Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday December 1 2007 - (813)

Saturday December 1 2007 edition
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Iran Offers No Concessions In Nuclear Talks 2007-11-30 21:28:16 Negotiators for Iran and the European Union held a new round of talks Friday on Iran’s uranium enrichment program, but the meeting ended with indications that the Iranians had offered no new concessions to ease Western concerns that Iran plans to develop nuclear weapons. After 18 months of largely unproductive talks between the Europeans and the Iranians, the London meeting had been billed as a last-ditch attempt to persuade Iran to compromise ahead of a meeting in Paris, France, on Saturday of a six-nation group, including the United States, that have threatened new United Nations sanctions against the Iranian government over the nuclear issue. “I have to admit that after five hours of meetings I expected more, and therefore I am disappointed,” Javier Solana,  the European foreign policy chief, said as the talks broke up. He said the two sides would remain “in telephone contact” and that “only if circumstances permit” would there be any more talks between the Europeans and the Iranians before the end of the year. The Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, struck a more positive note when he spoke separately to reporters. He said the talks had been “good” and that the two sides had agreed on a new meeting, an assertion Solana appeared to rebut in his brusque statement to reporters a few minutes later. “We agreed to continue our negotiations and we agreed to a meeting next month,” said Jalili. Read The Full Story In Nigeria, The Quest For A 'Humane Shariah' 2007-11-30 21:27:48 Just last year, the morality police roamed these streets In Kano, Nigeria, in dusky blue uniforms and black berets, brandishing cudgels at prayer shirkers and dragging fornicators into Islamic courts to face sentences like death by public stoning. These days, the fearsome police officers, known as the Hisbah, are little more than glorified crossing guards. They have largely been confined to their barracks and assigned anodyne tasks like directing traffic and helping fans to their seats at soccer games. The Islamic revolution that seemed so destined to transform northern Nigeria in recent years appears to have come and gone - or at least gone in a direction few here would have expected. When Muslim-dominated states like Kano adopted Islamic law after the fall of military rule in 1999, radical clerics from the Arabian peninsula arrived in droves to preach a draconian brand of fundamentalism, and newly empowered religious judges handed down tough punishments like amputation for theft. Kano became a center of anti-American sentiment in one of the most reliably pro-American countries in Africa. Since then, much of the furor has died down, and the practice of Islamic law, or Shariah, which had gone on for centuries in the private sphere before becoming enshrined in public law, has settled into a distinctively Nigerian compromise between the dictates of faith and the chaotic realities of modern life in an impoverished, developing nation. Read The Full Story UPDATE: Developing Hostage Situation At Clinton Campaign Office In New Hampshire 2007-11-30 15:25:29 A man claiming to have a bomb strapped to his body burst into Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign office in Rochester, New Hamphshire Friday and took at least two volunteers hostage, New Hampshire television stations reported. "There is an ongoing situation in our Rochester, New Hampshire, office. We are in close contact with state and local authorities and are acting at their direction," the Clinton campaign said in a statement. The campaign confirmed to Manchester's WMUR that two workers were taken hostage. The report quotes a witness who said a woman and her baby were released by the hostage-taker. Witness Lettie Tzizik told WMUR that she spoke to a woman shortly after she was released from the office by the suspect. The woman was carrying an infant, and crying. "She said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape," said Tzizik. Read The Full Story Trains Collide In Chicago - At Least 5 Seiously Injured, 100 Passengers 'Walking Wounded' 2007-11-30 15:02:07 At least five Amtrak crew members were critically or seriously injured Friday when their train collided with a freight train traveling on the same track, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. The five employees were among 10 people rushed to the trauma unit of Cook County Hospital, Sean Howard, a spokesman for the hospital said. He said a child may be among the 10. About 100 of the 150 passengers were "walking wounded," Langford said, injured when the train came to a sudden stop. Medical personnel was examining them. Amtrak spokesman Derrick James said 187 passengers and six crewmembers were aboard the train, the Associated Press reported. Read The Full Story Blackwater Runs Into New Problem, This One Closer To Home 2007-11-30 01:41:13 Randel Parks pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on the heels of his cowboy boots. "I've been here 30 years," he said, staring at the ground, "and I've spent most of my adult life working on this property, turning it into my piece of paradise. I'll be damned if I'm going to let them spoil it." A mile away, around a bend in the mountain road that runs past Parks'  property, his new neighbors spread a map out on the ground to discuss plans for the 325-hectare (800-acre) site they are in the process of buying. "There will be eight 100-yard carbine ranges here, and three 50-yard pistol ranges here. And we'll have a 10,000-square feet armory