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In Air France crash, deep seas stand between experts and answers

2009-06-03T00:22:00.001-07:00

If there is ever to be an answer to what caused Air France Flight 447 to fall from the sky, the best clues probably lie on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean amid rugged volcanic ridges and steep trenches, some plunging deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Search planes scouring the area Tuesday spotted a seat, an orange buoy, a tank and a fuel slick about 400 miles off the Brazilian coast. Brazilian authorities identified them as pieces from the Airbus A330 that disappeared late Sunday, and French officials reiterated that there was virtually no chance that any of the 228 people aboard survived.Most of the wreckage is probably resting now 9,000 feet to 14,000 feet below the surface, where it is pitch black, the water temperature is 40 degrees and the pressure as high as 7,000 pounds per square inch, scientists said.

Investigators will have to send robotic submarines into this hostile environment to look for crucial pieces of evidence in the disappearance of the Paris-bound flight.

A battery-operated sonar "pinger," 4 inches long and about an inch in diameter, should already have started sending out acoustic signals from the ocean bottom about once every second. The pinger is attached to the flight data recorder, which is embedded in the rear section of the jetliner's fuselage. Another pinger is attached to the cockpit voice recorder.

Even with the help of those homing signals, the task of finding the debris amid the rugged seascape will not be easy, experts said. And if searchers find them, they will face challenges reaching the wreckage and determining what happened.

"You want to treat it like a crime scene, taking detailed photographs," said Dave Gallo, director of special operations at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "In the past, the urge was to remove evidence as quickly as possible, but before you disturb anything you want a detailed survey."

The floating debris was spotted north of the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha off the Brazilian coast, suggesting that the plane disappeared not long after it last radioed its position.

But wind and ocean currents may have pushed the floating debris miles from the impact point in the intervening day, and it will be difficult for investigators to pinpoint the location of the most important pieces of evidence, the two so-called black boxes that record flight data and the voices of the pilots.

Brazilian air force Col. Jorge Amaral offered another explanation for why debris might be found slightly off the scheduled flight path. The pilots might have been attempting to make a turn, he said, acknowledging that his theory was only speculation.

The search crews have about 30 days before the batteries on the homing devices run out, said Thomas A. Greenacre, president of Dukane Corp.'s Seacom Division, the largest supplier of acoustic homing devices.

"It is at an extreme depth," Greenacre said. "The location and recovery will be very difficult." He said the beacons aboard the Airbus A330 were probably made by Dukane, but he could not be certain.

Plane crash investigations have recovered data from deep waters, but seldom at the depths that will be encountered in the case of Flight 447.

Most of the wreckage, as well as many human remains, were recovered from TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 that crashed off Long Island in 1996. But that plane sank in water only 120 feet deep, and at that depth divers were able to help.

Wreckage of the space shuttle Challenger and the remains of the astronauts were recovered off the Florida coast at a depth of less than 1,000 feet in 1986.

Debris from the crash of the small plane that took the life of John F. Kennedy Jr. nearly a decade ago was recovered from the Atlantic, but again from relatively shallow waters.

In 1987, a South African Airways 747 crashed into the Indian Ocean off the island nation of Mauritius, sinking to a depth of about 16,000 feet. After an unsuccessful two-month search by the South African military, the U.S. Navy was able to locate the wreckage and the cockpit voice recorder. The accident was eventually blamed on cargo that caught fire.

The wreckage of the Air France jetliner probably will contain much of the information that will be crucial to determining the cause of the crash, which occurred in a violent thunderstorm.

Search planes and ships converged on the area Tuesday, but clouds and more storms complicated their efforts.

Reaching any conclusion will require a wealth of data about the flight parameters, engine condition and discussions in the cockpit. Investigators will need to determine whether the wreckage shows any sign of an explosion and whether the aircraft broke apart before hitting the water.

The first step in getting that information will involve sending crews to the most likely impact point, where they will lower hydrophones into the water and attempt to pick up the homing signals. They will try to pinpoint the spot in the ocean directly over the wreckage, said Laurence Madin, director of research at Woods Hole.

The area of the crash is on the western flank of a mostly undersea mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which runs roughly north and south down the middle of the Atlantic. It was formed by plate movements and volcanoes, creating a geology of hard dense rock. It will make sonar operations particularly difficult, creating "shadows" in the signals that could mask the wreckage, Gallo said.

Once the wreckage is located, investigators probably will want detailed photographs of the debris field on the ocean floor before any recovery operations begin.

Only a few nations have the deep submersible vessels that can go to 14,000 feet. Woods Hole just sent one of its new robotic craft to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, the deepest place in any ocean on Earth -- more than 35,000 feet.

The Alvin, owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by Woods Hole, can send a crew of three down to about 17,000 feet, but, at least initially, investigators probably will opt for a robotic craft for safety.

The robotic craft are connected to a mother ship by a fiber-optic umbilical cord, feeding video of the undersea scene. The craft has manipulator arms that can use tools to cut into the fuselage and extract the flight recorders.

The bigger question is whether French investigators will attempt to salvage the entire aircraft wreckage, as was done in the case of the TWA accident, and the remains of the passengers. link....

Commission in Army Education Corps

2009-05-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

TYPE OF COMMISSION. Direct short service commission in Army Education Corps (Male)

QUALIFICATION/SUBJECTS.

MA/MSc Ist &2nd Division as regular student in the following subjects alongwith minimum one year teaching experience at a reputable/ recognized institution. Candidates with M Phil/PHD in the relevant subject and teaching experience at a reputable/ recognized institution will be given preference and seniority: -

English
Physics
Mathematics
Political Science
Islamic Studies
History
Computer Science
MBA
Education
Literacy Science
Urdu
Human Resource Development

AGE. 30 years (Relaxable in individual cases having higher qualification and experience)

NATIONALITY

	Male citizens of Pakistan and domicile of Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas.
	All the candidates having dual nationality will have to initiate the process for reduction of their foreign nationality and will give an undertaking before joining the Army that they will complete the procedure for renunciation of their foreign nationality before completion of their training.
	Those failing to renounce their foreign nationality or to complete the procedure are not granted commission. Additionally, they are liable to pay the training charges/bond money and will instead have to seek release/ discharge from the Army.

INELIGIBILITY.

