Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday April 18 2008 - (813)

Friday April 18 2008 edition
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U.S. Workers Get Fewer Hours, Deepening The Economic Downturn 2008-04-18 01:01:22 Not long ago, overtime was a regular feature at the Ludowici Roof Tile factory in eastern Ohio. Not anymore. With orders scarce and crates of unsold tiles piling up across the yard, the company has slowed production and cut working hours, sowing worry and thrift among its workers. “We don’t just hop in the car and go shopping or get something to eat,” said Kim Baker, whose take-home pay at the plant has recently dropped to $450 a week, from more than $600. “You’ve got to watch everything. If we go to town now, it’s for a reason.” Throughout the country, businesses grappling with declining fortunes are cutting hours for those on their payrolls. Self-employed people are suffering a drop in demand for their services, like music lessons, catering and management consulting. Growing numbers of people are settling for part-time work out of a failure to secure a full-time position. The gradual erosion of the paycheck has become a stealth force driving the American economic downturn. Most of the attention has focused on the loss of jobs and the risk of layoffs. But the less-noticeable shrinking of hours and pay for millions of workers around the country appears to be a bigger contributor to the decline, which has already spread from housing and finance to other important areas of the economy. Read The Full Story Chinese Ship Carries Arms Cargo To Mugabe Regime 2008-04-18 01:00:29 A Chinese cargo ship believed to be carrying 77 tons of small arms, including more than 3 million rounds of ammunition, AK47 assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, has docked in the South African port of Durban for transportation of the weapons to Zimbabwe, the South African government confirmed Thursday. It claimed it was powerless to intervene as long as the ship's papers are in order. Copies of the documentation for the Chinese ship, the An Yue Jiang, show that the weapons were sent from Beijing to the Zimbabwe Ministry of Defense in Harare. Headed "Dangerous goods description and container packing certificate", the document was issued on April 1, three days after Zimbabwe's election. It lists the consignment as including 3.5 million rounds of ammunition for AK47 assault rifles and for small arms, 1,500 40mm rockets, 2,500 mortar shells of 60mm and 81mm caliber, as well as 93 cases of mortar tubes. The carrier is listed as the Cosco shipping company in China. South Africa's national conventional arms control committee issued a permit on Monday for the trans-shipment of the cargo from Durban to Harare. The head of government information in South Africa, Themba Maseko, said Thursday: "We are not in a position to act unilaterally and interfere in a trade deal between two countries." South Africa had to "tread very carefully", given the complexity of the situation in Zimbabwe, said Maseko. South Africa was not encouraging the purchase of weapons by Zimbabwe, he said, pointing out that there was no United Nations trade embargo against that country. Read The Full Story Global Warming Could Cut Pyranees' Snowfall By Half 2008-04-18 00:59:55 By the end of the century skiing holidays to the Pyrenees could be a distant memory, according to a study which says snowfalls could decrease by half. Spanish scientists from the Pyrenean Ecological Institute predicted that temperatures in the mountain range in eastern Spain and southwest France could rise by between 2.8 degrees Celsius and 4 degrees Celsius by the start of the 22nd century. At the same time, snowfall levels could decline by between 30% and 50%. The study also claimed that the slopes above 2,000 meters (over 6,000 feet) may see snow for only four to five months, whereas today they are covered for up to six months. The report, published in the International Journal of Climatology, also claimed rainfall levels could go down by between 10.7% and 14.8% a year by the end of this century. Researchers said the predictions, which cover the period between 2070 and 2100, were based on possible rises in greenhouse gases. They used six climate models which accurately estimated conditions in the Pyrenees between 1960 and 1990. Read The Full Story Shareholders Tell BP Board: Invest In Iraq And You Repeat Past Mistakes 2008-04-18 00:58:46 Investors Thursday accused BP of repeating past mistakes by investing in Iraq as the corporation's board came under fire from shareholders at the annual meeting in London. Protest groups used their stakes to attack BP for developing tar sands in Canada and there was criticism of high executive pay. The board said BP was moving back on track after a year of falling profits, management reshuffles and an under  performing share price. Peter Sutherland, the chairman entering his last 12 months in office, admitted performance in 2007 had not been good, but rebuilding by new chief executive Tony Hayward meant BP is now "much better placed and we are seeing forward momentum". Hayward accepted BP needed to "raise its game" further but was optimistic that prioritizing safety, people and performance was paying dividends. In a world moving towards clean energy, BP was "part of the solution not part of the problem". Greg Muttit, from the Platform human rights group, said the oil giant risked repeating mistakes by tying up agreements in Iraq. Read The Full Story U.S. Begins Erecting Wall In Sadr City 2008-04-18 00:58:07 Trying to stem the infiltration of militia fighters, American forces have begun to build a massive concrete wall that will partition Sadr City, the densely populated Shiite neighborhood in the Iraqi capital. The construction, which began Tuesday night, is intended to turn the southern quarter of Sadr City near the international Green Zone into a protected enclave, secured by Iraqi and American forces, where the Iraqi government can undertake reconstruction efforts. “You can’t really repair anything that is broken until you establish security,” said Lt. Col. Dan Barnett, commander of the First Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry Regiment. “A wall that isolates those who would continue to attack the Iraqi Army and coalition forces can create security conditions that they can go in and rebuild.” On Wednesday night, huge cranes slowly lifted heavy concrete blocks into place under a moonless sky. The barriers were implanted on Al Quds Street, a major thoroughfare that separates the Tharwa and Jamilla districts to the south from the heart of Sadr City to the north. Read The Full Story A Jump In Doctor Visits And Death In Flu Season 2008-04-18 00:57:23 The current flu season has been more severe than the last three, with more doctor visits and more deaths from flu and pneumonia, federal health officials are reporting. The season peaked in February, when flulike illnesses accounted for 5.9 percent of doctor visits. Over all, doctor visits for these illnesses were higher than normal for 13 consecutive weeks. The death rate related to flu and pneumonia was also higher than usual for 13 consecutive weeks; at the worst point, in March, the illnesses were listed as underlying or contributing causes of death in 9.1 percent of deaths. Any rate over 6.9 percent is considered unusually high. The deaths included 65 children under 18. The youngest was a month old, and the median age was 4.5 years. In each of the three previous flu seasons, 46 to 74 children died. Read The Full Story U.S. House Committee Investigates Chemical Industry's Influence On EPA Panels 2008-04-17 15:15:44 A congressional investigation is trying to determine whether ties between the chemical industry and the Environmental Protection Agency put children' health at risk. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is examining whether chemical companies influence EPA panels that review chemicals for safety. The committee's concern is that panels may be stacked with industry scientists who downplay the real risks of toxic substances. The House committee is focusing on the American Chemistry Council, the main lobbying group for the chemical industry. This is a landmark investigation, says the Environmental Working Group, a non-partisan policy organization, because Congress doesn't usually put trade groups under the microscope. Influence from industry could have significant consequences for children's health. Some chemicals under review have added risks for children and infants and, according to lawmakers and environmental advocates, industry scientists deny the need to regulate use of those chemicals. Recent EPA actions to weaken safety standards for children have left the relationship between industry and the government agency open to scrutiny. The Energy and Commerce Committee's investigation is looking at several panels to find out whether industry bias played a role in weakening standards - especially dangerous to children, who are more vulnerable to toxic exposure. In the wake of this investigation, the EPA has convened yet another panel with scientists who have industry ties - a panel that is considering easing safeguards that protect children from carcinogens. Read The Full Story Commentary: The Man Who Would Be Bush 2008-04-17 15:15:05 Intellpuke: This commentary was written by journalist and author Robert Scheer and appeared on the Truthdig.com website's edition for Tuesday, April 15, 2008. Mr. Scheer's commentary follows: Are Americans unusually stupid or is it something our president put in the water? As millions surrender their homes and sacrifice other standards of our nation’s economic and political reputation to the caprice of the Bush-Cheney imperium, a majority of voters tell pollsters that they might vote for a candidate who promises more of the same. Assuming that likely voters are not now thinking of yet another Republican president simply because John McCain is the only white guy left standing - an excuse as pathetic in its logic as the decision four years ago to return two Texas oil hustlers to the White House because they were not Massachusetts liberals - must mean that tens of millions of Americans have taken leave of their senses. If not the white-guy syndrome, why would even a shocking minority of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters say they prefer McCain to the other Democrat? How otherwise to explain the nation’s widespread bipartisan rejection of the Bush presidency and yet a willingness to let McCain continue in that vein? To be sure, as a senator, McCain has exhibited flashes of independence on behalf of taxpayers, as in his support of campaign-finance reform in which he partnered with Democrat Russ Feingold. McCain’s investigations of the military-industrial complex’s shameless exploitation of terrorism fears set a high standard, as in exposing the air-tanker scandal that dispatched a Boeing exec and a former Pentagon employee to prison. But his political ambition is showing. Although he previously harshly criticized the enormous waste in the Iraq occupation, today, as a presidential candidate, he opens the door to a hundred years of taxpayer dollars tossed down the drain in Iraq. The man who was tortured now hugs a leader who authorized the same. Read The Full Story Study: 20% Of Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans Have Depression, PTSD 2008-04-17 15:14:37 The Army has stepped up mental health screening at the end of tours, but the Rand study says many soldiers are still undiagnosed. Less than half of the 300,000 affected veterans have been treated. Nearly one in five veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is currently suffering from depression or stress disorders, according to the latest and most comprehensive study of current and former military service members, released Thursday. Less than half of those 300,000 veterans have received care for depression or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the