Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday September 19 2007 - (813)

Wednesday September 19 2007 edition
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U.S. House Members Resist Subpoenas To Testify In Contractor Bribery Trial 2007-09-19 02:36:28 The defense contractor charged with bribing convicted former GOP congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham has subpoenaed 13 House members, including former speaker J. Dennis Hastert, to testify in his federal trial. The 13 lawmakers are refusing the subpoena, and the House general counsel sent lawyers for the contractor, Brent R. Wilkes, a letter saying that it was overly broad and "did not elaborate as to what testimony you seek from each member." Wilkes has been indicted on more than 30 counts, including fraud and money laundering, as one of several alleged conspirators who paid more than $2.4 million in bribes to the California Republican. Cunningham is serving an eight-year prison term after pleading guilty to steering millions of dollars in government business to Wilkes and other defense contractors. It is unclear what Wilkes' defense team wants from Hastert (R-Illinois) and the other lawmakers. His attorney, Mark J. Geragos, did not respond to repeated requests for comment Tuesday. Read The Full Story U.S. Agrees To Further British Withdrawal From Iraq - or - U.S., Britain Differ On Southern Iraq Mission, Official Says 2007-09-19 02:35:13 Intellpuke: There are two articles on the same subject here. The first was posted on the Guardian's website about 8 hours (due to different time zones, the Guardian is a British news organization based in Manchester, England) before the second, which is the Washington Post's article. I posted them in the order they appeared on the World Wide Web, so the Guardian article is first, and the Post's article follows it: Britain is poised to announce significant cuts in the number of troops in southern Iraq following an upbeat assessment by U.S. and British military officials in London Tuesday. This was the message from defense officials last night following talks between British government ministers and General David Petraeus, the American military commander in Iraq. Amid concern about the mounting tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iraq and nuclear issues, Gen.  Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, also kept up the pressure on Iran, saying its repeated calls for dialogue with the U.S. were irrelevant as long as it continued supporting Iraqi militias and played what  Crocker called a "lethal and damaging" role. The Guardian understands an announcement on further cuts in British troops could be made as early as October 8 when Prime Minister Gordon Brown is due to make a statement to Parliament members when the House of  Commons returns after its summer break. A reduction of 500 troops out of a total of 5,500 has already been announced. Read The Full Story Typhoon Wipha Slams Into China's Coast, Then Wimps Out, Now Just A Tropical Storm 2007-09-19 02:33:52 Typhoon Wipha slammed into the coast south of Shanghai early Wednesday, flooding streets and disrupting transport as authorities ordered 2 million people evacuated. One man was electrocuted. But Wipha was fast losing power and appeared unlikely to live up to forecasts that it could be the most powerful storm to hit eastern China in a decade. By Wednesday morning, the Meteorological Bureau in Zhejiang province, where Wipha made landfall, reported that it was downgraded to a severe tropical storm when its sustained wind speeds dropped below 74 mph. However, the storm was expected to pass Shanghai, China's biggest city, later in the day and still carried the potential to cause significant damage through flooding and strong winds. Read The Full Story U.S. Bans Overland Diplomatic Travel Outside Iraq's Green Zone After Security Incident 2007-09-18 19:25:02 The United States on Tuesday suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials throughout Iraq, except in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The move follows a weekend incident involving private security guards protecting a diplomatic convoy in which a number of Iraqi civilians were killed. In a notice sent to Americans in Iraq, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said it had taken the step to review the security of its personnel and possible increased threats to those leaving the Green Zone while accompanied by such security details. ''In light of a serious security incident involving a U.S. embassy protective detail in the Mansour District of Baghdad, the embassy has suspended official U.S. government civilian ground movements outside the International Zone (IZ) and throughout Iraq,'' said the notice. ''This suspension is in effect in order to assess mission security and procedures, as well as a possible increased threat to personnel traveling with security details outside the International Zone,'' said the notice, a copy of which was provided to the Associated Press by the State Department in Washington, D.C. Read The Full Story Peruvian Villagers Hit By Mysterious Illness After Meteor Strikes 2007-09-18 19:23:43 Regional authorities in Peru said a mysterious illness struck villagers in the southern part of the country after a meteorite crashed near the area Monday. According to reports, the villagers were startled when a blaze occurred in the high Andes district of Puno in the  Desaguadero region. Many first suspected that an airplane crashed near the border with Bolivia. Local health department official Jorge Lopez said that, after the incident, residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought by a "strange odor". Lopez added that seven policemen who went to inspect the crash site also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized. Read The Full Story Iraq Government To Review All Security Contractors 2007-09-18 14:41:57 The Iraqi government said Tuesday that it would review the status of all foreign and local security companies working in Iraq after a shooting that left eight Iraqis dead. Blackwater USA, an American contractor that provides security to some of the top American officials in Iraq, was banned from working in the country by the Ministry of Interior after the shooting on Sunday, which involved an American diplomatic convoy. A spokesman for the Iraqi government, Ali al-Dabbagh, said that the cabinet met Tuesday and supported the decision to cancel Blackwater’s license and begin an immediate investigation. The ministry has said that it would prosecute the