	Already screened out twice by Inter Service Selection Board (ISSB), General Headquarters (GHQ), Naval Headquarters (NHQ) Air Headquarters (AHQ) Selection Boards for any type of commission in the Armed Forces.
	Candidates twice rejected for Pakistan Military Academy Long Course equivalent of Pakistan Air Force or Pakistan Navy. However candidates after their postgraduate studies may avail third chance.
	A candidate who is rejected once by ISSB for PMA or equivalent Navy /PAF Course and once rejected for Direct Short Service Commission Entry, will not be eligible for commission. Candidates twice rejected with postgraduate qualifications are also, ineligible to apply.
SELECTION PROCEDURE. Preliminary written test covering following subjects:-
	Respective subject. General knowledge and English Intelligence/Psychological Tests. Final Interview of successful candidates by GHQ Selection Board. Medical Examination at Military Hospital nearest to their home stations. Final selection will be made at GHQ based on overall performance of candidates

HIGHER RANK/ANTE DATE SENIORITY.

Candidates possessing M. Phil and PH.D and experience can be considered for grant of the rank of Major and ante date seniority under the existing rules.

BASIC MILITARY TARINING.

	Candidates finally selected will undergo 6 months basic military training at PMA Kakul.
GRANT OF COMMISSION.
	On successful completion of basic military training candidates are granted commission in the Army in the temporary rank of Captain. link...

Join Pakistan Army as Psychologist

2009-05-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

SELECTION CRITERIA.

TYPE OF COMMISSION.
		Direct short service commission in army as Psychologist (Male).

QUALIFICATION.

Master degree in Psychology with minimum 2nd Division from a Pakistani or foreign university, Doctorate, M. Phil, Postgraduate Research or teaching experience will be given preference.

	AGE.

		28 years (Relaxable in individual cases having higher qualification and experience).

	NATIONALITY.
		Male citizens of Pakistan and domicile of Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas.
		All the candidates having dual nationality will have to initiate the process for reduction of their foreign nationality and will give an undertaking before joining the Army that they will have to complete the procedure for renunciation of their foreign nationality before completion of their training.
		Those failing to renounce their foreign nationality or to complete the procedure are granted commission. Additionally, they are liable to pay the training charges/bond money and will instead have to seek release/ discharge from the Army.

INELIGIBILITY

Already screened out twice by Inter Service Selection Board (ISSB), General Headquarters (GHQ), Naval Headquarters (NHQ), Air Headquarters (AHQ), Selection Boards for any type of commission in the Armed Forces.

Candidates twice rejected for Pakistan Military Academy Long Course or equivalent of Pakistan Air Force or Pakistan Navy. However candidates after their postgraduates studies may avail third chance.

A candidate who is rejected once by ISSB for PMA or equivalent Navy /PAF Course and once rejected for Direct Short Service Commission Entry, will not be eligible for commission. Candidates twice rejected with postgraduate qualifications are also, ineligible to apply.

SELECTION PROCEDURE. Preliminary written test covering following subjects: -

Respective subject, General knowledge and English, Intelligence/Psychological Tests, Final Interview of successful candidates by GHQ Selection Board and Medical Examination at nearest Military Hospital.

Final selection is made at GHQ based on overall performance of candidates.

HIGHER RANK/ANTE DATE SENIORITY.

	Candidates possessing M. Phil and PH.D and experience can be considered for grant of the rank of Major and ante date seniority under the existing rules.
BASIC MILITARY TARINING.
	Candidates finally selected will undergo 6 months basic military training at PMA Kakul.

GRANT OF COMMISSION.
	On successful completion of basic military training candidates will be granted commission in the Army in the temporary rank of Captain. link...

Short Service Commission in Remount Veterinary and Farming Corps

2009-05-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

TYPE OF COMMISSION. Direct short service commission in Remount Veterinary and Farms Corps (Male)

QUALIFICATION. D.V.M or equivalent degree from Pakistan. UK or USA. Registered with PVMC.

AGE.

Serving VASs of RV&FC 21-35 years.

For Civilians 21-28 years

Note. Candidates who have appeared in final DVM examination and result has not been announced are not eligible to
apply.

NATIONALITY

Male citizens of Pakistan/Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas national and state subject of class-1.

Candidates having dual nationality will initiate the process for renunciation of the foreign nationality and will give an undertaking before joining the Army that they will complete the procedure for renunciation of their foreign nationality before completion of training. Those failing to renounce their foreign nationality or to complete the procedure will not be granted commission. Additionally, they will be liable to pay the training charges/Bond money and will instead have to seek release /discharge from the Army.

INELIGIBILITY. Following are ineligible to apply: -

Twice screened out/rejected by ISSB/GHQ or NHQ/AHQ Selection Boards for any type of commission in the Armed Forces.

Candidates twice rejected for Pakistan Military Academy Long Course / Officer Training School Short Course / equivalent of Pakistan Air Force or Pakistan Navy may avail third chance after their post graduate studies. Candidates twice rejected with post graduate qualifications are however ineligible to apply.

Previously declared medically unfit by Appeal Medical Board for Army, Navy, PAF are ineligible. However, those who were declared unfit by an ordinary medical board may apply. Such candidates will undergo medical re-examination by an Appeal Medical Board.

Released or discharged or withdrawn from Armed Forces or any of its training establishments.

Convicted by a Court of Law for an offence involving moral turpitude.

	SELECTION PROCEDURE.
		Preliminary written test by Screening Board at Military Veterinary Hospital Rawalpindi.
		Intelligence/ Personality Tests.
		Interview by GHQ Selection Board.
		Medical examination at military hospital nearest to their home stations.
		Final selection will be made at GHQ based on overall performance of candidates.

	BASIC MILITARY TRAINING.
		Candidates finally selected will undergo 22 weeks basic military training at PMA Kakul.
	GRANT OF COMMISSION.
		On successful completion of basic military training candidates will be granted commission in the Army in the temporary rank of Captain. link....

Regular Commission in Pakistan Army

2009-05-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

COMMISSIONING.

Basing on the instructions issued from GHQ, PA Dte, advertisement is published in print media. Candidates are given date for test after verification of their documents/academic certificates and registration. Those who qualify the Intelligence/Written test are called for preliminary medical exam. Candidates declared medically fit are interviewed by a board of officers headed by a Brigadier as President. Details of selection criteria for commissioning candidates are spelled out in succeeding paragraphs.

