Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday October 30 2007 - (813)

Tuesday October 30 2007 edition
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Oil And Trade Gains Turn Developing Nations Into Major Investors 2007-10-30 03:23:22 The government of Libya, flush with oil, has amassed $40 billion and is ready to put it in play on Wall Street. China  recently acquired a huge stake in one of the biggest names in U.S. finance. Tiny Qatar is adding $1 billion a week to its investment coffers and is trying to buy the leading grocer in Britain. Developing nations, especially in Asia and the Middle East, are aggressively stockpiling some of the largest concentrations of investment money in history. The cash hoards, called sovereign wealth funds, are controlled not by state-run companies or private investors but by governments. These investment pools are equal to or even bigger than the largest pension and private-equity funds in the United States, and many are highly secretive about their activities. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has an estimated $875 billion to invest, while China's first stab at a sovereign wealth fund, which started last month, has $200 billion. The largest private-equity firm has about $90 billion under management. Read The Full Story Officials Fear Collapse Of Iraq Dam Could Cause Up To 500,000 Iraqi Civilian Deaths 2007-10-30 03:23:00 The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials. Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. "The Mosul dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability," in the dry wording of an Army Corps of Engineers draft report. At the same time, a U.S. reconstruction project to help shore up the dam in northern Iraq has been marred by incompetence and mismanagement, according to Iraqi officials and a report by a U.S. oversight agency to be released Tuesday. The reconstruction project, worth at least $27 million, was not intended to be a permanent solution to the dam's deficiencies. "In terms of internal erosion potential of the foundation, Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world," the Army Corps concluded in September 2006, according to the report to be released Tuesday. "If a small problem [at] Mosul Dam occurs, failure is likely." Read The Full Story At Least 20 People Dead As Tropical Storm Noel Lashes Dominican Republic 2007-10-29 21:56:38 Tropical Storm Noel lashed the Dominican Republic with heavy rains on Monday, causing flooding and mudslides that killed at least 20 people and left another 20 missing, said officials. Noel was expected to dump up to 20 inches of rain on the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola, as it heads northwest toward the Bahamas. The storm was expected to veer away from the United States, but forecasters said a tropical storm watch, which means that tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 hours, may be issued for southeast Florida later Monday. The spinning tropical storm had been forecast to hit Haiti hardest but veered toward the Dominican Republic, apparently catching residents offguard. Read The Full Story In Peru, Malaria Moves In Behind The Loggers 2007-10-29 21:56:17 Deforestation and climate change are returning the mosquito-borne disease to parts of Peru after 40 years. The afternoon is hot and sticky on the banks of the Napo river, an arm of the Amazon, but Claudio, a logger, is shivering in his creaky wooden bed. "I feel bad, very bad, pain all over my body, fever, high fever, shudders," he says. "I have malaria; this is the 17th time so far. I don't know what to do any more." The mosquito-borne illness has returned to the many villages only accessible by boat in the Peruvian Amazon, inflicting on the inhabitants days of fever, permanent anaemia and - in the worst cases - death. Article continues In Peru, malaria was almost eradicated 40 years ago, but this year 64,000 cases have been registered in the country, half in the Amazon region. It is thought there are many more unregistered cases deep within the massive and humid rainforest, where health authorities find it almost impossible to gain access. Read The Full Story 32 People Killed, 18 Wounded In Suicide Bomb Attack Near Baghdad 2007-10-29 16:12:46 A suicide bomber riding a bicycle killed 32 people and wounded 18 when he detonated his explosives Monday amidst a group of Iraqi police recruits, said officials. The attack took place in volatile Diyala province, just north of Baghdad, during a morning roll call around 8:15 in the training yard of a police battalion, said Col. Ali Ismael Fattah, the unit's commanding officer. Among the wounded were a woman and child near the site of the explosion. Fattah said the casualty reports were preliminary and the death toll might rise. Most of the dead were police recruits, who were undergoing training and scheduled to finish their course soon, said Fattah. Diyala has been a focus of U.S. counterinsurgency efforts, both on the political and military fronts. Over the summer, U.S. forces pushed into Baqubah, the capital of Diyala, in an effort to regain control of the city from al-Qaeda backed militants. An alliance between local sheiks and the U.S. military has been cited as a successful piece of U.S. strategy. Read The Full Story Iowa Democrats Set Earlier Caucus Date 2007-10-29 16:12:08 Iowa Democrats voted Sunday to move their leadoff precinct caucuses to Jan. 3, the same date Republicans picked earlier this month, letting both parties continue the tradition of meeting on the same night. The state's precinct caucuses had been scheduled for Jan. 14, but the parties decided to move them up under pressure from other states rushing to the beginning of the primary calendar. The move, confirmed by party spokesman Chris