study, signaling significant problems with the U.S. mental healthcare system. The study shows that the stress disorders may be more prevalent and lasting than previously known. Although the Army has conducted annual evaluations of troops deployed in Iraq, the new study, conducted by the Rand Corp. and funded by the California Community Foundation, is the first to try and assess the mental health of the 1.65 million service members that have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Read The Full Story Hearing On Children In Polygamist Case Descends Into Chaos 2008-04-17 15:10:38 A hearing here in San Angelo, Texas, on the fate of 416 children taken from a polygamist compound descended into chaos on Thursday as defense lawyers in two different locations entered a flurry of objections as the state tried to present its case. Before the proceedings were recessed after about 45 minutes of wrangling, a lawyer for the state’s Department of Child Protective Services said it would seek psychiatric examinations for the children, as well as genetic testing of both the children and the adults, and would try to have the children relocated to other parts of the state outside of this town in west Texas. The request for genetic testing appeared to be a way for officials to establish the family relationships between the children, many of whom appear to be half-brothers and half-sisters, and the adults involved. Because to the large number of people involved, the session quickly became unwieldy, with the judge telling lawyers in the courtroom to coordinate their objections with those at the nearby city hall, where others were watching a live video of the proceedings. The recess came as state officials were attempting to introduce medical records of what were described as three underage girls. Read The Full Story Los Angeles Sues Anthem Blue Cross Over Dropped Policies 2008-04-17 02:48:03 California's largest for-profit health insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, was accused Wednesday of a widespread pattern of false advertising and fraud in a $1-billion lawsuit that claims that the company's coverage "is largely illusory". Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo alleged in the suit that the insurer sold people false promises of coverage and concealed a scheme to renege on policies for those diagnosed with serious and often expensive medical conditions, including cancer and congestive heart failure. The suit says more than 500,000 people were tricked into buying individual and family policies from Blue Cross. "Countless Californians who believe they have insurance actually have policies that aren't worth the paper they're printed on," Delgadillo said. An Anthem Blue Cross spokeswoman said the company intended to vigorously defend itself and "strongly disagrees with the allegations." A spokesman for the insurer's parent company, Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., declined to discuss the allegations. The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accuses Blue Cross and WellPoint of violating more than 25 state and federal laws. It demands  restitution for patients who were left with medical bills and seeks more than $1 billion in penalties. Read The Full Story U.S. Railroads Directed To Analyze Hazardous Materials Routes 2008-04-17 02:47:27 The U.S. Transportation Department issued a rule Wednesday that orders railroads to extensively analyze security risks in choosing the routes on which they ship hazardous chemicals. Railroads will be required to do a safety and security risk analysis of primary routes and any practical alternatives they might use, the department said. By September 2009, they must route trains with dangerous chemicals based on the studies. Those that do not use the safest routes could be fined up to $10,000 a day and ordered to reroute trains. Congress had ordered the department to come up with the rule to comply with the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.  The movement of trains carrying hazardous cargo such as chlorine through Washington, D.C., has stirred controversy because of concerns about a terrorist threat. The D.C. government passed a law barring the shipment of dangerous cargo through the city in 2005. CSX Transportation and the Bush administration fought the ban in federal court, where the case is still tied up. The ban never took effect. Read The Full Story	Across The Planet, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger 2008-04-18 01:01:04 Hunger bashed in the front gate of Haiti’s presidential palace. Hunger poured onto the streets, burning tires and taking on soldiers and the police. Hunger sent the country’s prime minister packing. Haiti’s hunger, that burn in the belly that so many here feel, has become fiercer than ever in recent days as global food prices spiral out of reach, spiking as much as 45 percent since the end of 2006 and turning Haitian staples like beans, corn and rice into closely guarded treasures. Saint Louis Meriska’s children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any food the following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, “They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry.” That anger is palpable across the globe. The food crisis is not only being felt among the poor but is also eroding the gains of the working and middle classes, sowing volatile levels of discontent and putting new pressures on fragile governments. Read The Full Story Hijackings Force U.N. To Cut Darfur Food Aid By Half 2008-04-18 01:00:10 The Unied Nations World Food Program (WFP) is to halve food rations for up to 3 million people in Darfur beginning in May because of insecurity along the main supply routes. At least 60 WFP trucks have been hijacked since December in Sudan's western province, where government forces and rebels have been at war for five years. The hijacks have drastically curtailed the delivery of food to warehouses ahead of the rainy season that lasts from May to September, when there is limited market access and crop stocks are depleted. Instead of the normal ration of 500 grams of cereal a day, people in displaced persons' camps and conflict-affected villages will only get 225 grams from next month, the U.N. agency said Thursday. Rations of pulses and sugar will also be halved, giving people barely 60% of their recommended minimum daily calorie intake. The WFP said that while Sudan's government provided security for convoys on the main supply routes, the escorts were too infrequent, given the huge demand for food at this time of year. Read The Full Story U.S. Senate Seeks Criminal Investigation Into $10 Million Earmark Change 2008-04-18 00:59:32 The U.S. Senate Thursday requested a federal criminal investigation into changes to a $10 million earmark in 2005, and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and top Republicans endorsed an ethics committee investigation of how the language governing the pet project was altered. On a bipartisan 64 to 28 vote, the Senate approved a resolution asking the Justice Department to look into the circumstances surrounding the $10 million expenditure for a highway interchange in Florida backed by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), the former chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Lawmakers and aides said they could not recall Congress previously requesting a criminal investigation into an earmark. Young acknowledged this week that he requested the earmark, and an aide conceded that his staff changed its language after both the House and Senate had voted on a highway funding bill that contained the measure. But Young denied that he pushed the provision as a result of receiving $40,000 in campaign donations from developers who owned 4,000 acres of land next to the proposed interchange on Interstate-75 just east of Naples, Florida. Read The Full Story Report Finds Air Force Officers Steered Contract 2008-04-18 00:58:29 Sitting at the head of the table, Air Force Maj. Gen. Stephen Goldfein, the highest-ranking officer in the room, leaned forward and told the officers and others assembled before him that they should steer a multimillion-dollar Air Force contract to a company named Strategic Message Solutions. "I don't pick the winner, but if I did, I'd pick SMS," Goldfein said to the seven-person group that was selecting a contractor to jazz up the Air Force's Thunderbirds air show with giant video boards, according to a lengthy report by the Defense Department's  inspector general. The head of the selection team almost immediately "caved," giving in to what he believed was a fixed process, while another member of the team called it "the dirtiest thing" he had ever experienced. It was during that meeting in November 2005, according to the 251-page report, obtained by the Washington Post,  that a controversial $50 million contract was awarded to a company that barely existed in an effort to reward a recently retired four-star general and a millionaire civilian pilot who had grown close to senior Air Force officials and the Thunderbirds. In a probe that lasted more than two years, investigators concluded that Goldfein and others worked inside the Air Force contracting system to favor SMS and its owners, despite an offer by the company that was more than twice as expensive as a competing bid. Read The Full Story Reuters Cameraman Killed In Gaza By Israeli Shell 2008-04-18 00:57:52 A Palestinian journalist who died in Gaza on Wednesday was killed by metal darts from a shell fired by an Israeli tank, doctors said Thursday. Thousands gathered for the funeral of Fadel Shana, 23, a Reuters cameraman. His body was carried through the streets of Gaza City, draped in a Palestinian flag. His camera and bloodied flak jacket were carried on a second stretcher. Reuters said x-rays showed several inch-long darts, known as flechettes, embedded in Shana's chest and legs as well as his flak jacket. His jacket was marked with a fluorescent "Press" sign and his car, which was not armored, was marked Press and TV. Flechettes are small metal darts contained in some tank shells which explode above the ground and can cover a wide area. They have been used in conflicts since the first world war and have been used by the Israeli military in the past. In 2003 the Israeli high court rejected a petition by two human rights groups asking for flechette shells to be banned in Gaza. The Israeli military Thursday refused to discuss which weapons it had used, but said all the ammunition used by the military was legal. A military official said: "We wish to express sorrow for the death ... the area in which the cameraman was hurt is an area in which ongoing fighting against armed, extreme and dangerous terrorist organizations occurs on a daily basis. Read The Full Story Pope Praises Americans' Spirit Of Hope 2008-04-17 15:16:00 In his first Mass on American soil, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged the damage done by the church's sexual abuse scandal, asked that the American spirit of hope help heal that pain and urged Catholic Americans toward a renewal of their faith. Before a standing-room-only crowd of 46,000 at Nationals Park, the pope said that while the country is challenged by "an increasingly secular and materialistic culture," it remains a place of hope for people throughout the world. "Dear friends, my visit to the United States is meant to be a witness to Christ, our hope. Americans have always been a people of hope: Your ancestors came to this country with the expectation of finding new freedom and opportunity, a new nation on new foundations," he said. "To be sure, this promise was not experienced by all the inhabitants of this land; one thinks of the injustices endured by the Native American peoples and by those brought here forcibly from Africa as slaves. Yet hope, hope for the future, is very much a part of the American character." In his homily, Benedict again acknowledged the damage done by the church's sexual abuse scandal - the third