and a bunkhouse for 360 students over here." Welcome to Blackwater West, the latest expansion from the company that dominates private security operations in Iraq. Last month Blackwater's chief executive, Erik Prince, appeared before Congress to defend the company's role in the alleged shootings of unarmed civilians. This week, reports alleged that it had turned a blind eye to the use of steroids among its employees. Now the company is looking to expand domestically. So it has come to the border hamlet of Potrero, California,  population 850. Eight miles from Mexico and 40 miles inland from San Diego, Potrero has found itself at the center of a controversy. Read The Full Story FBI's Gun-Ban List Doubles 2007-11-30 01:40:47 Thousands added to file marked "mental defective". Since the Virginia Tech shootings last spring, the FBI has more than doubled the number of people nationwide who are prohibited from buying guns because of mental health problems, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday. Justice officials said the FBI's "Mental Defective File" has ballooned from 175,000 names in June to nearly 400,000, primarily because of additions from California. The names are listed in a subset of a database that gun dealers are supposed to check before completing sales. The surge in names underscores the size of the gap in FBI records that allowed Seung Hui Cho to purchase the handguns he used in April to kill 32 people and himself at the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg. Read The Full Story New-Home Prices Take Biggest Dive Since 1970 2007-11-30 01:40:16 Median cost tumbles 13 percent. Prices for new houses nationwide fell last month by their largest margin since 1970, when the nation was in a recession, providing more gloomy news for the struggling building industry and the jittery economy. "The market remains quite weak," said Celia Chen, director of housing at Moody's Economy.com. "If builders are selling homes, they're cutting prices very aggressively." The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the median price of a new single-family house in October was $217,800, down 13 percent from a year earlier, the biggest percentage drop in 37 years. Read The Full Story Bin Laden: Europe Must Quit Afghanistan 2007-11-30 01:39:35 The al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, called on European governments to end their military cooperation with the U.S. in Afghanistan in a new audio message broadcast Thursday. With his fifth public message this year, bin Laden sought to exploit tensions between European capitals and Washington over the ongoing NATO military campaign in Afghanistan. He reiterated that he was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the U.S., not the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan at the time. "The American tide is ebbing," he said in a message addressed directly to the European public. "It is better for you to restrain your politicians who are thronging the steps of the White House." Read The Full Story	Russia Suspends Participation In European Arms Pact 2007-11-30 21:28:04 President Vladimir Putin signed a law Friday temporarily halting Russia's participation in a major conventional arms treaty that was designed to limit NATO and Russian military deployments in Europe. The Kremlin had been threatening all year to scrap the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty. On Friday, Putin put his signature to suspension legislation passed this month by parliament. The suspension will take effect on Dec. 12, but senior Russian generals have said there will be no immediate deployment of tanks and other military hardware to Russia's western borders. Putin's decision comes two days before parliamentary elections and after a campaign marked by hards anti-Western rhetoric and claims that the president has restored Russia' ability to stand up to the U.S. and NATO. The treaty, signed in the last days of the Cold War, limited the number of tanks, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, artillery and other heavy weapons that both NATO and Russia could deploy in Western Europe and the western part of Russia. Read The Full Story Suspect Arrested In Clinton Office Standoff In New Hampshire 2007-11-30 20:55:35 A tense standoff at a presidential campaign office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Rochester, New Hampshire,  ended shortly after 6 p.m. (EDT) this evening when a man later identified as Leeland Eisenberg was taken into police custody after holding at least four people hostage. There were no apparent injuries. Eisenberg was described by friends and relatives as despondent, with his wife recently asking for a divorce. One person said he had been drinking for 72 hours before he entered the campaign office. Eisenberg also called CNN to rant about the state of the nation’s mental health system, the network reported. Once the situation was resolved, Mrs. Clinton said, “I am very grateful that this difficult day has ended so well.” Clinton praised the “courage” of both the hostages and their families, who she said she spoke to throughout the day and then left to fly to New Hampshire to join them. Read The Full Story Thousands Call For Execution Of British Teacher At Rally In Khartoum 2007-11-30 15:16:14 Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad." In response to the demonstration, teacher Gillian Gibbons was moved from the women's prison near Khartoum to a secret location for her safety, her lawyer said. The protesters streamed out of mosques after Friday sermons, as pickup trucks with loudspeakers blared messages against Gibbons, who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided the more serious