Allen, means the major remaining question about the calendar is the New Hampshire primary, originally scheduled for Jan. 22. New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner has said only that he would schedule that primary no later than Jan. 8. Read The Full Story China Arrests 774 In Food And Drug Crackdown 2007-10-29 16:11:35 The Chinese government said Monday that it had arrested 774 people over the past two months as part of a nationwide crackdown on the production and sale of tainted food, drugs and agricultural products. Government regulators hailed the arrests as a major step forward for food and drug safety, and said the “criminal suspects” were detained during nationwide inspections of thousands of restaurants, food and drug production facilities and wholesale food markets. Determined to counter accusations that it has been producing and even exporting tainted goods, China vowed earlier this year to revamp its food and drug safety regulations and to close down illegal manufacturers and exporters. Last summer, the government even executed the former head of the nation’s food and drug administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, after he was convicted of accepting bribes and failing to properly supervise food and drug companies, some of which had sold counterfeit drugs. Read The Full Story GAO: Security Upgrades At Several U.S. Nuclear Sites Are Lagging 2007-10-29 03:27:37 More than a year after Congress told the Energy Department to harden the nation’s nuclear bomb factories and laboratories against terrorist raids, at least 5 of the 11 sites are certain to miss their deadlines, some by many years. The Energy Department has put off security improvements at some sites that store plutonium because it plans to consolidate the material at central locations, but the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a Senate briefing that that project was also likely to lag. A copy of the briefing materials was provided to The New York Times by a private group, the Project on Government Oversight, which has long been pushing for better security at the weapons sites. Danielle Brian, the group’s executive director, said that although the deadline set by Congress was tight, if the Energy Department “had taken seriously consolidating and making this an expedited effort, they wouldn’t be having these problems now.” Robert Alvarez, an adviser to the energy secretary in the Clinton administration, said there was wide agreement that centralizing the fuel was a good idea. But Mr. Alvarez added, “There’s a lot of pushback about moving fissile materials from a site, because then you lose a portion of your budget and prestige.” The Energy Department declined requests for an interview, but Michael Kilpatrick, a deputy chief at the department’s Office of Health, Safety and Security, said in a statement that the steps under way were “further enhancements and better protection to some of the most secure facilities in the country.” Read The Full Story Editorial: Trash Talking World War III 2007-10-29 03:25:38 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Monday, October 29, 2007. America’s allies and increasingly the American public are playing a ghoulish guessing game: Will President Bush manage to leave office without starting a war with Iran? Mr. Bush is eagerly feeding those anxieties. This month he raised the threat of “World War III” if Iran even figures out how to make a nuclear weapon. With a different White House, we might dismiss this as posturing - or bank on sanity to carry the day, or the warnings of exhausted generals or a defense secretary more rational than his predecessor. Not this crowd. Four years after his pointless invasion of Iraq, President Bush still confuses bullying with grand strategy. He refuses to do the hard work of diplomacy - or even acknowledge the disastrous costs of his actions. The Republican presidential candidates have apparently decided that the real commander in chief test is to see who can out-trash talk the White House on Iran. The world should not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, but there is no easy fix here, no daring surgical strike. Consider Natanz, the underground site where Iran is defying the Security Council by spinning a few thousand centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel. American bombers could take it out, but what about the even more sophisticated centrifuges the administration accuses Iran of hiding? Beyond the disastrous diplomatic and economic costs, a bombing campaign is unlikely to set back Iran’s efforts for more than a few years. Read The Full Story Commentary: The Wiretap This Time 2007-10-29 03:24:42 Intellpuke: The following commentary is by Chicago columnist and author Studs Terkel and appears in the New York Times edition for Monday, October 29, 2007. Earlier this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the White House agreed to allow the executive branch to conduct dragnet interceptions of the electronic communications of people in the United States. They also agreed to “immunize” American telephone companies from lawsuits charging that after 9/11 some companies collaborated with the government to violate the Constitution and existing federal law. I am a plaintiff in one of those lawsuits, and I hope Congress thinks carefully before denying me, and millions of other Americans, our day in court. During my lifetime, there has been a sea change in the way that politically active Americans view their relationship with government. In 1920, during my youth, I recall the Palmer raids in which more than 10,000 people were rounded up, most because they were members of particular labor unions or belonged to groups that advocated change in American domestic or foreign policy. Unrestrained