time he has raised it during his trip. "No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse," he said. "Yesterday, I spoke with the bishops about this. Today, I encourage each of you to do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation, and to assist those who have been hurt." Read The Full Story Merrill Lynch Reports $2 Billion 1st Quarter Loss 2008-04-17 15:15:29 The brokerage reports losing $2 billion in the first quarter, with 4,000 job cuts and $6.6 billion in write-offs due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Its shares rise on hopes that storm has peaked. Brokerage giant Merrill Lynch & Co. reported a $2-billion quarterly loss today as the continuing effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis led to 4,000 job cuts and more than $6.6 billion in write-offs. The results were worse than Wall Street had expected, but Merrill's shares inched upward on hopes that investment banks are finally getting past the worst of the sub-prime maelstrom. Its stock rose 98 cents, or 2.2%, to $45.87. For the first quarter, Merrill reported a net loss of $1.96 billion, or $2.19 per share, compared to net income of $2.16 billion, or $2.26, a year ago. Revenue slumped 69% to $2.9 billion, and the brokerage wrote off losses in a variety of areas, including mortgage securities, mortgage loans and loans made to finance corporate buyouts by private-equity firms. Read The Full Story Scientists Voice Doubts About U.S. Anti-Missile Plan 2008-04-17 15:14:53 A group of prominent scientists who have been critical of missile defense plans told lawmakers Wednesday that a system being built by the United States cannot protect the country. They also questioned whether the Defense Department has misled the public and European allies about the system's capabilities. ''The program offers no prospect of defending the United States from a real-world missile attack and undermines efforts to eliminate the real nuclear threats to the United States,'' Lisbeth Gronlund, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told lawmakers at a House oversight hearing on the missile defense program, according to prepared testimony. Gronlund's group has long expressed skepticism about missile defense. The hearing was called by the panel's chairman, Rep. John Tierney, D-Massachusetts, who has sought to step up oversight of the missile defense program since the Democrats took control of the House last year. Missile defense traditionally has drawn more support from Republicans. Read The Full Story At Least 55 Killed In Iraq Suicide Bombing 2008-04-17 15:10:56 A suicide bombing killed 55 people at a funeral service Thursday in a village 90 miles north of Baghdad, the latest in a string of deadly attacks this week attributed to Sunni insurgents. Police said a suicide bomber blew up an explosive vest he was wearing in the town of Edhaim, in Diyala province,  while mourners were gathering for lunch around 11 a.m. The funeral service was for two members of Sunni Awakening councils - groups of volunteer fighters who have joined with American military and Iraqi security forces to fight insurgents. Col. Jasim Khalaf al-Ubaidi of the Edhaim police said he expected the number of dead to rise because the wounded were being transferred to hospitals in civilian cars and pickup trucks. He said the area had no police stations or military check points and the closest hospital was located more than 40 miles away. Police said the two fighters from Sunni Awakening groups were killed in an attack carried out by al-Qaeda in Iraq,  the Sunni insurgent group that has often targeted police officers and security forces from the Shiite-led Iraqi central government. Read The Full Story New York Times Company Posts 1st Quarter Loss 2008-04-17 15:10:04 The New York Times Company, the parent of the New York Times newspaper, posted a $335,000 loss in the first quarter - one of the worst periods the company and the newspaper industry have seen - falling far short of both analysts’ expectations and its $23.9 million profit in the quarter a year earlier. The company did break even on a per-share basis, compared with the average analyst forecast of earnings of 14 cents, down from 17 cents in the first quarter of 2007. The company’s main source of revenue, newspaper advertising in print and online, fell 10.6 percent, the sharpest drop in memory, as the industry suffers the twin blows of an economic downturn and the continuing long-term shift of readers and advertisers to the Internet. Read The Full Story A Drought In Australia, A Global Shortage Of Rice 2008-04-17 02:47:46 Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of Diniliquin, a dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. “It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety,” he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, “and now it has stopped.” The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people around the world; but six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia’s rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December. Ten thousand miles separate the mill’s hushed rows of over sized silos and sheds - beige, gray and now empty - from the riotous streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but a widening global crisis unites them. The collapse of Australia’s rice production is one of several factors contributing to a doubling of rice prices in the last three months - increases that have led the world’s largest exporters to restrict exports severely, spurred panicked hoarding in Hong Kong and the Philippines, and set off violent protests in countries including Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Yemen. Read The Full Story Clinton Uses Sharp Attacks In Tense Debate 2008-04-17 02:47:01 Intellpuke: This is the second article on this debate posted at Free Internet Press today. The other, by the Guardian newspaper's New York-based correspondent posted elsewhere on today's mainpage, had a different tone and focus than the following article which appeared in the New York Times edition for Thursday, April 17, 2008. The difference was enough that it seemed both articles should be posted. Senator Barack Obama found himself consistently on the defensive as he and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton met Wednesday night in a tense debate that left him parrying questions and criticism on issues including values, patriotism and his association with onetime radicals from the 1960s. It was the first time the two candidates had shared a debate stage in seven weeks, and it came six days before a primary in Pennsylvania that could determine whether Clinton can continue her quest for the Democratic presidential nomination. It could also prove to be the last debate between them. Accordingly, Clinton did not let an opportunity pass as she repeatedly challenged Obama on his record and views -  assisted, as it turned out, by vigorous questioning by the two moderators from ABC News, Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous. Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday April 17 2008 - (813)

Thursday April 17 2008 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Los Angeles Sues Anthem Blue Cross Over Dropped Policies 2008-04-17 02:48:03 California's largest for-profit health insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, was accused Wednesday of a widespread pattern of false advertising and fraud in a $1-billion lawsuit that claims that the company's coverage "is largely illusory". Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo alleged in the suit that the insurer sold people false promises of coverage and concealed a scheme to renege on policies for those diagnosed with serious and often expensive medical conditions, including cancer and congestive heart failure. The suit says more than 500,000 people were tricked into buying individual and family policies from Blue Cross. "Countless Californians who believe they have insurance actually have policies that aren't worth the paper they're printed on," Delgadillo said. An Anthem Blue Cross spokeswoman said the company intended to vigorously defend itself and "strongly disagrees with the allegations." A spokesman for the insurer's parent company, Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., declined to discuss the allegations. The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accuses Blue Cross and WellPoint of violating more than 25 state and federal laws. It demands  restitution for patients who were left with medical bills and seeks more than $1 billion in penalties. Read The Full Story U.S. Railroads Directed To Analyze Hazardous Materials Routes 2008-04-17 02:47:27 The U.S. Transportation Department issued a rule Wednesday that orders railroads to extensively analyze security risks in choosing the routes on which they ship hazardous chemicals. Railroads will be required to do a safety and security risk analysis of primary routes and any practical alternatives they might use, the department said. By September 2009, they must route trains with dangerous chemicals based on the studies. Those that do not use the safest routes could be fined up to $10,000 a day and ordered to reroute trains. Congress had ordered the department to come up with the rule to comply with the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.  The movement of trains carrying hazardous cargo such as chlorine through Washington, D.C., has stirred controversy because of concerns about a terrorist threat. The D.C. government passed a law barring the shipment of dangerous cargo through the city in 2005. CSX Transportation and the Bush administration fought the ban in federal court, where the case is still tied up. The ban never took effect. Read The Full Story Clinton Emphatically Says Obama Can White House 2008-04-16 23:49:40 Hillary Rodham Clinton said emphatically Wednesday night that Barack Obama can win the White House this fall, undercutting her efforts to deny him the nomination by suggesting he would lead the party to defeat. "Yes, yes, yes," she said when pressed about Obama's electability during a campaign debate six days before the Pennsylvania primary. Asked a similar question about Clinton, Obama said "Absolutely and I've said so before" - a not-so-subtle response to suggestions from his rival that he could not defeat Republican Sen. John McCain. In a 90-minute debate, both rivals pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000, and said they would respond forcefully if Iran obtains nuclear weapons and uses them against Israel. "An attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation by the United States," said Clinton. Obama said, "The U.S. would take appropriate action." Read The Full Story Oil Futures Jump Past $115, Settle At $114.93 2008-04-16 23:49:15 Crude futures made their first foray past $115 (U.S.) Wednesday, propelled to a record by concerns about how much gasoline will be available during the peak summer months. Inventories of gas fell by 5.5 million barrels last week, according to the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, a much bigger decline than forecast by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. Light, sweet crude for May delivery responded by rising as high as $115.07 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and later settled up $1.14 at a record $114.93 a barrel. The report said crude inventories fell by 2.3 million barrels last week, compared to the gain analysts expected. Oil prices were also boosted by the falling dollar, which declined to a new low against the euro on Wednesday. Many investors buy commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation and a falling greenback. A weaker dollar also makes oil cheaper to investors overseas. Read The Full Story British Prime Minister Tells U.N. Mugabe Has Stolen Election Win 2008-04-16 23:48:47 Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown Wednesday directly accused Robert Mugabe of stealing the Zimbabwe presidential election, as Britain abandoned its softly, softly approach to Zimbabwe. In a hardening of British rhetoric, the prime minister used an address to the United Nations Security  Council to say Mugabe was thwarting the will of the Zimbabwean people. "No one thinks, having seen the results at the polling stations, that President Mugabe has won this election," Brown told a special U.N.  debate on Africa. "A stolen election would not be a democratic election at all. "So let a single clear message go out from here that we are and will be vigilant for democratic rights, that we stand solidly behind democracy and human rights for Zimbabwe, and we stand ready to support Zimbabweans build a better future." Brown's remarks, to a meeting chaired by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and attended by other African leaders, were stronger than Britain's recent interventions. Read The Full Story Frustrated By Lack Of Federal Action, States Tackle Foreclosure Problem 2008-04-16 16:10:11 This month alone, Philadelphia's sheriff delayed foreclosure auctions of 759 homes at the city council's urging.  