punishment of 40 lashes. They massed in central Martyrs Square outside the presidential palace, where hundreds of riot police were deployed. They did not try to stop the rally, which lasted about an hour. Read The Full Story BREAKING NEWS: Man Takes Hostages In Clinton Campaign Office 2007-11-30 14:45:05 Two people are being held hostage by an armed man at Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire, police said Friday. The man walked into the office at about 1 p.m., Maj. Michael Hambrook of the New Hampshire State Police told CNN affiliate WMUR-TV. Hambrook and Clinton campaign officials said two people were believed to be inside. Shortly before 2 p.m., police officers had taken positions across the street from the office, some kneeling behind police cruisers with guns drawn. A woman and her baby were released by the hostage-taker, the woman told workers at a nearby business, according to the WMUR Web site. Read The Full Story Commentary: Forget The Green Technology - The Hot Money Is In Guns 2007-11-30 01:41:01 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Naomi Klein and appears in the Guardian edition for Friday, November 30, 2007. Ms. Klein writes that "Far from saving us from catastrophe, the market is developing fortresses to shield the haves from the victims of the future". Her commentary follows: Anyone tired of lousy news from the markets should talk to Douglas Lloyd, a director of Venture Business Research, which tracks trends in venture capitalism. "I expect investment activity in this sector to remain buoyant," he said recently. Lloyd's bouncy mood was inspired by the money that is gushing into private security and defense companies. He added: "I also see this as a more attractive sector, as many do, than clean energy." Got that? If you are looking for a sure bet in a new growth market, then sell solar and buy surveillance: forget wind, buy weapons. This observation - coming from an executive who is trusted by such clients as Goldman Sachs and Marsh & McLennan - deserves particular attention in the run-up to the United Nations climate change conference, which takes place in Bali next week. There, world environment ministers are supposed to come up with the global pact that will replace the Kyoto agreement. Read The Full Story U.S. Special Counsel Says He Won't Provide Files 2007-11-30 01:40:30 A U.S. official overseeing a probe of potential White House misconduct declared through a spokesman Thursday that he will not give federal investigators copies of personal files that he deleted from his office computer. The decision by Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch escalates the confrontation between the Bush appointee and the White House, each of which is investigating the other. Bloch's office is tasked with upholding laws against whistle-blower retaliation and partisan politicking in federal agencies. Earlier this year, Bloch directed lawyers in his office to look into charges that former Bush adviser Karl Rove  inappropriately deployed government employees in Republican political campaigns. Bloch had previously been targeted by the White House, which in 2005 asked the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to investigate allegations that Bloch had retaliated against whistle-blowers among his own staff members and improperly dismissed whistle-blower cases brought to the agency by others. Read The Full Story Bernanke Predicts Economic 'Headwinds' For Consumers 2007-11-30 01:40:04 The chairman of the Federal Reserve said Thursday night that the central bank would take into account recent deterioration in the financial markets as it decides whether to cut interest rates next month. Hours earlier, the White House released its economic forecast that acknowledged housing would be a drain on the economy next year, but it said tightening credit conditions would not stall business expansion. The separate developments show how the Fed and the administration are grappling with a deterioration in the housing and credit markets as they set a course for the nation's economic policy. This month, new strains on global markets for debt have emerged, leading many economists to think there is greater risk of a recession. Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Fed, laid out in a speech to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce how he is thinking through the economic situation as the central bank's policymaking committee prepares to meet Dec. 11. He noted that, by many measures, the labor market is doing well, with job growth and wages both on the rise. Read The Full Story Things Get Worse For Britain's Prime Minister In Donation Scandal 2007-11-30 01:39:17 Gordon Brown implicated in political donation scandal. Harriet Harman, the Labor Party's deputy leader, was forced to implicate Gordon Brown deeper into the donor scandal last night as Scotland Yard was called in to investigate the affair. Harman revealed it had been Brown's campaign coordinator who had recommended she seek a donation from the proxy of David Abrahams, the controversial businessman who has secretly bankrolled the party with £600,000 ($1.2 million). She disclosed that former minister Chris Leslie, who was running Brown's leadership campaign, had suggested she seek a donation from Janet Kidd, Abrahams' secretary - despite having himself rejected her money for the Brown campaign. The astonishing news, which heaped further pressure and embarrassment on Downing Street, came as the Metropolitan police began to mount an inquiry into the scandal following a decision by the Electoral Commission to refer possible breaches of the law to the police. Read The Full Story
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