participants in the shooting, but a law issued by the American occupation authority prior to the return of sovereignty to Iraq in 2004 grants American contractors, along with American military personnel, immunity from Iraqi prosecution. Dabbagh said the investigation should “compel the company to respect the Iraqi laws, citizens’ dignity and the results and consequences the investigation would come up with.” The statement by the Iraqi government Tuesday seemed to blame Blackwater employees directly for the deaths, calling it a “vicious assault which was carried out by the employees of the American security company” against Iraqi citizens. Read The Full Story A Pain In The Gas: Oil Prices Hit $81.39 A Barrel - New Record High 2007-09-18 14:41:18 Oil futures jumped to new records Tuesday as traders bet that a Federal Reserve interest rate cut could stimulate economic growth and increase demand at a time when crude oil and gasoline inventories are tight. An attack on an oil pipeline in Iraq also supported prices, analysts said. Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 82 cents to $81.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after fluctuating between gains and losses and then rising to a record $81.80 earlier. The contract rose to settle at a record $80.57 on Monday. October gasoline rose 0.03 cent to $2.0445 a gallon on the Nymex, while heating oil futures fell 0.18 cent to $2.2269 a gallon. Oil investors are pricing a quarter-point interest rate decrease into the market, part of the reason oil futures have surged to new records in recent days, said Brad Samples, a commodities analyst at Summit Energy Services Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. A half-point cut could spur even more buying, he said. Read The Full Story Federal Judge Dismisses California's Global Warming Lawsuit Against Automakers 2007-09-18 14:40:35 California's attempt to collect billions of dollars in damages by accusing automakers of creating a global warming-related "nuisance" was dismissed Monday by a federal judge in San Francisco, California. The courts aren't set up to deal with climate change and other "political questions" with international reach, said U.S. District Court Judge Martin J. Jenkins. That task belongs to Congress and the executive branch of the government, he said. The suit, originally filed a year ago by former Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, claimed that emissions of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases from automobile tailpipes cause environmental damage. It cited as examples melting Sierra snowpacks, prolonged droughts and dying forests. Car makers denied that their products could be characterized as nuisances under California and federal law. "Our bottom-line point is that global warming presents exceedingly complex policy issues that must be addressed at the national and international levels by Congress and the president, not through lawsuits seeking damages in the federal courts," said Ted Boutrous, lead attorney for the auto companies. Read The Full Story	Experts: Effects Of Climate Change Will Be Felt Sooner Than Scientists Realized 2007-09-19 02:36:01 The effects of climate change will be felt sooner than scientists realized and the world must learn to live with the effects, experts said Tuesday. Professor Martin Parry, a climate scientist with Britain's Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought. He said vulnerable people such as the old and poor would be the worst affected, and that world leaders have not yet accepted their countries will have to adapt to the likely consequences. Speaking at a meeting to launch the full report on the impacts of global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Professor Parry, co-chairman of the IPCC working group that wrote the report, said: "We are all used to talking about these impacts coming in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. Now we know that it's us." He added politicians had wasted a decade by focusing only on ways to cut emissions, and had only recently woken up to the need to adapt. "Mitigation has got all the attention, but we cannot mitigate out of this problem. We now have a choice between a future with a damaged world or a severely damaged world." Read The Full Story Musharraf Pledges To Leave Army If Re-Elected President 2007-09-19 02:34:23 Foes want Musharraf to leave both jobs. Gen. Pervez Musharraf's attorney told Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday that Musharraf would step down as army chief if he is elected to another term as president this fall. But the pledge failed to appease Pakistani opposition leaders, who continued to press for him to leave both posts. Top aides to Musharraf had been saying for weeks that if he is elected to a new term as president, he intends to take off his uniform and become a civilian before he is sworn in. Sharifuddin Pirzada, Musharraf's attorney, made the plan official Tuesday. The new election must be held by Oct. 15, and Musharraf's current term expires Nov. 15. Musharraf, 64, has been in the army his entire adult life, and his role leading the military is seen as his primary source of power but, legally and politically, he had little option but to pledge to abandon his army job. He was constitutionally barred from holding both offices simultaneously beyond this year, and any continuation of military rule probably would spark street protests at a time when anti-army sentiments are running high. Opposition leaders signaled Tuesday that, despite his promised change to civilian status, Musharraf's problems are still not over. Read The Full Story U.S. Stocks Surge After Federal Reserve Cuts Key Interest Rate 2007-09-18 19:25:18 The U.S. Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate Monday in an aggressive attempt to keep turmoil in financial markets from damaging the U.S. economy as a whole. The central bank's policymaking committee cut the federal funds rate, a rate at which banks can borrow amongst themselves, by half a percentage point, to 4.75 percent. That will ultimately lead to lower borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, making it cheaper to take out a car loan or home mortgage or invest in a business. "The tightening of credit conditions has the potential to intensify the housing correction and to restrain economic growth more generally," said the Federal Open Market Committee in its statement announcing the cut. "Today's action is intended to help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise arise from the disruptions in financial markets and to promote moderate growth over time." Wall Street had expected a smaller rate cut of only a quarter percentage point, and the stock market soared on the news. The Dow Jones industrial average finished the day up 335.97 points, or 2.5 percent. Read The Full Story China Reluctant To Release Details On Bird Flu Outbreak 2007-09-18 19:24:03 China scrambled to respond Tuesday to an outbreak of bird flu among ducks in the southern city of Guangzhou but,  as officials sought to reassure the public, there were signs that China was reluctant to release details about a possible health threat. The outbreak in Guangzhou's Panyu district is the first outbreak of H5N1 bird flu since May, but it has been brought under control, the Agriculture Ministry said. The ministry's Web site said 36,130 ducks had been culled; other media reports suggested more than double that number had been killed. "All areas which have bird flu outbreaks have to stop trade in live poultry across the board, and shut wet markets," the director of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, Zhou Bohua, said at a news conference in Beijing. China's government has previously played down the severity of natural disasters, public health crises and other problems. It was accused of initially covering up and then responding too slowly to the 2003 SARS crisis, which is also believed to have originated in Guangdong province. The government is particularly sensitive to international perceptions now, as it tries to respond to concerns about food safety. Read The Full Story U.S. Rep. Waxman: State Department Official Thwarted Investigations 2007-09-18 14:42:17 Howard J. Krongard, the State Department's inspector general, has repeatedly thwarted investigations and censored reports that might prove politically embarrassing to the Bush administration, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform charged today in a 13-page letter. The letter, signed by committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-California) and released by the committee Tuesday, said the allegations were based on the testimony of seven current and former officials on Krongard's staff, including two former senior officials who allowed their names to be used, and private e-mail exchanges obtained by the committee. The letter said the allegations were not limited to a single unit or project, but concerned all three major divisions of Krongard's office - investigations, audits and inspections. Waxman demanded documents and testimony for a hearing next month into Krongard's conduct. A copy of the letter also was sent to the committee's ranking minority member, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Virginia). Krongard's office said he is traveling today and would not have any immediate comment. The inspectors general of government departments and agencies are intended to be independent and objective investigators of fraud and waste. Sometimes, Foreign Service officers are appointed as I.G. at State, but Krongard, who was confirmed by the Senate in May 2005, was not a Foreign Service officer. He previously worked for an international law firm and had been general counsel for Deloitte & Touche in the mid-1990s. Read The Full Story Sen. Clinton Unveils Plan For Universal Health Care Coverage 2007-09-18 14:41:39 Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton Monday unveiled a proposal to provide health insurance to all Americans, placing herself at the center of an issue that provided perhaps the greatest setback of her political career. In a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, the Democratic front-runner said she would expand insurance to the 47 million people who do not already have coverage and would attempt to reduce costs for others without spawning a massive new bureaucracy. In a far different political environment than the one that turned her efforts to establish universal health care into a fiasco in her husband's first term, Clinton offered a more modest approach than she took as first lady and head of a White House task force in 1993. "Today's plan is simple yet doable," said Clinton. "... This is not government-run. There will be no new bureaucracy." Similar to proposals offered by her chief Democratic rivals, former senator John Edwards (North Carolina) and Sen. Barack Obama (Illinois), Clinton's plan - with an estimated $110 billion annual price tag - would seek to build on the existing health-care system but would make it easier for adults without health insurance to buy it through tax credits. Read The Full Story China Evacuates 1.8 Million People For Typhoon Wipha 2007-09-18 14:40:49 A typhoon expected to be among the most powerful storms to hit China in years churned toward the densely populated coast on Tuesday with 165 mph wind gusts, and the government evacuated 1.8 million people. The fringes of Typhoon Wipha lashed northern Taiwan, where schools, offices and the stock market closed. A construction worker was killed when the storm's winds knocked down scaffolding, said Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center. City authorities ordered schools closed Wednesday in Shanghai, a city of more than 20 million and China's financial hub. Chinese state-run television showed families being evacuated from fishing boats and other vessels. Shopkeepers stacked sand bags to prevent flooding as drains clogged amid torrential rains. The typhoon, whipping up waves up to 36 feet high, was moving northwest toward the Chinese mainland. Read The Full Story University Of California, Irvine, Rehires Chemerinsky As Dean 2007-09-18 14:39:56 The University of California, Irvine's chancellor tried to salvage the reputation of his fledgling law school Monday by announcing that he had reinstated Erwin Chemerinsky as its founding dean, but his own troubles persisted as faculty members continued to question why he had sacked the liberal scholar and contemplated taking action against their university's leader. The agreement with Chemerinsky, made five days after the deanship was rescinded, came after Chancellor Michael V. Drake and his wife flew to Durham, North Carolina, over the weekend so the two men could speak face to face. The talks began Sunday morning over pastries at Chemerinsky's home and continued late into the night. "Many issues were addressed in depth," the two said in a joint statement, "including several areas of miscommunication and misunderstanding. All issues were resolved to our mutual satisfaction." Read The Full Story
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