surveillance was used to further the investigations leading to these detentions, and the Bureau of Investigation - the forerunner to the F.B.I. - eventually created a database on the activities of individuals. This activity continued through the Red Scare of the period. In the 1950s, during the sad period known as the McCarthy era, one’s political beliefs again served as a rationale for government monitoring. Individual corporations and entire industries were coerced by government leaders into informing on individuals and barring their ability to earn a living. Read The Full Story Obama Seeks A Revival Of Faith 2007-10-29 03:24:09 Presidential contender launches a three-city gospel concert series across South Carolina. As a man not only of God but of politics, the Rev. Joe Darby is an outspoken observer of the campaign scene. Reclining in his cluttered office at Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, he witnesses the union between the pulpit and the polls. "Politics does come down to some degree of emotion ... ," says Darby, one of this state's most prominent African American preachers, whose church is a magnet for Democratic presidential hopefuls. "The Democratic Party is just catching up to that. It's been nauseatingly safe in recent years." As if from Darby's mouth to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's ears, the Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois -  hoping his campaign can recapture some of that old-time religious fervor - launched a three-city gospel concert series over the weekend across the state, in North Charleston, Greenwood and Columbia. Although Obama did not attend the "Embrace the Change" series in person (instead campaigning in Iowa), he was here in spirit, appearing by video screen and sending out his surrogates, such as pastor Hezekiah Walker and singer Beverly Crawford. Read The Full Story U.S. Country Singer Porter Wagoner Dies 2007-10-29 03:23:11 U.S. country singer Porter Wagoner, lanky Grand Ole Opry star whose flashy Nudie rhinestone suits dazzled fans when he sang with rising new performer Dolly Parton in the 60s, died on Sunday from lung cancer, said his publicity agent, Darlene Bieber. He was 80. Bieber said the singer died in an Alive Hospice facility in Nashville, Tennessee. He had been hospitalized for several days. Wagoner, an Opry star since 1957 and a Grammy winner, was a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and won three Country Music Association awards for songs with Parton in the Vocal Duo and Vocal Group categories. The two recorded 14 Top 10 hits including "Last Thing on My Mind" and "Please Don't Stop Loving Me." Wagoner's solo hits included "Company's Comin" and the "Green Green Grass of Home" as well as "Carroll County Accident." Read The Full Story	Blackwater Given Immunity For Statements Made To U.S. State Dept. 2007-10-30 03:23:12 FBI cannot use information gleaned from State Department bureau's interviews with guards who were involved in the Sept. 16 civilian shootings. Potential prosecution of Blackwater guards allegedly involved in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians last month may have been compromised because the guards received immunity for statements they made to State Department officials investigating the incident, federal law enforcement officials said Monday. FBI agents called in to take over the State Department's investigation two weeks after the Sept. 16 shootings cannot use any information gleaned during questioning of the guards by the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is charged with supervising security contractors. Some of the Blackwater guards have subsequently refused to be interviewed by the FBI, citing promises of immunity from the State Department, said one law enforcement official. The restrictions on the FBI's use of their initial statements do not preclude prosecution by the Justice Department using other evidence, the official said, but "they make things a lot more complicated and difficult." Read The Full Story U.S. Intelligence Budget Said To Be $50 Billion 2007-10-30 03:22:45 The director of U.S. national intelligence will disclose Tuesday that national intelligence activities amounting to roughly 80 percent of all U.S. intelligence spending for the year cost more than $40 billion, according to sources on Capitol Hill and inside the administration. The disclosure means that when military spending is added, aggregate U.S. intelligence spending for fiscal 2007 exceeded $50 billion, according to these sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the total remains classified. Adm. Mike McConnell will announce that the fiscal 2007 national intelligence program figure, classified up to now, is being made public at the urging of the Sept. 11 commission and the insistence of Congress, which turned the commission's recommendation into law. The commission's plan was to have the president make the figure public each year. While the budget figure released by McConnell excludes intelligence programs for the separate military services, it includes the budgets of the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI's intelligence programs, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the major Defense Department intelligence collection agencies. Read The Full Story Scientist: It's Too Late For Greenhouse Gas Cuts 2007-10-29 21:56:29 Prof. James Lovelock says most scientists have failed to recognize the speed with which global warming will progress. Cutting greenhouse gases and switching to sustainable development are unlikely to prevent disasters caused by climate change, one of the world's most respected environmentalists warned Monday. Professor James Lovelock, the leading independent environmental scientist, claims that even the most pessimistic outcomes predicted by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fail to recognize the speed with which global warming will progress. In a speech at the Royal Society in London, Prof. Lovelock described how he has arrived at an "apocalyptic view" of the future, in which 6 to 8 billion people face diminishing food and water supplies in an increasingly intolerable climate. Read The Full Story Egypt Announces Nuclear Plant Projects 2007-10-29 16:13:19 Egypt's president announced plans Monday to build several nuclear power plants - the latest in a string of ambitious such proposals from moderate Arab countries. The United States immediately welcomed the plan, in a sharp contrast to what it called nuclear "cheating" by Iran.  