SELECTION CRITERIA – COMMISSIONED OFFICER.

NATIONALITY. Male citizen of Pakistan or Azad Kashmir Domiciles and state subjects of class – I.

Note. Pakistani National having dual nationality at selection, will be required to renounce their foreign nationality before completion of training/grant of commission.

MARITAL STATUS.

Unmarried (serving personnel of the Armed Forces over 20 years of age are eligible, even if married)

AGE ON 01 MAY/ NOV.
Intermediate or equivalent 17-22 Years.
Graduates 17-23 Years.
Serving Armed/Civil Armed Forces personnel 17-23 Years.
Note. Relaxation of under/over age period for maximum up to 3 months for special deserving cases is allowed.

PHYSICAL STANDARDS.
Minimum Height. 5’-4” (162.5 cm)

Visual Standard
Distant Vision with glass 6/9, 6/12
Near Vision J2, J7 or N8, N12 with or without glasses.

Physical fitness. The candidates must qualify the following physical standard at the time of preliminary selection:-

1.6 Km Run –7.5 Minutes
Push Ups – 15 repetitions in 2 Minutes
Sit Ups –15 repetitions in 2 Minutes
Chin Ups –3 repetitions in 2 Minutes
RIGISTRATION AND PRELIMINARY SELECTION.
Candidates will have to report at the Army Selection & Recruitment Centres (AS&RCs) for their registration/Roll number allotment and for the date, time etc of the tests.

Registration is carried out at Army Selection & Recruitment Centres (AS&RCs) from Monday to Sunday.

Intelligence/Other tests are conducted at Army Selection & Recruitment Centres (AS&RCs). On the day of the registration, candidates will deposit Rs.200/- with the staff of Selection and Recruitment Office.

Preliminary Selection.

Intelligence test, written test (on computers), medical examination, physical fitness test and interview will be carried out as per laid down programme under arrangements of AS&RCs listed at the end. Candidates will produce Matric certificate provisional/photo copy of Intermediate certificate or Marks Sheet, BA/BSc degree or Mark Sheet, and 3xphotographs duly attested by Principle/ Class 1 Gazetted officer/Ist Class Magistrate for preliminary selection. In case a candidate has not been issued with Matric Certificate, he is required to produce Matric Marks Sheet and school leaving certificate indicating date of birth. Matric certificate of recommended/not recommended candidates will be retained with AS&RC till a given date.

Note. DMC and original Matric/Equivalent certificates DMC/Result Card for Part-1 and Part-II of Intermediate and Identity Card or Form B will be attached with application form.

FURTHER SELECTION.
ISSB Test and Interview
Candidates qualifying preliminary selection/falling in merit are sent to ISSB for further tests and interview.

Medical Examination.
Candidates recommended by ISSB appear before a Medical Board in the local CMH/MH for assessing their medical fitness immediately after recommendation by ISSB.

Final Selection.
The final selection is made at GHQ on the basis of candidates overall performance.

Training Period
2 Years at PMA Kakul

INELIGIBILITIES.
Screened out/Rejected twice by ISSB
Declared medically unfit by an appeal Medical Board (Army)
Enrolled Cadets withdrawn/resigned / discharged / dismissed from Armed Forces (Army, Navy, and Air Force) training academy/institutions on the grounds of discipline, character, failure in academics/military subjects, medical inefficiency, weak profile and any other unsuitability grounds or having received character certificate ‘fair’.

An individual dismissed/removed from other Government Services
link...

New Orleans gets 2013 Super Bowl, its 10th

2009-05-20T05:26:00.001-07:00

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - New Orleans is a Super Bowl city again.

NFL owners voted Tuesday to play the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans, the first time the championship game will be played there since Hurricane Katrina shredded parts of the Louisiana Superdome. The hurricane caused 1,600 deaths and devastated the Gulf Coast four years ago.

New Orleans beat out Miami - which sought a record 11th Super Bowl - and 2008 host Glendale, Ariz., for the game. This is the 10th time New Orleans will be the site for the Super Bowl.

New Orleans last hosted in 2002, when Adam Viniateri's 48-yard field goal as time expired lifted New England over St. Louis. link...

Plans in Motion

2009-05-20T05:25:00.000-07:00

Nintendo has announced pricing and Australian release dates for the Wii MotionPlus accessory and the sequel to the best selling video game of all time, Wii Sports Resort.
The MotionPlus add-on, which more accurately tracks player movements than a standard Wii Remote, will be released on June 11 for $29.95.
The beach-themed Wii Sports Resort, which features activities like Frisbee throwing, jetski racing, fencing, golf and table tennis, will be released on July 23 for $99.95. Resort will come bundled with one MotionPlus accessory.
Third-party ames compatible with MotionPlus include Sega's Virtua Tennis 2009, EA's Grand Slam Tennis, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 10, and Ubisoft's Red Steel . link...

Fiji’s neighbours disagree on how to deal with its military regime

2009-05-20T05:24:00.000-07:00

Wellington, May 19 (DPA) Differences among Fiji’s Pacific neighbours over how to deal with the island’s military regime emerged Tuesday following top-level talks between New Zealand and Tonga.
Tongan Prime Minister Feleti Sevele said at a news conference in Wellington that he favoured giving military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama, whose military regime has ruled Fiji since a coup in December 2006, more time to restore democracy.

New Zealand Premier John Key called Bainimarama’s pledge not to hold elections before September 2014 unacceptable to New Zealand.

Both Tonga and New Zealand belong to the 16-member Pacific Islands Forum, which suspended Fiji’s membership May 1 for failing to organise elections this year as Bainimarama had promised his fellow leaders a year ago.

What to do about Fiji, which Sevele described as “the hub of the Pacific”, was expected to dominate the organisation’s annual meeting to be held in August in Cairns, Australia.

Fiji has been under a state of emergency with all media outlets forbidden to criticise the government since April 25, when President Josefa Iloilo sacked all the country’s judges after a Court of Appeal ruling that Bainimarama’s regime was illegal.

Sevele said that what had happened in Fiji was the opposite of what forum leaders had been intending to achieve - “so maybe it’s time for us to reconsider our approach”.

He said the forum should stand back and give Bainimarama time.

“I think in these troubled times, reason and calm is the way to go,” the prime minister said. “And if it takes another year or two to get Fiji back to the negotiating table and together work our way forward, then that’s the way we’re going to go.