Maryland extended the time it takes to complete a foreclosure. State leaders in Ohio recruited more than 1,000 lawyers to aid distressed borrowers. Frustrated by the slow pace of federal action on behalf of struggling homeowners, some states and cities have struck out on their own to stem an alarming rise in foreclosures that has depressed home prices in most parts of the country and eroded local governments' revenues as property taxes and utility bills go unpaid. Nine states have committed more than $450 million to "loan funds" aimed at refinancing the mortgages of at-risk borrowers, according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts. A handful have brokered deals with major lenders who have pledged to ease terms for some troubled loans. A few states have lengthened the time it takes to complete a foreclosure. "What the states are saying is: 'We can't wait any longer for the federal government. We have to get ahead of this'," said Tobi Walker, a senior officer at the Pew Charitable Trusts. "The states are experiencing this pain more directly than the federal government is." Read The Full Story Bruce Springsteen Backs Obama 2008-04-16 16:09:41 Bruce Springsteen, the rocker who made "Born in the USA" a signature of working-class pride, endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president Wednesday. "He has the depth, the reflectiveness and the resilience to be our next president," Springsteen said in a letter posted on his website and distributed by the Obama campaign. "He speaks to the American I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit, a place where 'nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone'." Springsteen did not mention Obama's Democratic rival, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, by name, but the bard of New Jersey, who has written lyrics about the economically devastated towns of the Northeast, seemed to challenge her recent criticisms of Obama for saying that working-class Americans are bitter about their financial hardships, and for fanning the controversy over Obama's involvement with the fiery Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "Critics have tried to diminish Sen. Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships," Springsteen said in his letter. "While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision .. often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues." Read The Full Story Poll: Trust In Clinton Eroding 2008-04-16 16:09:07 Lost in the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign's aggressive attacks on Barack Obama in recent days is a deep and enduring problem that threatens to undercut any inroads Clinton has made in her struggle to overtake him in the Democratic presidential race: She has lost trust among voters, a majority of whom now view her as dishonest. Her advisers' efforts to deal with the problem - by having her acknowledge her mistakes and crack self-deprecating jokes - do not seem to have succeeded. Privately, the aides admit that the recent controversy over her claim to have ducked sniper fire on a trip to Bosnia probably made things worse. Clinton is viewed as "honest and trustworthy" by just 39 percent of Americans, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, compared with 52 percent in May 2006. Nearly six in 10 said in the new poll that she is not honest and trustworthy. Now, compared with Obama, Clinton has a deep trust deficit among Democrats, trailing him by 23 points as the more honest, an area on which she once led both Obama and John Edwards.  Among Democrats, 63 percent called her honest, down 18 points from 2006; among independents, her trust level has dropped 13 points, to 37 percent. Republicans held Clinton in low regard on this in the past (23 percent called her honest two years ago), but it is even lower now, at 16 percent. Majorities of men and women now say the phrase does not apply to Clinton; two years ago, narrow majorities of both did. Read The Full Story U.S. Transportation Dept. Sweetens Payoff For Bumped Passengers 2008-04-16 16:08:25 Airline passengers will be eligible to receive as much as $800 for being bumped from flights under a new federal rule that goes into effect next month. The rule doubles the maximum compensation for bumped passengers. It was part of a package of measures announced by the Transportation Department Wednesday to strengthen consumer protections and ease flight delays going into the summer traveling season. Airlines routinely overbook flights to ensure that as many seats as possible are sold, even if some travelers cancel at the last minute. Denied boardings have been on the rise in recent years as airlines have cut capacity even as demand for air travel has increased, making it harder to find enough passengers who will voluntarily agree to be bumped from an overbooked flight. The amount of money paid to passengers is determined by the price of the ticket and the length of the delay. Passengers who are involuntarily bumped will receive up to $400 if they reach their destination within two hours of their original arrival time (four hours for international destinations). If the delay is longer, the maximum compensation increases to $800. Read The Full Story Vioxx-Maker Merck Accused Of Deception 2008-04-16 16:07:19 Two teams of researchers with access to thousands of documents gathered for lawsuits over the painkiller Vioxx  allege that Merck waged a campaign of deception to promote its drug, moving slowly to warn of possible hazards while at the same time dressing up in-house studies as the work of independent academic researchers. The reports in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association in effect accuse one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical makers of various forms of scientific fraud. One study alleges that Merck gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) an incomplete accounting of deaths in a clinical trial of Vioxx in people with mild dementia. Federal regulators eventually received the data, which added to growing evidence that Vioxx increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Simultaneously, Merck was using what the JAMA authors call "guest authorship and ghostwriting" to make it appear that research done by its employees or contractors was the work of scientists at medical schools and universities. That presumably gave the findings more credibility when they were published, in medical journals, boosting Vioxx's profile in the crowded painkiller market. Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court Uphold Executions By Lethal Injection 2008-04-16 16:06:18 The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for executions to resume across the nation, ruling that lethal injections, if properly carried out, are a "humane" means of ending a condemned individual's life. The court upheld Kentucky's use of lethal injections by a surprisingly large 7-2 vote. "The Constitution does not demand the avoidance of all risk of pain in carrying out executions," said Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and there is little evidence that states subject inmates to needless pain when they are put to death. The ruling is a defeat for death penalty opponents. They had argued that lethal injections may work to disguise the pain of a dying person, and therefore, should be prohibited. Read The Full Story Iraq Removes Police Chief After Basra Crackdown 2008-04-16 16:05:32 Iraq's government removed the top police commander in the southern city of Basra on Wednesday, weeks after a botched crackdown on militia fighters there triggered the country's worst fighting in months; but the Defense Ministry denied earlier comments that the top military commander in the southern city, Army Lieutenant-General Mohan al-Furaiji, had also been replaced. "He is still in his job. He's leading the operations in Basra," Defence Ministry spokesman, Major-General Mohammed al-Askari, said of Furaiji. Police Major-General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, who was replaced, and Furaiji, are among the country's most senior commanders and were widely respected by U.S. and British military leaders. Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, no relation to the Basra commander, earlier said the two were recalled to senior positions in Baghdad as a "reward" for tackling criminals in Basra. Another senior general in Baghdad also said both had been replaced. Read The Full Story Big Tax Breaks For Business In U.S. Senate Housing Bill 2008-04-16 01:48:32 The U.S. Senate proclaimed a fierce bipartisan resolve two weeks ago to help American homeowners in danger of foreclosure. While a bill that senators approved last week would take modest steps toward that goal, it would also provide billions of dollars in tax breaks - for automakers, airlines, alternative energy producers and other struggling industries, as well as home builders. The tax provisions of the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which consumer groups and labor leaders say amount to government handouts to big business, show how the credit crisis, while rattling the housing and financial markets, has created beneficiaries in the power corridors of Washington, D.C. It also shows how legislation with a populist imperative offers a chance for lobbyists to press their clients’ interests. This has proved especially true on the housing legislation, which many lawmakers and lobbyists view as one of the last opportunities before Congress grinds to a halt amid election-year politics. Read The Full Story Opposition Protest Falters As Zimbabwe Army Makes Show Of Force 2008-04-16 01:48:06 The call by Zimbabwe's political opposition for people nationwide to stay away from work on Tuesday to protest a 17-day delay in releasing the results of the presidential election largely failed to interrupt the normal flow of life in the cities. The relative ineffectiveness of the one-day protest says much about the long odds the opposition faces in ousting the nation’s long-entrenched autocratic president, Robert Mugabe, despite reports from independent monitors that he badly trailed the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, in the March 29 election. People lucky enough to have jobs in a country with 80 percent unemployment explained that they could not afford to lose a precious day’s pay by participating in the work stoppage. “We have to eat,” said a man who guards people’s cars and identified himself as Michael. He gave only his first name for fear of retribution. Read The Full Story	A Drought In Australia, A Global Shortage Of Rice 2008-04-17 02:47:46 Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of Diniliquin, a dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. “It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety,” he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, “and now it has