President Hosni Mubarak said the aim was to diversify Egypt's energy resources and preserve its oil and gas reserves for future generations. In a televised speech, he pledged Egypt would work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency at all times and would not seek a nuclear bomb. Mubarak also made clear there were strategic reasons for the program, calling secure sources of energy "an integral part of Egypt's national security system." In Washington, D.C., State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. would not object to the program as long as Egypt adhered to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines. Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Exxon Valdez Case 2007-10-29 16:12:31 The Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear an appeal by Exxon Mobil Corp. that seeks to overturn $2.5 billion in punitive damages a federal court ordered the company to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska. Stepping into the long-running dispute between the world's largest publicly traded oil company and more than 30,000 class-action plaintiffs, the court separately rejected the plaintiffs' appeal to reinstate the trial jury's original award of $5 billion in punitive damages. The 1994 award ultimately was cut in half during an appeals process that reached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which issued its ruling in December. Exxon Mobil argues that the $2.5 billion punitive award violates federal maritime law, and the Supreme Court agreed to take the case to settle that question. The justices declined to consider an argument that the award was so large that it violates the Constitution. Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., recused himself from the case without explanation. According to his 2006 financial disclosure report, he owned between $100,000 and $250,000 in Exxon Mobil stock as of Dec. 31. Read The Full Story Israel's Olmert Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer 2007-10-29 16:11:54 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israelis on Monday that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but said the disease was not life-threatening and will not disrupt his work as the country's leader. The disclosure came at a sensitive time in Mideast diplomacy, with Olmert and another one-time prostate cancer patient  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - struggling to bridge gaping differences ahead of a U.S.-brokered peace conference. Speaking calmly before a packed hall of reporters, Olmert said the disease was caught early and that he would have surgery "over the next few months." Vice Premier Haim Ramon said the surgery would be done after the conference. "I will be able to carry out my duties fully before the treatment and within hours afterward," said Olmert. "My doctors ... informed me that there is a full chance of recovery and there is nothing about the tumor that is life-threatening or liable to impair my performance or my ability to carry out the mission which has been bestowed upon me." Read The Full Story Terror Attack Threat Causes U.S., British Embassies To Suspend Operations In Azerbaijan 2007-10-29 16:11:14 The U.S. and British embassies suspended operations Monday in Baku, where the government said it thwarted a radical Islamic group's plot to conduct a "large-scale horrifying terror attack" against diplomatic missions and government buildings. The Azerbaijani National Security Ministry said one suspect was killed and several others were detained in a weekend sweep in a village outside the capital. The ministry said the Islamic group included an army lieutenant who stole 20 hand grenades, a machine gun, four assault rifles and ammunition from his military unit and made them available for the planned attack. The U.S. Embassy sent out an announcement to American citizens saying it had closed its consular office for an indefinite period because of a security threat and said it encouraged Americans to "maintain a high level of vigilance." Police cars were parked outside. The British Embassy closed completely on Monday, according to a receptionist in the Landmark building where the embassy is located. No one answered the phone at the embassy. Read The Full Story Bush Administration Promises On Darfur Don't Match Actions 2007-10-29 03:27:22 Indecision on whether to pressure Sudan or engage with its government, along with turnover of key advisers keeps president from maintaining focus. In April 2006, a small group of Darfur activists - including evangelical Christians, the representative of a Jewish group and a former Sudanese slave - was ushered into the Roosevelt Room at the White House for a private meeting with President Bush. It was the eve of a major rally on the National Mall, and the president spent more than an hour holding forth, displaying a kind of passion that has led some in the White House to dub him the "Sudan desk officer".  