“Sooner or later, we’ll have a government in Fiji that is more acceptable to the international community.”

Sevele said that to ostracise Fiji would not be in the interests of Fiji or the forum as a whole, given the country’s importance as a regional trade and communications centre.

Key said of Bainimarama: “We don’t want to leave him out in the cold but nor do we want to sanction an illegitimate regime.

“We are not out to punish Fiji, but we want to see democracy restored.”

Key said New Zealand was ready, willing and able to engage with Fiji and support its return to democracy but such a development remained in the hands of Bainimarama.

The European Commission announced Monday that it had cancelled a scheduled 24-million-euro ($32 million) aid package to Fiji to help restructure its sugar industry, which is critical to the economy, “in the absence of any indications that a legitimate government will be in place in 2009″. link...

CBS And NFL Reach Agreement On Two-Year Extension Of Broadcast Rights

2009-05-20T05:23:00.000-07:00

The National Football League announced today that CBS has been awarded a rights extension to broadcast the American Football Conference (AFC). The two-year extension agreement runs through the 2013-14 season and includes CBS broadcasting Super Bowl XLVII in the first year of the new agreement.

The CBS television negotiations were led by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation, and Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports.

“This agreement significantly strengthens what is already a great partnership between CBS and the NFL, and continues to add to CBS Sports’ reputation as the undisputed industry leader in sports television with top franchises in all of television,” said Moonves. “I would like to thank all the great people at CBS Sports and at the NFL for making this important deal happen.”

Thirteen of CBS’s 14 Owned stations are in NFL markets, including New York, San Francisco/Oakland, Boston, Miami, Denver, Pittsburgh and Baltimore, which are all AFC markets.

“We are extremely pleased to extend this agreement as well as our successful partnership with the NFL, which continues to prove that NFL football is the premier property in all of sports and the number one-rated franchise in all of sports television,” said McManus.

CBS Sports, which first began televising NFL regular-season games in 1956 and this season mark its 50th season, had broadcast rights to the National Football Conference package from 1970 through 1993. The Network began televising American Football Conference games in 1998.

CBS Television is comprised of the CBS Television Network – with more than 200 owned and affiliated stations reaching virtually every television home in the United States; the Network’s programming arms CBS Entertainment, CBS News and CBS Sports; and CBS Enterprises, a global leader in distribution. link...

Russians unprepared for 2010 Winter Olympics - sports official

2009-05-20T05:22:00.001-07:00

SPORTS
Russians unprepared for 2010 Winter Olympics - sports official

Антон Денисов | Buy this image
RELATED NEWS
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17:4219/05/2009
MOSCOW, May 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russian athletes face an uphill struggle to prepare fully for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, a vice president of the Russian Olympic Committee said on Tuesday.
Vladimir Vasin told members of the Russian upper house that the problems with winter sports had emerged in the 1990s and that until recently there had been no financial allocations from the budget to develop infrastructure.
"[In the past] our country only had snow to train athletes, but we do not even have this privilege anymore," Vasin said, referring to recent unusually warm weather.
He also said that besides infrastructure development, Russia should also look to involve foreign specialists in the training of its athletes.
However, Gennady Alyoshin, a deputy head of the Russian Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy Ministry, said that Russia had every chance of taking up to six gold medals in Vancouver.
"We have the potential and we will realize it," Alyoshin said, adding that the financial rewards for medals had seen a 200% increase in comparison with the 2006 Winter Olympics.
He said that the athletes would be paid 100,000 euros for each gold medal, 60,000 for silver and 40,000 for bronze.
At the 2006 Turin Games, Russia won 22 medals, including 8 gold, taking fourth place in the overall medals standings. link...

NZ softens stance on Fiji sports teams

2009-05-20T05:20:00.000-07:00

New Zealand has softened its stance on visiting sports teams from Fiji, says Prime Minister John Key.

The Labour government banned all visiting Fijian sports teams except the rugby sevens team after Commodore Frank Bainimarama's military takeover of the country in 2006.

Key says his Government had "softened" its stance on Fijian sports team since coming to power in last year's election in November, The Dominion Post reported.

"New Zealand has been effectively softening its sanctions in relation to sporting ties and the travel of sports teams."To all intents and purposes, since we've been the Government we've been signing off on sports teams either transiting to New Zealand or coming to engage in sports activities here."

However, a travel ban remains on members of Cdre Bainimarama's regime and their families coming to New Zealand. link....

JD Sports to enter French market

2009-05-20T05:19:00.000-07:00

Sportswear retailer JD Sports has bought its first stores outside the UK and Ireland with the acquisition of the French footwear company Chausport.
JD Sports said it paid 8m euros (£7m) in cash for the firm but added that it had acquired 2m euros of debt.
The retailer said Chausport's current management team would remain in place.
Chausport has 78 stores in France. The acquisition will give the British firm "a foothold in a new and sizeable European market", it said.
JD Sports has 400 outlets in the UK and Ireland.
Altium Securities analyst David Stoddart said the company had discussed the possibility of expansion earlier this year.
"This should not come as a surprise," he said.
"On the other hand, the deal takes it into France, a country that has not been kind to UK retailers in the past." link....

Bristol Palin graduates from high school

2009-05-17T09:41:00.001-07:00

WASILLA, Alaska - Gov. Sarah Palin's oldest daughter is now a high school graduate.
Palin family spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton says 18-year-old Bristol Palin received her Wasilla High School diploma Thursday night at a ceremony with her fellow classmates at the Wasilla Sports Complex.

The teenager gave birth in December to son Tripp but has since separated from Levi Johnston, the boy's father.

She is now a Teen Ambassador for The Candie's Foundation, an organization devoted to educating teenagers about the consequences of teen pregnancy.

Her mother in August was picked as the GOP nominee for vice president and shortly after announced her daughter was pregnant. link...

Nadal, Federer meet again to decide Madrid Masters crown

2009-05-17T09:39:00.001-07:00

The Spanish king of clay made another agonizing and heroic stand, saving three match points in a four-hour semifinal marathon to beat gallant Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (11/9).

The epic clash, which stretched deep into the evening, preceded Federer’s silky smooth 6-3, 6-4 win over Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, which finished in less time than one of Nadal’s sets.

World no. 1 Nadal, the winner of his last 33 claycourt contests, stretching back a year, confessed that his troublesome knees are a concern as he bids for his fourth straight clay title this spring.

