31
Decision could have far-reaching impact on computer makers, other industries.
The U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday it will consider a technology patent case that could have far-reaching ramifications for computer makers and other industries with global supply chains. The case was brought by a group of Taiwanese computer makers, who have accused a South Korean rival of using its patents in an effort to "shake down the entire computer industry for several billion dollars in duplicative licensing fees."
At issue is whether a patent holder can seek royalties from multiple companies as a patented product works its way through the manufacturing process.
The Taiwanese firms, led by Quanta Computer Inc., are asking the justices to overturn a 2006 federal appeals court ruling that they say would open the door for patent holders to do just that.
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Editorial: Gunfight At The S-Chip Corral
2007-09-25 13:48:59
Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Tuesday, September 25, 2007.
President Bush accused Congressional Democrats of putting health coverage for poor children at risk by forcing him to veto a bill that he says is a dangerous step toward government-run health care. The opposite is the case. Bush is the one putting the health of Americaâs children at risk, threatening to veto carefully crafted legislation that would reauthorize and expand the valuable State Childrenâs Health Insurance Program, or S-chip.
We can only hope that fair-minded members of Congress will pass the compromise measure by veto-proof majorities this week. Otherwise, millions of low- and middle-income children would be denied access to a program that has played a critical role in reducing the number of uninsured children over the past decade.
To hear the president tell it, he has long supported the joint federal-state program, and his budget for fiscal year 2008 proposes an additional $5 billion in federal funds spread over the next five years, a 20 percent increase over current levels. What he doesnât say is that this paltry sum is not even enough to provide continued coverage for all of the children who are currently enrolled, let alone enroll millions more of the uninsured.
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Burmese Monks Continue Protest, Defying Junta's Warning
2007-09-25 13:48:08
Tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and supporters Tuesday defied a government warning in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and returned to the streets for an eighth day of peaceful anti-government protests.
For the first time since protests began on Aug. 19, the government began to issue warnings and to move security forces into positions in Yangon, the largest city and former capital. Witnesses said they saw truckloads of soldiers apparently moving into position in Yangon.
It was the most ominous situation that the protesters had seen during a month of demonstrations that were sparked by a sharp fuel price increase in mid-August and have swelled into a huge outpouring that has filled the streets of several cities, although as evening fell the dayâs protests dispersed without incident.
Official vehicles patrolled the streets calling on monks to return to their temples, inserting a government presence into streets that had been largely given over to huge waves of protesters. âPeople are not to follow, encourage or take part in these marches,â the announcements said. âAction will be taken against those who violate this order.â
Diplomats in Yangon said uniformed security personnel were moving discreetly into the city, where they had not been visible in past days.
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U.S. Military Tallies Grim Data On Iraq Civilian Deaths
2007-09-25 13:47:23
What defines a killing as sectarian?
On Sept. 1, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi men were found on a Baghdad street. Two days later, a single dead man, with one bullet in his head, was found on a different street. According to the U.S. military in Iraq,the solitary man was a victim of sectarian violence. The first four were not.
Such determinations are the building blocks for what the Bush administration has declared a downward trend in sectarian deaths and a sign that its war strategy is working. They are made by a specialized team of soldiers who spend their nights at computer terminals, sifting through data on the day's civilian victims for clues to the motivations of killers.
The soldiers have a manual telling them what to look for. Signs of torture or a single shot to the head, corpses left in a "known body dump" - as the body of the Sunni man found on Sept. 3 was - spell sectarian violence, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dan Macomber, the team leader. Macomber, who has been at his job in Baghdad since February, rarely has to look it up anymore.
"If you were just a criminal and you just wanted to take somebody's money, just wanted to discipline them, you're not going to take the time to bind them up, burn their bodies, cut their arms off, cut their head off," he explained. "You're just going to shoot them in the body and get it over with." That, the team judged, is what happened to the four Shiite men, sprayed with gunfire and left where they dropped.
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U.N. Secretary General Calls For 'Unprecedented Action' On Climate Change
2007-09-25 01:24:03
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that a 15-year international effort to stem global warming has not halted the buildup of greenhouse gas emissions and that governments must take "unprecedented action" to reverse the trend. "Today, the time for doubt has passed," Ban told delegates at a U.N. conference on climate change that brought together more than 80 heads of state, former U.S. vice president Al Gore and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Ban organized Monday's meeting to build political momentum for negotiations set for December in Bali, Indonesia, on a new treaty, which is expected to impose deep cuts on emissions of heat-trapping gases by industrial powers.
Ban stressed the urgency of reaching agreement on a plan of action that would replace the world's principal climate accord, the Kyoto Protocol.The agreement, which the Bush administration opposes, expires at the end of 2012.
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Salmonella More Virulent In Space
2007-09-25 01:23:23
Food poisoning bacteria become super virulent in space, according to a study on the shuttle Atlantis.
Food poisoning bacteria become super-virulent in space, according to a study of salmonella that spent 12 days orbiting the Earth on the space shuttle Atlantis. The research raises fears that diseases boosted by low gravity could pose unexpected medical problems on future long-haul space journeys or for astronauts on a proposed future moon base.
It is the first study to examine the effect of space flight on the virulence of a pathogen. "Given the proposed increase in both duration and distance from Earth for future manned space flight missions - including lunar colonization and a mission to Mars - the risk for in-flight infectious diseases will be increased," said Cheryl Nickerson at Arizona State University.
Her team sent vials of salmonella bacteria into orbit on Atlantis's 12-day mission in September last year. They kept bacteria from the same strain in conditions as close to the space shuttle as possible on Earth. When they fed the samples to different groups of mice they found that the bacteria that had been in space were nearly three times as likely to kill the animals.
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At Columbia University, Ahmadinejad Parries And Puzzles
2007-09-25 01:22:18
He said that there were no homosexuals in Iran - not one - and that the Nazi slaughter of six million Jews should not be treated as fact, but theory, and therefore open to debate and more research.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, aired those and other bewildering thoughts in a two-hour verbal contest at Columbia University Monday, providing some ammunition to people who said there was no point in inviting him to speak. Yet his appearance also offered evidence of why he is widely admired in the developing world for his defiance toward Western, especially American, power.
In repeated clashes with his hosts, Ahmadinejad accused the United States of supporting terrorist groups, and characterized as hypocritical American and European efforts to rein in Iranâs nuclear ambitions.
âIf you have created the fifth generation of atomic bombs and are testing them already, who are you to question other people who just want nuclear power,â said Ahmadinejad, adding, pointedly: âI think the politicians who are after atomic bombs, politically, theyâre backwards. Retarded.â
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Bomber Kills 16 At Iraqi Reconciliation Banquet
2007-09-25 01:21:04
A suicide bomber blew himself up on Monday at a banquet intended to be a reconciliation feast between provincial officials and former Sunni insurgents in Diyala Province, killing 16 people and wounding at least 28.
Among the wounded were the provincial governor, the regional police chief and the local military commander, local police officials said. At least one former insurgent leader was killed, they said.
The gathering was of the type that is a cornerstone of American plans to reconcile former insurgents with the Iraqi government and enlist their help in fighting Sunni extremist groups. The strategy has produced security gains in Sunni areas in western Iraq, and the military is trying to repeat that success in places like Diyala, a mixed area of Sunnis and Shiites north of Baghdad.
The American military confirmed that American officers had attended the meeting, held at a Shiite mosque in an outlying district of Baquba, the provincial capital. It said soldiers had been attacked by a suicide bomber, but said nothing about any wounded or dead among the Americans.
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