stopped.” The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people around the world; but six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia’s rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December. Ten thousand miles separate the mill’s hushed rows of over sized silos and sheds - beige, gray and now empty - from the riotous streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but a widening global crisis unites them. The collapse of Australia’s rice production is one of several factors contributing to a doubling of rice prices in the last three months - increases that have led the world’s largest exporters to restrict exports severely, spurred panicked hoarding in Hong Kong and the Philippines, and set off violent protests in countries including Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Yemen. Read The Full Story Clinton Uses Sharp Attacks In Tense Debate 2008-04-17 02:47:01 Intellpuke: This is the second article on this debate posted at Free Internet Press today. The other, by the Guardian newspaper's New York-based correspondent posted elsewhere on today's mainpage, had a different tone and focus than the following article which appeared in the New York Times edition for Thursday, April 17, 2008. The difference was enough that it seemed both articles should be posted. Senator Barack Obama found himself consistently on the defensive as he and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton met Wednesday night in a tense debate that left him parrying questions and criticism on issues including values, patriotism and his association with onetime radicals from the 1960s. It was the first time the two candidates had shared a debate stage in seven weeks, and it came six days before a primary in Pennsylvania that could determine whether Clinton can continue her quest for the Democratic presidential nomination. It could also prove to be the last debate between them. Accordingly, Clinton did not let an opportunity pass as she repeatedly challenged Obama on his record and views -  assisted, as it turned out, by vigorous questioning by the two moderators from ABC News, Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous. Read The Full Story U.S. Offers Pakistan $7 Billion In Non-Military Aid To Fight Terrorism 2008-04-16 23:49:27 The U.S. has promised to curb air strikes by drones against suspected militants in Pakistan, as part of a joint counter-terrorism strategy agreed with the new civilian government in Islamabad, the Guardian newspaper reported. That strategy will be supported by an aid package potentially worth more than $7 billion (£3.55 billion), which is due to go before Congress for approval in the next few months. The package would triple the amount of American non-military aid to Pakistan, and is aimed at "redefining" the bilateral relationship, said U.S. officials. Pakistan will also be given a "democracy dividend" of up to $1 billion, a reward for holding peaceful elections and forming a coalition government. Of that, $200 million could be approved in the next few days. The aid package, being put together by the Democratic senator Joseph Biden, will mark a decisive break in U.S.  policy on Pakistan, which for much of the past nine years focused on President Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistani military as Washington's primary partners in the "war on terror". Officials in Washington said Wednesday that the shift had already been made. Read The Full Story British Prime Minister Tells U.N. Mugabe Has Stolen Election Win 2008-04-16 23:48:57 Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown Wednesday directly accused Robert Mugabe of stealing the Zimbabwe presidential election, as Britain abandoned its softly, softly approach to Zimbabwe. In a hardening of British rhetoric, the prime minister used an address to the United Nations Security  Council to say Mugabe was thwarting the will of the Zimbabwean people. "No one thinks, having seen the results at the polling stations, that President Mugabe has won this election," Brown told a special U.N.  debate on Africa. "A stolen election would not be a democratic election at all. "So let a single clear message go out from here that we are and will be vigilant for democratic rights, that we stand solidly behind democracy and human rights for Zimbabwe, and we stand ready to support Zimbabweans build a better future." Brown's remarks, to a meeting chaired by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and attended by other African leaders, were stronger than Britain's recent interventions. Read The Full Story China Agrees To Pay More Than Triple For Canadian Fertilizer 2008-04-16 23:48:23 Desperate for fertilizer to increase crop yields amid a looming global food crisis, China agreed to pay more than three times as much for potash as it did last year, launching Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan to a record stock price and within spitting distance of becoming Canada's largest publicly traded company. The unprecedented contract with China spurred a 5.5-per-cent increase in Potash Corp. shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange, increasing the Saskatoon-based company's market capitalization to nearly $63-billion. The rise bolstered the dominance of resource stocks on the Canadian market, pushing Potash Corp.'s worth above financial services stalwarts Royal Bank of Canada and Manulife Financial and into second place behind oil and gas giant EnCana Corp., which boasts a market value of $63.8-billion. “We've moved up the TSX quite quietly,” said Potash Corp. spokeswoman Rhonda Speiss. Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court Considers Death Penalty For Child Rapists 2008-04-16 16:09:55 Proponents and opponents of imposing the death penalty for rape of a child underwent intense questioning Wednesday from a seemingly divided Supreme Court. The hour-long argument came in the case of inmate Patrick Kennedy, sentenced to death for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter. Kennedy's lawyer, Jeffrey L. Fisher, told the court the death penalty for child rape under Louisiana law violates the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia challenged Fisher's position that the Louisiana law is too broad and that not enough states have enacted the death penalty for child rape to justify the Supreme Court's support for it. Read The Full Story Poll: Hillary Clinton Loses Traction Over Barack Obama In Pennsylvania, Indiana 2008-04-16 16:09:23 Clinton's formerly double-digit lead is now just a 5-point margin in Pennsylvania, a survey finds. The reduced margin makes a win for her there less significant. She trails Obama among Hoosiers. With three crucial Democratic primaries looming, Hillary Rodham Clinton may not be headed toward the blockbuster victories she needs to jump-start her presidential bid - even in Pennsylvania, the state that was supposed to be her ace in the hole, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found. The survey found the New York senator leading Barack Obama by 5 percentage points in Pennsylvania, which votes next Tuesday. Such a margin would not give her much of a boost in the battle for the party's nomination. What is more, the poll found Clinton trailed Obama by 5 percentage points in Indiana, another Rust Belt state that should play to her strengths among blue-collar voters. Read The Full Story Pope Benedict XVI Calls For Sacrifice, Help For Less Fortunate 2008-04-16 16:08:49 Pope Benedict XVI, greeted warmly by President Bush and thousands of adoring guests at the White House this morning, summoned Americans to use their freedom to cultivate virtue, sacrifice for the common good and help the less fortunate. "Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility," the 81-year-old pontiff said from a podium on the South Lawn, where he was flanked by President Bush. On the first full day of his visit to the United States, the first papal trip to Washington since 1979, Benedict largely steered clear of controversial issues such as the Iraq war, on which he has taken issue with the administration. He used his brief remarks to consider the role of religion and faith in "this vast pluralistic society." In the one gentle exception, the pope offered fulsome support for strengthening the United Nations, an institution that has often frustrated Bush, while making clear his preference for negotiations to solve disputes. Noting the United States' generous role in offering relief to victims of natural catastrophes, Benedict said, "I am confident that this concern for the greater human family will continue to find expression in support for the patient efforts of international diplomacy to resolve conflicts and promote progress." Read The Full Story J.P. Morgan Chase Income Falls 50 Percent, But Beats Forecast 2008-04-16 16:07:56 JPMorgan Chase, fresh from scooping up a rival investment bank, Bear Stearns, saw earnings drop 50 percent in the first quarter as it was hurt badly by market turmoil and heavy credit losses. The bank also set aside $5.1 billion to strengthen its reserves by $2.5 billion and to account for $2.6 billion in losses in its loan portfolio. The drop in earnings comes after a record first quarter in 2007 and is an indication of how the housing slowdown and the tight credit markets have battered all banks. Even an unusual $1.5 billion gain from the initial public offering of Visa, the credit and debit card processor, was not enough to offset losses from home equity loans and a sharp drop in values on complex mortgage investments and leveraged loans. Net income fell to $2.4 billion, or 68 cents a share, compared with $4.8 billion, or $1.34 a share, for the same time last year. Revenue fell 9 percent, to $17.9 billion. Still, that profit beat expectations. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Reuters was 65 cents a share. Read The Full Story U.N. Predicts North Korea Food Crisis 2008-04-16 16:06:39 Food-starved North Korea  is facing a humanitarian crisis this year and will likely need large food donations from the international community, the United Naitions World Food Program (WFP) said Wednesday. "Major sources of food for North Korea are all going down and there is no very good prospect that any will go up soon," said Tony Banbury, the regional director in Asia for the WFP. This year's food shortfall is projected to be 1.66 million metric tons, about double the need of last year and the highest since 2001, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. The fast-worsening food situation in the closed-off Communist country - where staple food prices have doubled in the past year - is the result of what U.N. officials describe as a pernicious confluence of flood-damaged local harvests, soaring world food prices and an unexpectedly sharp drop in aid from neighboring South Korea and China.  Read The Full Story Pakistan Forces Thousands Of Afghans To Leave 2008-04-16 16:05:47 About the only thing Aziz ur-Rehman remembers about his life in Afghanistan is his month-long walk through the mountains to Pakistanafter the 1979 Soviet invasion. He was 5 years old then - too young to remember much about the events that drove his family out of Afghanistan. Most of his memories were born here among the sprawling mass of mud-brick homes, tin-roofed shops and rutted dirt roads that make up the oldest Afghan refugee settlement in Pakistan. And when the Pakistani government closes the camp this week, most of his memories will be buried here. Three decades after thousands of Afghan refugees fled to this United Nations-backed settlement in northwestern Pakistan, the Pakistani government has begun to demolish homes and other buildings here. Citing concerns about extremist influences in Jalozai and the economic burden of hosting 80,000 refugees, officials set a Tuesday deadline for closing the camp, located about 20 miles southwest of the city of Peshawar.  