Nadal stands a formidable 13-6 over Federer, winning five of their last six meetings including the Grand Slam finals in Paris, Wimbledon and Melbourne.

Federer dominated Del Potro in a tidy win in stark contrast to the Nadal-Djokovic rollercoaster.

The 13-time Grand Slam winner is still seeking his first title of the season, but is looking forward to the final.

Nadal came through on his second match point to claim his third win in a month over the third-seeded Djokovic at the Masters level after the Monte Carlo and Rome finals.

Nadal, who has not been beaten on clay since May 2008, in Rome, wrapped up the semifinal on his second match point to leave Djokovic physically and mentally shattered.

Djokovic, who would have reclaimed his world number three spot from Andy Murray, which he lost only last week, had he reached the final added: "I hope I’ll be ready for the French Open."

Djokovic showed he meant business after his recent losses to Nadal, earning the first break of the match in the second game off a double-fault.

The Serbian third seed kept up the attack on the world number one, reaching 4-1 on his way to the early lead.

But after losing his first set of the tournament, Nadal was in no mood for more home disappointment, saving two break points in the ninth game of the second for a 5-4 lead, eventually squaring the match with a tie breaker.

The third set only lifted the tension as Djokovic broke in the fourth game only to hand the advantage straight back in the fifth.

The final-set tie breaker provided all the drama possible for the sellout crowd of 15,000 as both men grappled for the win in the last tune-up before Roland Garros which starts on May 24.

Nadal has now reached his fourth claycourt final of the spring and took his career record over Djokovic to 14-4. The Spaniard improved to 19-0 on clay in 2009 and 150-4 since 2005. He lost his only clay semi-final out of 28 played back in 2003 as a teenager at Umag in Croatia. link...

Army to Ensure Protection of Civilions: Gen.Kayani

2009-05-17T09:38:00.001-07:00

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army Chief has directed the troops engaged in the counter-insurgency operation in Swat, to ensure protection of the local population.
Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaque Pervez Kayani has also directed the military to take care of the people migrating from the region.
Gen. Kayani said the Army was aware of the sensitive nature of the operation in Swat and other areas.
“The military has first time in its history offered its daily ration to the affected people,” Gen. Kayani said.
The ration will be sufficient for 80,000 people. link....

PAK Nuke Arsenal in Safe Hands, Asserts Musharraf

2009-05-17T09:37:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK: Former President Pervez Musharraf has said that the nuclear weapons of Pakistan are in safe hands; the Pakistani army is a highly organized institution and knows how to thwart all genres of threats.
Talking to media here, Musharraf said the way ultimately Pakistan army opted to counter insurgency was the only possible idea to tackle Talibanisation and ruled out the failure of Pakistan army in this connection.
“The situation was much more under control when I stepped down”, Musharraf asserted maintaining, “Now, the government and army will have to jointly devise a strategy to overcome militancy in Pakistan”.
The only way to end terrorism is to cease it to exist, he said.
When asked about the safety of Pakistan’s nukes, former president said, “Pakistani armed forces together with its people will never let nuclear weapons fall into the hands of extremist elements”. link...

10 dead, 20 injured in Peshawar car bomb blast

2009-05-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

PESHAWAR: At least ten persons including women and children died and twenty were injured in a car bomb blast on Circular Road in a thickly populated Berisco area at Kashkal here, when a bomb installed in a vehicle outside a net café near Bargain Centre detonated.
The school bus carrying 15 children passing by the place of incident was totally damaged. The scene of incident being a centrally located place was bustling with life and there was huge rush. The blast followed by heavy firing let loose a reign of terror all around.

Edhi sources said that 20 persons mostly children were injured in the incident. Among the injured shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital here, 8 persons were in critical condition, where emergency has been declared.

Several vehicles and the nearby buildings were also damaged. Bomb disposal squad and the police have arrived at the scene, while the security persons have besieged the area, but the people from nearby were seen crowding the place of incident. Eyewitnesses said that the blast target a net café, which was receiving threats for sometime. The net café was blown up by the incident.

Sources said that police have taken into custody three suspects from the scene of incident, ho have been shifted to an unknown place for interrogation. link...

President Obama, Pakistan nuclear assets are safe

2009-05-17T09:32:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON: Barack Obama US President said that he is confident that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is safe.

In an interview to a US journal Obama said that the Pakistan Army has been capable to protect the nuclear weapons from Taliban. “We have to respect sovereignty of Pakistan.”
Obama said it is encouraging for Washington the military has begun to realise that the extremists and not India, pose the biggest threat to Pakistan’s stability.
“United States as a partner trying for stabilization in Pakistan,” he added. link...

Pakistan unlikely to get drone: Report

2009-05-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

Pakistan is unlikely to get drones inspite of the strong plea made to the US by its President, Asif Ali Zardari, media reports said on Sunday.

"I want drones. I want transfer of technology so that I can manufacture them at home and use them myself," Zardari told 'The Sunday Times.'

However, the newspaper stated that Zardari "may get the cash but US President Barack Obama is less likely to accede to his wish of being given US drones, the unmanned spy planes used to target Al-Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

So far the US has carried out 18 missile attacks within Pakistan this year.

According to reports, for the first time, US shared surveillance data collected by drones with Pakistan but the co-operation is unlikely to go further.

Zardari has asked for them to fly under Pakistani auspices. "If the British police carry out an action here (in Britain) that's one thing, but imagine if the Australian police came in, the British people would not stand for it. That's the situation I am trying to make them understand." link...