Bush insisted there must be consequences for rape and murder, and he called for international troops on the ground to protect innocent Darfuris, according to contemporaneous notes by one of those present. He spoke of "bringing justice" to the Jajaweed, the Arab militias that have participated in atrocities that the president has repeatedly described as nothing less than "genocide." "He had an understanding of the issue that went beyond simply responding to a briefing that had been given," said David Rubenstein, a participant who was then executive director of the Save Darfur Coalition, which has been sharply critical of the administration's response to the crisis. "He knew more facts than I expected him to know, and he had a broader political perspective than I expected him to have." Read The Full Story U.S. Guns Behind Killings By Mexico's Drug Cartel 2007-10-29 03:25:28 As many as 2,000 U.S. guns enter Mexico each day, feeding an expanding drug cartel arms race. Assassins blasted Ricardo Rosas Alvarado, a member of an elite state police force, with a blizzard of bullets pumped out of AK-47 assault rifles. Alvarado crumpled at the wheel of his sedan, yet another victim of the weapons known here as "goat's horns" because of their curved ammunition clips, and which can fire at a rate of 600 rounds per minute. The killing, Mexican authorities said, was a panorama of blood, shattered glass and torn metal that brutally showcased the firepower of Mexico's  drug cartels. But that was just the warm-up. Two hours later, a small army of cartel hit men descended on a federal police office and bunkhouse in this crowded city at one of the world's busiest border crossings. None of the officers, who had recently been sent here to crush the drug gangs terrorizing the city, were killed in the hail of more than 1,200 bullets, authorities said. But police veterans understood the message delivered to the newcomers: "Welcome to Tijuana. Our guns are bigger than your guns." Read The Full Story Gunmen Kidnap 11 Iraqi Tribal Leaders Allied With U.S. 2007-10-29 03:24:27 Eleven tribal leaders who had banded with U.S. troops to fight the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq were kidnapped Sunday morning, the latest in a string of such attacks, fellow tribesmen said. The Shiite and Sunni sheiks, members of the al-Salam Support Council, a group fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq in volatile Diyala province,were taken from their cars by gunmen as they were returning home from a meeting in Baghdad with a government official, said the tribesmen. Hadi al-Anbaki, a spokesman for the mostly Shiite council, said the attack was carried out by the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. "This was an ambush," said Anbaki. The kidnapping highlighted the complex and quickly shifting nature of the bloodshed convulsing Iraq, with Shiite and Sunni groups increasingly targeting members of their own sects who align themselves with U.S. forces. Read The Full Story FCC Set To End Sole Cable Deals For Apartments 2007-10-29 03:23:48 The U.S. Federal Communications Commission, hoping to reduce the rising costs of cable television, is preparing to strike down thousands of contracts this week that gave individual cable companies exclusive rights to provide service to an apartment building, the agency’s chairman says. The new rule could open markets across the country to far-ranging competition. It would also be a huge victory for Veizon Communications and AT&T, which have challenged the cable industry by offering their own video services. The two companies have lobbied aggressively for the provision. They have been supported in their fight by consumer groups, satellite television companies and small rivals to the big cable providers. Commission officials and consumer groups said the new rule could significantly lower cable prices for millions of subscribers who live in apartment buildings and have had no choice in selecting a company for paid television. Government and private studies show that when a second cable company enters a market, prices can drop as much as 30 percent. The change, which is set to be approved Wednesday, is expected to have a particular effect on prices for low-income and minority families. They have seen cable prices rise about three times the rate of inflation over the last decade. A quarter of American households live in apartment buildings housing 50 or more residents, but 40 percent of households headed by Hispanics and African-Americans live in such buildings. Read The Full Story Argentina's First Lady, Critina Kirchner, Becomes Country's First Female President 2007-10-29 03:21:58 Exit polls predict victory without need for run-off. Argentina's first lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, was on course for a landslide victory in Sunday's presidential election, according to exit polls. The lawyer-turned-senator appeared to lead her rivals by a wide enough margin to avoid a run-off and be declared the country's first elected female head of state. If confirmed, her victory will be as much a triumph for her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, as she ran on his record of reviving the economy after Argentina's 2001 financial meltdown. Shortly after ballot stations closed at 7 p.m. in Argentina, several exit polls reported that the first lady had won 46.3% and was far ahead of her nearest rival, Elisa Carrio, who had 23.7%. She needed 40% of the vote and a lead of more than 10% over her nearest rival to win outright. Mrs. Kirchner is expected to maintain leftwing populist economic policies, such as price controls, and to inject glamor and energy into Argentine diplomacy. Her husband, dour and proudly provincial, loathed foreign trips. Read The Full Story
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