Pakistan had pressed for an earlier closure but was persuaded to wait until after the winter by U.N. officials, the Afghan government and tribal elders. Read The Full Story Sen. Arlen Specter Again Diagnosed With Cancer 2008-04-16 16:05:05 Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's cancer has returned. The five-term Republican said in a statement released by his office Tuesday that he was diagnosed with an early recurrence of Hodgkin's disease, which is a cancer of the lymph system. Specter, 78, underwent treatment for the same type of cancer in 2005 and was later given a clean bill of health. The statement said that the cancer was revealed in a medical scan but that he has no symptoms. "I was surprised by the PET scan findings because I have been feeling so good," Specter said in the statement. "I consider this just another bump on the road to a successful recovery from Hodgkin's, from which I've been symptom free for three years." In his recent book, "Never Give In: Battling Cancer in the Senate," Specter credited hard work with getting him through the cancer treatments. Read The Full Story Wall Street Winners Get Billion Dollar Paydays 2008-04-16 01:48:20 Hedge fund managers, those masters of a secretive, sometimes volatile financial universe, are making money on a scale that once seemed unimaginable, even in Wall Street’s rarefied realms. One manager, John Paulson, made $3.7 billion last year. He reaped that bounty, probably the richest in Wall Street history, by betting against certain mortgages and complex financial products that held them. Paulson, the founder of Paulson & Company, was not the only big winner. The hedge fund managers James H. Simons and George Soroseach earned almost $3 billion last year, according to an annual ranking of top hedge fund earners by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine, which comes out Wednesday. Hedge fund managers have redefined notions of wealth in recent years. And the richest among them are redefining those notions once again. Read The Full Story Indonesian Volcano Spills Ash, Residents Evacuated 2008-04-16 01:47:51 About 600 people have been evacuated in eastern Indonesia after a volcano began spewing ash, a vulcanologist said on Wednesday. Mount Egon on Flores island started to erupt late on Tuesday, emitting grey ash up to 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) above the crater, said Muhammad Hendrasto, head of monitoring at the volcanology office in Bandung on Java island. Authorities immediately raised the alert to orange, one notch below the highest level, and evacuated people living about 1.8 kilometers (1 mile) from the peak of the volcano, he said. "It is not particularly dangerous but residents nearby need to wear a mask," Hendrasto told Reuters. Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday April 15 2008 - (813)

Tuesday April 15 2008 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Poll: 70% Of Americans Disapprove Of Bush's Handling Of The Economy 2008-04-15 02:32:52 Public disapproval of the way President Bush is handling the nation's economy has hit a new high in Washington Post-ABC News polling, polling, and his overall favorability rating remains near an all-time low. Seven in 10 Americans now give negative ratings to the president's stewardship of the sinking U.S. economy. Only 28 percent approve of his performance in this area, a double-digit decline from a year ago, and even core Republicans have begun to abandon the president on the issue. Among Republicans, 59 percent approve of the way he is handling the economy, down from 70 percent at the beginning of February and well off his career average of about 80 percent from his party's base. Only a quarter of independents and 6 percent of Democrats approve of Bush's performance on the economy. Read The Full Story Commentary: Credit Crunch? The Real Crisis Is Global Hunger 2008-04-15 02:32:19 Intellpuke: This commentary was written by Prof. George Monbiot and appeared in the Guardian edition for Tuesday, April 15, 2008. Prof. Monbiot is visiting professor of Planning at Oxford Brookes University. An author of several books and has held fellowships or professorships at the universities of Oxford (environmental policy), Bristol (philosophy), Keele (politics) and East London (environmental science). His commentary follows: Never mind the economic crisis. Focus for a moment on a more urgent threat: the great food recession that is sweeping the world faster than the credit crunch. You have probably seen the figures by now: the price of rice has risen by three-quarters over the past year, that of wheat by 130%. There are food crises in 37 countries. One hundred million people, according to the World Bank, could be pushed into deeper poverty by the high prices. But I bet that you have missed the most telling statistic. At 2.1 billion tons, the global grain harvest broke all records last year - it beat the previous year's by almost 5%. The crisis, in other words, has begun before world food supplies are hit by climate change. If hunger can strike now, what will happen if harvests decline? There is plenty of food. It is just not reaching human stomachs. Of the 2.13 billion tons likely to be consumed this year, only 1.01 billion, according to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, will feed people. I am sorely tempted to write another column about biofuels. Beginning Tuesday morning all sellers of transport fuel in the United Kingdom will be obliged to mix it with ethanol or biodiesel made from crops. The World Bank points out that "the grain required to fill the tank of a sports utility vehicle with ethanol ... could feed one person for a year". This year global stockpiles of cereals will decline by around 53 million tons; this gives you a rough idea of the size of the hunger gap. The production of biofuels will consume almost 100 million tons, which suggests that they are directly responsible for the current crisis. On these pages Monday Ruth Kelly, the (British) secretary of state for transport, promised that "if we need to adjust policy in the light of new evidence, we will". What new evidence does she require? In the midst of a global humanitarian crisis, we have just become legally obliged to use food as fuel. It is a crime against humanity, in which every driver in this country has been forced to participate. Read The Full Story Debt Collectors Cost IRS Millions 2008-04-15 02:31:35 The U.S. Internal Revenue Service expects to lose more than $37 million by using private debt collectors to pursue tax scofflaws through a program that has outraged consumers and led to charges on Capitol Hill that the agency is wasting money for work that IRS agents could do more effectively. Since 2006, the agency has used three companies to go after a $1 billion slice of the nation's unpaid taxes. Despite aggressive collection tactics, the companies have rounded up only $49 million, little more than half of what it has cost the IRS to implement the program. The debt collectors have pocketed commissions of up to 24 percent. Now, as Americans file their 2007 taxes, Democratic leaders want to end the effort. "This program is the hood ornament for incompetence," said U.S. Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-North Dakota), a leading critic who has introduced a bill to stop the program. The measure has 23 co-sponsors, all but one of them Democrats. "It makes no sense at all to be turning over these tax accounts to private tax collectors that end up costing the taxpayers money." Read The Full Story U.K. Housing Prices Fall At Fastest Rate In 30 Years 2008-04-15 02:30:39 House prices in Britain are falling at their fastest rate since records began 30 years ago as the mortgage lending freeze continues to undermine the housing market, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said Tuesday. In a big blow to the government, which claims Britain is well-placed to withstand the global economic downturn, the RICS paints a bleak picture, in which the number of estate agents saying house prices rose, rather than fell, has dropped to the lowest point since the survey began in 1978. The latest monthly snapshot of the housing market shows that 78.5% more surveyors reported a fall rather than a rise in house prices. The gulf has widened since February and easily eclipses the previous low of 64.5% in June 1990, when the economy was heading into recession. The survey comes amid growing government frustration with banks and mortgage lenders. Prime Minister Gordon Brown summoned the heads of Britain's top banks for breakfast meetings Tuesday and, while government ministers still believe the housing situation is not as severe as the 1990s slump, they are concerned that some lenders are exploiting the global financial crisis. Read The Full Story Pope To Arrive In U.S. Tuesday 2008-04-15 02:29:37 Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Washington, D.C., Tuesday for the start of his first journey to the U.S. as pontiff, a six-day tour that will include masses at two baseball stadiums, meetings with political and religious figures, an address to the United Nations and a visit to Ground Zero. Dubbed "the apostolic journey to the United States", the pontiff's visit begins Tuesday when he is to be welcomed by President George Bush at Andrews Air Force Base, then whisked away to the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C. While it will be the first papal visit to the U.S. by Benedict - who turns 81 Tuesday - since he was elected in 2005, as the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he traveled to the U.S. five times during his many years as the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog. He will meet with Bush at the Oval Office Wednesday, lunch with church officials, and lead prayers at the national shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a church at the Catholic University of America. Read The Full Story Co-Payments Soar For Drugs With High Prices 2008-04-14 15:57:56 Health insurance companies are rapidly adopting a new pricing system for very expensive drugs, asking patients to pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for prescriptions for medications that may save their lives or slow the progress of serious diseases. With the new pricing system, insurers abandoned the traditional arrangement that has patients pay a fixed amount, like $10, $20 or $30 for a prescription, no matter what the drug’s actual cost. Instead, they are charging patients a percentage of the cost of certain high-priced drugs, usually 20 to 33 percent, which can amount to thousands of dollars a month. The system means that the burden of expensive health care can now affect insured people, too. No one knows how many patients are affected, but hundreds of drugs are priced this new way. They are used to treat diseases that may be fairly common, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, hepatitis C  and some cancers. There are no cheaper equivalents for these drugs, so patients are forced to pay the price or do without. Insurers say the new system keeps everyone’s premiums down at a time when some of the most innovative and promising new treatments for conditions like cancer and rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis can cost $100,000 and more a year. The result is that patients may have to spend more for a drug than they pay for their mortgages, more, in some cases, than their monthly incomes. Read The Full Story Politics Blog: McCain Says Obama Remark 'Elitist' 2008-04-14 15:57:11 John McCain called Barack Obama’s recent comments that Pennsylvanians are “bitter” an “elitist” remark but stopped short of calling Obama himself elitist. “I don’t know Senator Obama very well,” said Senator McCain, addressing a packed crowd of journalists at a newspaper editors’ conference on Monday. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, spoke at length about how small town Americans in places like Pennsylvania are the backbone of America. Those folks don’t support the Second Amendment because of recent economic hardships, said McCain, they do it because that’s been part of their values system for generations. “These are the people that produced a generation that made the world safe for democracy,” sais McCain. “These are the people that have fundamental cultural, spiritual, and other values that in my view have very little to do with their economic condition.” Read The Full Story CBS Journalist Freed In Iraq Raid 2008-04-14 15:56:39 Iraqi soldiers burst into a house in Basra on Monday morning and freed a British journalist who had been kidnapped two months ago in the southern port city. The journalist, Richard Butler, a photographer for CBS, was found with his hands bound and a bag tied over his head. Shortly after being freed, Butler appeared on Al Iraqiya, the government’s television network, smiling and embracing Iraqi military officials, who offered him apples and water. An official of Iraq's Defense Ministry, holding a microphone, asked him, “Iraqi Army good?” “Iraqi Army brilliant,” said Butler, adding, “The Iraqi Army stormed my house and overcame my guard.” After the broadcast, Butler, who along with an Iraqi interpreter was kidnapped from the Sultan Palace Hotel in downtown Basra, was taken to the British consulate, where he was examined by doctors, said a spokesman for the consulate in Basra. The interpreter was released on Feb. 13 after negotiations between the kidnappers and representatives in Basra of Shiite cleric Moktada Al-Sadr.  Read The Full Story Zimbabwe Court Refuses To Release Vote Results 2008-04-14 15:56:01 Zimbabwe's political opposition suffered a rebuff on Monday when the country’s High Court dismissed its demand that the results of last month’s presidential election be released immediately. Nqobizitha Mlilo, a spokesman for the main opposition party, confirmed that the court had dismissed its demand, and he said the party was still considering how it would react to the ruling. The opposition has already threatened to hold a general strike this week. Later Monday, news agencies in Harare, the capital, quoted opposition officials as saying they would go ahead with the strike. Zimbabwean election officials have yet to announce the winner of the presidential election, held March 29, causing widespread suspicions that Robert Mugabe, who has been president since the country won its independence 28 years ago, is refusing to accept defeat. On Tuesday, the court is expected to consider a separate petition from Mugabe’s party, known as ZANU-PF, which is seeking a recount of the vote in 23 parliamentary constituencies. Read The Full Story D.C. Madam Case Goes To Jury 2008-04-14 15:54:42 Jurors began deliberating this afternoon in Deborah Jeane Palfrey's prostitution-related racketeering trial after federal prosecutors rested their case and Palyfrey's attorney said he would call no witnesses. After four days of testimony last week in which 13 women said they worked as call girls for Palfrey's Washington, D.C., area escort service, prosecutor Daniel Butler said in his closing argument today that evidence showed that Palfrey, 52, was aware that her employees were engaging in prostitution. "Men do not pay $250 an hour for 90 minutes for casual conversation," Butler told the jurors in U.S. District Court in Washington. Palfrey, who ran her escort business, Pamela Martin & Associates, from 1993 to 2006 from her California home, says it was "a legal, high-end erotic fantasy service" allowing men to engage in "quasi-sexual" game-playing with women. She says she did not know her escorts were performing sex acts for money. Read The Full Story World Bank Call For Immediate Action On World Food Crisis 2008-04-14 03:04:59 Gunfire in Haiti. Riots in Cameroon. A government crisis in the Philippines. The effects of skyrocketing food prices have reached every corner of the globe. Now, the World Bank has called for world leaders to take action before it is too late. The president of the World Bank Sunday urged immediate action to deal with sharply rising food prices, which have caused hunger and violence in several countries. Robert B. Zoellick said the international community has to "put our money where our mouth is" now to help hungry people. Zoellick spoke as the bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, ended two days of meetings in Washington, D.C. Zoellick said that the fall of the government in Haiti over the weekend after a wave of deadly rioting and looting over food prices underscores the importance of quick international action. Read The Full Story Fossilized Finds - Scientists Reveal Secrets Of Opaque Amber 2008-04-14 03:03:57 Until now, fossils hidden inside opaque amber have remained elusive to scientists. But now French researchers have developed a special technique which allows them to peer inside the material using X-rays - and the results are spectacular. Opaque amber conceals insights into life forms from tens of millions of years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. But until now, the animals preserved inside the opaque "stones" have remained tantalizingly hidden. However, a new technological breakthrough has changed all that, enabling scientists to peer into the amber chunks for the first time - and make some fascinating discoveries. By aiming a high-tech X-ray machine at opaque amber chunks found near Charentes in southwest France, Paul Tafforeau from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, was able to shine a new light into the amber's secrets. Read The Full Story Chinese Ambassador To London Warns Of Backlash Over 'Demonization' Of China 2008-04-14 03:03:06 The western media's "demonization" of China could lead to a backlash against the west, the Chinese ambassador to London warned Sunday. Fu Ying said that "violent attacks on the torch" in London eight days ago, when thousands of people protested, had convinced Chinese Olympic athletes that people in Britain "were against them". Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Fu said: "One girl remarked she couldn't believe this land nourished Shakespeare and Dickens. Another asked: where is the 'gentlemenship'?" The ambassador warned that negative media coverage and the protests that have dogged the Olympic torch relay were damaging the west's image in China. "Many who had romantic views of the west are very disappointed at the media's attempt to demonize China. We all know demonization feeds a counter-reaction," she said. "Many complain about China not allowing enough access to the media. In China, the view is that the western media need to earn respect." Read The Full Story Kenyan Rivals Reach Accord On Cabinet 2008-04-14 03:02:24 Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his political rival Raila Odinga agreed on the details of a 40-member cabinet Sunday, implementing a power-sharing deal they reached in February. The two leaders had bickered for weeks over key ministries as Kenyans grew increasingly worried that the country was again slipping into the violence that killed an estimated 1,000 people and displaced as many as a million after the disputed Dec. 27 presidential election. Last week, demonstrators took to the streets in two Odinga strongholds, the western city of Kisumu and Kibera, one of Nairobi's poorest neighborhoods, as people grew impatient waiting for the political announcement. With international pressure mounting, Kibaki on Sunday announced the new cabinet and named Odinga as prime minister. Odinga will oversee and manage the cabinet. Read The Full Story		U.S. Retail Chains Caught In Wave Of Bankruptcies 2008-04-15 02:32:37 The consumer spending slump and tightening credit markets are unleashing a widening wave of bankruptcies in American retailing, prompting thousands of store closings that are expected to remake suburban malls and downtown shopping districts across the country. Since last fall, eight mostly midsize chains - as diverse as the furniture store Levitz and the electronics seller Sharper Image - have filed for bankruptcy protection as they staggered under mounting debt and declining sales. The troubles are quickly spreading to bigger national companies, like Linens ‘n Things, the bedding and furniture retailer with 500 stores in 47 states. It may file for bankruptcy as early as this week, according to people briefed on the matter. Even retailers that can avoid bankruptcy are shutting down stores to preserve cash through what could be a long economic downturn. Over the next year, Foot Locker said it would close 140 stores, Ann Taylor will start to shutter 117, and the jeweler Zales will close 100. Read The Full Story U.S. Bank Admits Sub-prime Emergency 2008-04-15 02:32:01 Wachovia to cover losses with $7 billion fundraising; Citigroup and Merill Lynch expected to report huge writedowns this week. The gloom enveloping the banking sector worsened Monday after America's fourth-largest bank, Wachovia, admitted it needed to raise $7 billion (£3.52 billion) through an emergency fundraising after running up losses caused by the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The North Carolina-based bank incurred a surprise $350 million loss in the first quarter of 2008 compared with a $2.3 billion profit a year earlier, driving its shares down 10%. The news came as two of the biggest names on Wall Street - Citigroup and Merrill Lynch - are poised to report huge writedowns. Analysts are bracing themselves for total writedowns of $17 billion when the two banks report their quarterly results this week. Read The Full Story Editorial: When Medicine Costs Soar Beyond Reach 2008-04-15 02:31:13 Intellpuke: This editorial appeared in the New York Times edition for Tuesday, April 15, 2008. It doesn’t take a health policy expert to recognize that something has gone terribly wrong when patients have to pay thousands of dollars a month for drugs that they need to maintain their health - and possibly save their lives. Congress needs to determine why this is happening and what can be done about it. The plight of patients who have recently been hit with a huge increase in their insurance co-payments for high-priced prescription drugs was laid out in The Times on Monday by Gina Kolata. Instead of paying a modest $10 to $30 co-payment, as is usually the case for cheaper drugs, patients who need especially costly medicines are being forced to pay 20 percent to 33 percent of the bill (up to an annual maximum) for drugs that can cost tens of thousands of dollars, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, a year. These drugs - what insurers call Tier 4 medicines - are used to treat such serious illnesses as multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, certain cancers and rheumatoid arthritis. And since there are usually no cheaper alternatives, patients must either pay or do without, unless they can get their medicines through some charitable plan. Read The Full Story Delta, Northwest Agree To Merger Forming World's Largest Airline 2008-04-15 02:30:04 Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines last night announced a proposed merger that would create the world's largest carrier and possibly spur an industry-wide round of restructuring that could vastly change air travel for millions of Americans. The proposal, which was months in the making, would create a global airline with seven domestic hubs and international destinations stretching from Asia to South America to Europe. It comes as new international agreements have reduced barriers to competition, fuel prices have skyrocketed and the economy has weakened. In the past month, four discount airlines have sought bankruptcy protection. The merger of the two carriers is far from a certainty, however. It would need to pass regulatory muster, and Northwest has yet to reach an agreement with its pilots, an employee group that could complicate integrating the airlines. Concerns about industry consolidation have been raised on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have expressed extreme frustration in recent weeks at declining airline customer service, increasing flight delays and