Pakistan: Offensive kills 1,000+ alleged militants

2009-05-17T09:30:00.001-07:00

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani military offensive against Taliban fighters near the Afghan border has killed more than 1,000 suspected insurgents and "will continue till the last Taliban are flushed out," a top official said Sunday.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, speaking after visiting Pakistanis displaced by the battle, also wouldn't rule out extending the operation in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas to other parts of the northwest where al-Qaida and the Taliban have long thrived.
It was not possible to independently verify the figures provided by Malik because the territories bombarded over the past three weeks are too dangerous for journalists to freely roam. An army statement Sunday afternoon said 25 militants and a soldier had died in the previous 24 hours of the operation, and that security forces had surrounded and entered two key towns in Swat.
Malik's comments appeared designed to show resolve amid intense U.S. pressure on Islamabad to clear al-Qaida and Taliban havens along the border region, strongholds that threaten Afghan-based U.S. and NATO troops and nuclear-armed Pakistan itself.
"The operation is going in the right direction as we had planned," Malik said in a televised news conference from Mardan, a district hosting several relief camps for some of the nearly 1 million people turned refugees. "People wish to go back. That is what the government also wants. I cannot give a time but we will try (to complete the operation) at the earliest."
The Taliban's ability to overrun Swat, once of Pakistan's premier tourist destinations, had proved particularly embarrassing to the Pakistani military and the weak civilian government.
Many of the main militant safe havens, however, are in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal areas, with South Waziristan serving as the primary base for Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.
Britain's Sunday Times reported that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said military action would follow in the tribal belt.
"We're going to go into Waziristan, all these regions, with army operations," the newspaper quoted Zardari as saying in an interview. "Swat is just the start. It's a larger war to fight."
Zardari's spokesmen could not immediately be reached Sunday. Malik did not respond directly when asked about a potential extension.
"Wherever the government requires an operation, we will, God willing, do that," he said.
The operation has involved fighting in the Lower Dir and Buner districts that dates back to last month, but the offensive began in full force in Swat in early May.
Of the nearly 1 million civilians who have fled the affected areas, about 100,000 are now staying in sweltering relief camps. The military has warned that some militants are trying to flee as well, some after shaving off their beards to blend in with refugees.
The army statement Sunday said security forces were battling militants on the outskirts of Swat's main town, Mingora, where many of the estimated 4,000 Taliban fighters in the valley are believed to be holed up.
It said security forces had surrounded and entered the towns of Matta and Kanju to take on the militants, and it requested civilians still in those areas to stay away from the Taliban hide-outs. It also said troops were making gains in the remote Piochar area, the rear base of Swat Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah.
The military does not explain how it differentiates civilian from militant killings, and it has not released a civilian death toll, but witnesses have reported many innocent people have been wounded or killed.
In Pakistan's southern city of Karachi, meanwhile, police said a tip-off led them to arrest four alleged militants from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned group linked to both the Taliban and al-Qaida. The men are suspected of planning attacks on high-value targets in Karachi, senior police officer Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam said. link.....

Arab states discuss Israel concessions

2009-05-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

Talks are under way among several Arab states on measures that would reward Israel if Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, commits to a total freeze on the expansion of Jewish settlement as part of a comprehensive American Middle East peace plan.
According to people familiar with the talks, several Arab states are discussing a plan of action that could include stepped up contacts with the Jewish state, telecommunications links and airline access if the US can secure a genuine Israeli adherence to a complete settlements freeze on occupied Palestinian land.

The sources stress, however, that Arab concessions would have to follow the US articulating how to achieve a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with benchmarks for action on both sides.

The Arab moves are, moreover, predicated on a drastic change in Israeli policy. The current government has said repeatedly that it will not curb what it calls the ”natural growth” of West Bank settlements – a loophole that has allowed the settler population to continue to expand rapidly in recent years.

The talks come as Barack Obama, the US president, holds his first summit tomorrow with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, whose right wing government wants to continue expanding settlements and has yet to commit to the two-state solution.

Senior US officials, in turn, have made clear that the administration will take a tougher line on Israel on issues such as the peace process, which has raised concerns in Israel about a looming rift with the country’s most crucial ally.

Officials from pro-western states in the Arab world say the Obama administration provides a rare opportunity for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict and it should be supported if it exerts pressure on its Israeli ally. This is the message that King Abdullah, the Jordanian monarch, is believed to have delivered to Mr Obama in Washington last month.

Any moves taken by the Arab world, however, would involve a few countries, and not the whole 22-member Arab League, to avoid what would undoubtedly turn into a bitter dispute. Concessions would also not involve revising the 2002 Arab peace initiative. People familiar with the talks say that states in the Gulf and in North Africa are involved in the current discussions, in addition to Egypt and Jordan , which already have diplomatic ties with Israel .

Officials in the region will not publicly acknowledge that talks are under way. But Nader Dahabi, prime minister of Jordan , yesterday told a panel at the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea in Jordan , that if the peace process moves forward, there can be a “deposit that Arabs will go into confidence-building measures.”

Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary general, also told the FT that action can be taken by both sides if the atmosphere between Israel and its neighbours changes, but warned that the Arab world would not “pay anything upfront.”

Israel’s attempt to develop ties with Arab states - something which could help make Israelis feel more secure in and integrated within their neighbourhood - has faltered as the peace process has stalled.

Arab governments signed up in 2002 to the Arab peace initiative, a Saudi-sponsored plan that promises normalisation with Israel if peace agreements are reached with Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon , on the basis of an Israeli withdrawal from all lands occupied in 1967. Israel raised serious objections to the plan, particularly its call for a solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees.

Senior Arab officials say George Mitchell, the US envoy, has been asking Arab states to consider measures towards normalisation if a peace process is re-launched – and not reward Israel only when peace is achieved.

Normalisation, however, remains a taboo in the region, particularly as it is considered the most valuable card in a conflict in which Israel is the more powerful party. Any attempt to alter the Arab peace initiative would provoke dramatic splits in the Arab League. This is why developing some ties with Israel would be taken by like-minded countries, not the whole region.

Palestinians have long sought a stop on Jewish settlements on occupied land, which are illegal under international law, arguing that they prevent a contiguous Palestinian state from emerging.

Since the launch of the Oslo peace process in 1993, the number of settlers in the occupied West Bank has more than doubled, rising from 116,000 to 285,000 last year. In addition, there are now more than 180,000 Jewish settlers living in occupied East Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu goes to Washington after having met both Egypt ’s Hosni Mubarak and Jordan ’s King Abdullah. The Israeli leader’s message was that his coalition is fragile and could collapse if he were to embrace a settlement freeze or agree to discuss issues such as the fate of occupied Arab East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state.

According to one person with knowledge of the meeting in Egypt , President Mubarak told Mr Netanyahu that Israeli leaders have been making this argument for the last 25 years. link...

Congress eyes new allies for coalition after Indian election victory

2009-05-17T09:25:00.001-07:00

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) defied predictions of a tight election and was only 11 seats short of an outright majority from the 543 seats at stake in the Lok Sabha, or lower house of parliament, according to election commission data.
Top Congress leaders, including Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, Sonia Gandhi, the party chief, and Pranab Mukherjee, the foreign minister, met on Sunday to discuss potential allies.A strong Congress-led coalition, free of pressures from its former communist partners, has boosted the prospect of reforms to encourage growth in Asia's third largest economy.
The new government will also have a strong mandate to deal with security issues in a region overshadowed by instability in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Rahul Gandhi, the Congress dynasty scion credited with inspiring his party's biggest election victory since 1991, has been offered a cabinet post by Mr Singh.
The overwhelming margin by which Congress won has been attributed to Mr Gandhi's reforms of the party's neglected organisation and his strategic decision to shun seat-sharing deals with allies in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The strategy paid off handsomely, with Congress almost doubling its seats in Uttar Pradesh, while its alliance with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal defeated the Communist-led Left Front, which almost brought down the government last year when it resigned from the UPA in protest over the US nuclear deal.
Immediately following the result, Dr Manmohan Singh was reconfirmed as prime minister by Mrs Gandhi. In his first speech following the result, Dr Singh paid tribute to Rahul Gandhi's stewardship of the campaign and said he would try to persuade him to join his cabinet.
Mr Gandhi believes he has unfinished business in overhauling the Congress Party organisation, but his supporters now want him to enter the cabinet to prepare for his "destiny" as the country's prime minister.
On Sunday, Captain Satish Sharma, a close Gandhi family adviser and former Congress minister, called for Rahul Gandhi to follow in his grandfather Jawarharlal Nehru's footsteps by becoming India's foreign minister.
"I'm advising him to take a cabinet post and I think he should take what Jawarharlal Nehru was, external affairs minister, as well as prime minister. Rahul can do more for India as foreign minister.
"One hundred percent he will be prime minister one day. With more than 200 seats, he could be now if he wanted to. But he wants Manmohan Singh as PM. I'm going to try to persuade him to take foreign affairs," he told The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Gandhi's sister, Priyanka, on Sunday backed her brother as a future prime minister. "Yes, providing he works hard towards it, goes through the grind and providing he deserves it," she said. link...

Sri Lanka rebels 'call ceasefire'

2009-05-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

Tamil rebels trapped in a tiny enclave of northern Sri Lanka have declared a ceasefire, a rebel spokesman says.
The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) had given up their fight against a major government offensive and "decided to silence our guns", he said on a pro-Tamil website.
"This battle has reached its bitter end," said Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the Tigers' chief of international relations, in a statement on Tamilnet.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already claimed victory in the 26-year war.
A later statement on the Tamilnet website appeared to modify the rebel position.
Mr Pathmanathan said the LTTE was "prepared to silence its guns if that is what needed by the international community to save the life and dignity of the Tamil people".
See a map of the conflict region
"In the past 24 hours, over 3,000 civilians lie dead on the streets while another 25,000 are critically injured with no medical attention," said the statement.
A senior Sri Lankan media spokesman told the BBC the government did not respond to documents posted on Tamilnet or take them seriously.
Lakshman Hulugalle said the government was waiting for an official "request" from the LTTE.
Civilians trapped
In contrast, Sri Lanka military officials said earlier that all the civilians who had been trapped in Sri Lanka's northern war zone had escaped.
The government rejected the ceasefire calls, saying that as all trapped civilians had now fled from the area of conflict, there was no reason to stop its offensive.Army spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said some 50,000 ethnic Tamils had fled the area over the past three days.
Like all accounts from the war zone, neither claim can be independently verified.
Fighting is still continuing, but there has been no sign of the Tigers' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Sri Lankan defence minister told the BBC.
For months, tens of thousands of Tamil civilians have been trapped in the war zone, vulnerable to bombardments as the government and Tamil Tiger rebels fought bitterly.
The United Nations says they were being forcibly kept there by the rebels and that more than 6,000 have been killed since January.
The UN has told the BBC the army figures reinforced its view that Sri Lanka's authorities were ill-prepared for the huge influx of internally displaced people.
Refugee camps inland are already badly strained accommodating the huge numbers of those who have fled the conflict.
Rebels 'cornered'
Both the UN and Western governments have called on Sri Lanka to exercise restraint in its pursuit of a military victory over the Tigers. link...

Taming of Tamil Tigers threatens to breed fiercer creatures

2009-05-17T09:23:00.001-07:00

Thousands of Sri Lankans are celebrating their government's military victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa expected to tell the country on national television on Tuesday that the war is over. On the ground, the rebels have admitted that their 25-year struggle for a Tamil homeland has reached "its bitter end".

However, the victory has come at a high price in terms of civilan life and damage to Colombo's international reputation. According to UN figures, an estimated 7,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed between 20 January, when a military offensive pushed back the rebels into a tiny enclave in the north-east, and 7 May.

Although the military largely blocked the world's media from covering the carnage in the so-called no-fire zone, some TV images have conveyed part of the horror, showing civilians making a desperate break across a lagoon to escape the last strip of land controlled by the rebels.

Doctors have recounted the cries of the wounded at a makeshift hospital thart they had to abandon because of continual artillery shelling – bombardments denied by the Sri Lankan military. UN officials and human rights groups have been horrified at the disregard for civilians on both sides, particularly in the final stages of the conflict.

Despite pleas from the US president, Barack Obama, and the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, Colombo has zealously pursued its objective of wiping out the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) once and for all.

For Rajapaksa, military victory is the climax of his election campaign in November 2005, when he ruled out autonomy for Tamils – a harbinger of the military option.

Rajapaksa has been able to dress up the offensive as part of the global fight against terrorism. There is little sympathy for the Tigers. A ruthless group, listed as a terrorist organisation by both the US and the EU, the Tigers pioneered suicide attacks, carried out assassinations and stand accused of using civilians in the war zone as human shields and shooting those who tried to flee.

However, such tactics provide no excuse for the Sri Lankan government's blatant disreguard for the plight of civilians. While many Tamils are appalled by the Tigers' tactics, they also harbour deep grievances about their treatment by the Sinhalese majority. Analysts claim the government's conduct has hardened an already humiliated Tamil diaspora, storing trouble for the future.

"If the Tigers' leadership is removed or killed in a government assault, it's easy to imagine one of the newly energised generation stepping in to fill the void," said Robert Templer, of the International Crisis Group thinktank.