questions over the industry's maintenance practices. Read The Full Story MDC Party Calls For General Strike In Zimbabwe 2008-04-15 02:28:44 Zimbabwe's opposition party has called an indefinite general strike beginning Tuesday after the county's high court rejected its attempt to force the immediate release of the results of the presidential election held 17 days ago. The strike is a crucial test of the Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC) ability to mobilize popular protest against what it says is President Robert Mugabe's refusal to accept defeat. Some party leaders believe a strike is now the only effective way of pressuring the government. The MDC said the high court accepted the state-run election commission's explanation that the results were being withheld because it was investigating alleged irregularities. "It's a very sad day in Zimbabwe," said the party's lawyer, Andrew Makoni. "[The court] has given the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) a blank check. We don't know when the ZEC will be ready with results. We don't know what specific time would be reasonable in the eyes of the court." Read The Full Story Editorial: Foreclosure Politics 2008-04-14 15:57:25 Intellpuke: This editorial appeared in the New York Times edition for Monday, April 14, 2008. With foreclosures running at about 20,000 per week, at least 100,000 more families are likely to lose their homes before Congress passes a relief bill. And even then, the measure may fail to stanch the problem unless Congress comes up with something that is significantly better than proposals currently in either chamber. To produce a worthy relief package, lawmakers will first have to scrap most of the provisions in a bill passed last week by the Senate. That bill would cost $21 billion over 10 years, with $15 billion of the total going to tax cuts that offer no direct help to at-risk families or hard-hit communities. One set of cuts would subsidize renewable energy; another would let businesses take temporarily larger write-offs for losses. A proposed $7,000 tax credit for buyers of foreclosed homes could backfire, encouraging more foreclosures by allowing banks to charge more for repossessed property. A measure to let non-itemizers deduct property taxes is dubious tax policy and bad foreclosure prevention, since it does not target the neediest. Read The Full Story Chinese Official Freeze Olympic Construction Projects 2008-04-14 15:56:57 Chines officials laid out an ambitious series of measures on Monday that will freeze construction projects, slow down steel production and shutter quarries in and around the capital this summer in an attempt to clear the air for the Olympics. Even spray painting outdoors will be banned during the weeks before and after sporting events, which begin Aug. 8. Although officials initially suggested the city’s wholesale transformation would be complete long before the opening ceremonies, the announcement nonetheless represents the most detailed possible plan for how Beijing might reach its long-standing pledge to stage “green Games” in one of the world’s most polluted cities. In earlier proclamations, officials had said that the city’s makeover would be competed by the end of 2007. The measures announced on Monday include a two-month halt in construction, beginning July 20, and government directives will force coal-burning power plants to reduce their emissions by 30 percent throughout most of the summer. Officials said that 19 heavy-polluting enterprises, including steel mills, coke plants and refineries, would be either temporarily mothballed or forced to reduce production. Gas stations that do not meet environmental standards will closed, cement production will stop, and the use toxic solvents outdoors will be forbidden. If Beijing’s air remains unacceptably sullied in the days leading up the Games, officials said they would take “stringent steps” to curb polluting industries, although they declined to say what those measures might be. “We will do everything possible to honor the promise,” Du Shaozhong, deputy director of Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau, said during a news conference. “Just tell everybody they don’t have to worry.” Read The Full Story Wachovia Posts $350 Million First Quarter Loss 2008-04-14 15:56:23 Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia bank posted an unexpected net loss of $350 million for the first three months of the year, as problems in the U.S. mortgage market continued to drag down financial companies that invested heavily in riskier sub-prime loans. The company announced today it would seek to raise as much as $8 billion through a stock sale - the second time this year Wachovia has moved to bolster its balance sheet with additional capital - and slash its dividend to investors. The Wachovia report added to a dismal start for the current round of corporate earnings reports. On Friday, General Electric reported a rare drop in earnings, helping send major Wall Street markets down more than 2 percent. Although futures were pointing sharply lower, markets were largely flat when trading began after new data showed a slight rise in retail spending in March - a better than expected outcome. Read The Full Story Berlusconi Wins Election In Italy 2008-04-14 15:54:59 Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi reclaimed power in key U.S. ally Italy on Monday after clinching decisive victories in both houses of parliament. The 71-year-old media mogul was congratulated by his main rival, former Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, who conceded defeat even though the vote counting was still under way. ''The election result is clear even if we wait for the final data,'' said Veltroni. ''It says that the right will govern this country.'' Berlusconi, who was in his villa near Milan, made no immediate statement, just waving as he passed in his Mercedes. In the Senate - a race that had been expected to be close - Berlusconi was projected to win 163 seats compared to 141 for Veltroni. The body has 315 seats. Read The Full Story Clinton, Obama Discuss Faith At College Forum 2008-04-14 03:05:17 Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) asserted Sunday night that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois), through his recent description of sentiments in small-town America, reinforced a stereotype of "out-of-touch" Democrats that doomed the party's past two presidential nominees. "We had two very good men, and men of faith, run for president in 2000 and 2004, but large segments of the electorate concluded that they did not really understand or relate to or frankly respect their ways of life," said Clinton at Messiah College, referring to former vice president Al Gore and Sen. John F. Kerry (Massachusetts). She repeated her view that Obama had been "elitist ... and, frankly, patronizing." Her remarks came in a nationally televised forum on religious and moral values, which brought Clinton and her rival to the private Christian school just outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The discussion represented a remarkable departure from the Democrats' increasingly harsh tone of campaign rhetoric. Both candidates dropped biblical references and spoke of policy issues such as energy and health care in the context of their Christian faith. Obama was questioned at the start of his session about his reference to religion in his small-town remarks - perhaps the most controversial word he uttered. Describing the Pennsylvania political landscape at a private fundraiser last Sunday in San Francisco, California, Obama told of how people "cling" to such issues as religion and guns when they become disillusioned by hard economic times and by politicians who promise much but deliver little. Read The Full Story U.N. Climate Chief Says Rich Nations Failing To Lead On CO2 Emissions 2008-04-14 03:04:35 Developing world "dismayed by lack of leadership; new deal to replace Kyoto protocol under threat. Developing countries, including China and India, are unwilling to sign up to a new global climate change pact to replace the Kyoto protocol in 2012 because the rich world has failed to set a clear example on cutting carbon emissions, according to the United Nation's top climate official. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said too many rich countries, including the US, had failed to take the action needed to convince the developing nations to sign up to a deal in Copenhagen next year that could help to stabilize global emissions. "You may not be able to get an agreement in one shot, let's say by Copenhagen, that sets you on the path of stabilization in keeping with some kind of long-term target," Pachauri told the Guardian. "Looking at the politics of the situation, I doubt whether any of the developing countries will make any commitments before they have seen the developed countries take a specific stand." Read The Full Story Is Northern Afghanistan Becoming A Powderkeg? 2008-04-14 03:03:29 The slayings of six development aid workers and three attacks against the German military in four weeks underscore the "alarming developments" in Northern Afghanistan, warns the head of the German Army, the Bundeswehr. The area of German deployment once believed to be safe is turning into a powderkeg. It was a dark Wednesday for the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan. First, a car laden with explosives managed to wedge its way between an armored Wolf jeep and a Mungo truck near Kunduz at 6:35 p.m. Then the driver detonated a bomb. It was only by chance that nothing terrible happened in Esakhail that evening. Other than suffering from fear and shock, the Germans escaped uninjured. The Germany army, the Bundeswehr, though, knew the area had become dangerous. Indeed, just days before, at the end of March, an explosive device was detonated near a military convoy. Just two hours later, the next alarm bells began to ring. A reconnaissance patrol was driving a Fennek vehicle out of the camp at Kundus as the Germans were attacked with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. The soldiers reacted to the attack, which set fire to a camouflage net on a vehicle, by firing back from their own cannon. The troops returned to the base after the incident and no German soldiers were injured. Read The Full Story Pakistan's Musharraf Blasts West Over Olympics, Criticism Of China 2008-04-14 03:02:50 Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is accusing Western leaders and media of politicizing the Olympics by criticizing China's human rights record and its policy in Tibet. "First of all, we consider Tibet an inalienable part of China," he said in an interview with China Daily on Sunday. If "anyone is harboring or abetting the separatists, we condemn that." Musharraf is in Beijing to meet with various Chinese officials. Last week the international leg of the Olympic torch relay set off protests in London, Paris and San Francisco. The relay received warmer receptions over the weekend in Argentina and Tanzania. Read The Full Story Former Maoist Guerrillas On Brink Of Historic Nepal Election Victory 2008-04-14 03:02:07 Former communist rebels in Nepal appear to be on the brink of a historic sweep in elections that will decide the political future of the Himalayan nation and end the rule of its 239-year-old royal dynasty. The Maoists' party has won 42 seats and is leading in 58 constituencies, the election commission said in a statement on its website. The traditional politicians, who had expected to win the polls, have been reduced to bit-part players. The country's oldest and biggest political party, the Nepali Congress, has so far won 13 seats and the Unified Marxist-Leninists, the traditional communist party, had just 14 seats in the latest count. The vote is the culmination of a peace process that began in 2006 when street protests ended the absolute rule of King Gyanendra. Read The Full Story
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