"The dream of an independent Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka resonates powerfully across the diaspora and will certainly live on even after the defeat of the LTTE as a conventional military force. The deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians – while their family members watch from afar – is a recipe for another, possibly more explosive, generation of terrorism."

For now, the Sri Lankan government has prevailed, militarily. It has a huge humanitarian problem on its hands, with tens of thousands of displaced civilians to care for, and it will need international aid. For western leaders who have urged restraint, this is the time to call on Rajapaksa to address Tamil demands for devolution of power and language rights now that the military conflict is over. link...

Citing Auschwitz, Pope Assails Hatred

2009-05-15T08:12:00.001-07:00

TEL AVIV — Recalling a visit to the Auschwitz death camp, Pope Benedict XVI wound up a sometimes fraught and often politically charged trip to Israel and the West Bank on Friday with a call for peace and a plea that the Holocaust — “that appalling chapter in history” — must “never be forgotten or denied.”But, as he has since he arrived from Jordan on Monday on his first trip to the Holy Land as pope, he avoided evoking his German nationality and his personal history in Nazi Germany as some Israelis had demanded. Rather, he blamed the Holocaust on “a godless regime.”

The pope has sought to walk a narrow line between the tripwires of Middle East politics, addressing the concerns of Israelis and of Palestinians. As he left, he spoke in a farewell statement from Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport of the separation barrier that Israel has built to fence itself off from Palestinian areas, saying it was “one of the saddest sights for me during my visit to these lands.”

He added: “No friend can fail to weep at the suffering and loss of life that both peoples have endured over the last six decades. Allow me to make this appeal to all the people of these lands: No more bloodshed! No more fighting! No more terrorism! No more war! Instead let us break the vicious circle of violence.”

But he used his most direct and personal language when he recalled one of his first acts after his arrival here when he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and met survivors “who suffered the evils of the Shoah.”

“Those deeply moving encounters brought back memories of my visit three years ago to the death camp at Auschwitz, where so many Jews — mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends — were brutally exterminated under a godless regime that propagated an ideology of anti-Semitism and hatred,” he said.

“That appalling chapter in history must never be forgotten or denied,” he said. “On the contrary, those dark memories should strengthen our determination to draw closer to one another as branches of the same olive tree, nourished from the same roots and united in brotherly love.”

Earlier Friday, the pontiff walked into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem accompanied by a traditional escort of men in black robes and red fezzes rhythmically banging staffs on the ground to announce his approach, The Associated Press reported.

Benedict knelt down and kissed the rectangular stone on which Jesus’ body is believed to have been placed after the crucifixion. Then he entered the structure inside the church marking the site of Jesus’ tomb and knelt inside alone for several minutes, hands clasped, as priests chanted nearby.

In a speech afterward, he told those gathered in the church not to lose hope.

“The Gospel reassures us that God can make all things new, that history need not be repeated, that memories can be healed, that the bitter fruits of recrimination and hostility can be overcome, and that a future of justice, peace, prosperity and cooperation can arise for every man and woman, for the whole human family, and in a special way for the people who dwell in this land so dear to the heart of the Savior,” he said, The A.P. reported.

The language he used in addressing the Holocaust in his farewell remarks later seemed less emotive than in May 2006, when Benedict prayed at the cells and crematories of the Auschwitz camp on a visit he called “particularly difficult and troubling for a Christian, for a pope from Germany.”

“Words fail,” Benedict said at that time. The pope was born Joseph Ratzinger in Bavaria in 1927. The son of a policeman, he was inducted into the Hitler Youth and the German Army — biographical details that he has not recalled during his Middle East journey but that some Israelis have.

“In the end, there can only be a dread silence, a silence that itself is a heartfelt cry to God,” Benedict said in 2006. “Why, Lord, did you remain silent?” he said, his voice trembling. “How could you tolerate this?”

At that time — one year into his papacy — he did not seek forgiveness for Germans or the Roman Catholic church during World War II. He laid the blame squarely on the Nazi regime, avoiding the painful but now common acknowledgment among many Germans that ordinary citizens also shared responsibility.

In 2006, he said he went to Auschwitz “as a son of the German people, a son of that people over which a ring of criminals rose to power by false promises of future greatness and the recovery of the nation’s honor, prominence and prosperity, but also through terror and intimidation.”

But the pope’s attitude to the Holocaust resonated strongly during his visit here, just four months after he provoked outrage by revoking the excommunication of four schismatic bishops, one of whom, a Briton, Richard Williamson, has denied the scope of the Holocaust. Benedict’s words on Friday seemed a direct rebuttal of attempts to minimize or deny the Holocaust.

The pope’s visit has rarely been free of a political edge. On Thursday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, urged him to denounce Iran. A day earlier, the pope visited a Palestinian refugee camp, calling for the creation of a Palestinian state — a policy not endorsed by Mr. Netanyahu’s hawkish Likud Party.

In his departure remarks, Benedict repeatedly referred to the stark symbolism of the separation barrier built by Israel beginning in 2002. He crossed the barrier in his motorcade when he visited Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus, on Wednesday.

“As I passed alongside it,” he said, “I prayed for a future in which the peoples of the Holy Land can live together in peace and harmony without the need for such instruments of security and separation, but rather respecting and trusting one another and renouncing all forms of violence and aggression.” link...

Nobel committee blasts Aung San Suu Kyi treatment

2009-05-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

OSLO -- The Nobel Peace Prize awards committee issued a rare public statement Friday to condemn the imprisonment of 1991 peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and to demand her immediate release.

The 63-year-old opposition leader was jailed on Thursday on charges of violating her house arrest. She has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention without trial for her nonviolent promotion of democracy.

The secretive Nobel committee traditionally does not comment on past laureates. However, its non-voting secretary Geir Lundestad said they are deeply concerned about Suu Kyi and had made earlier appeals on her behalf.

"We sent this because it is a matter of the life and health of a laureate," Lundestad told The Associated Press.The five-member committee said in the statement that it "protests strongly against the way in which the government of Myanmar (Burma) has treated Aung San Suu Kyi. Her recent detention in prison is totally unacceptable. She has done nothing wrong."

Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy won national elections in 1990, but the military junta refused to relinquish power. She was not able to attend her Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony because she was under house arrest, so her son Alexander Aris accepted the prize for her in 1991.

"The unacceptable treatment of her has to come to an immediate end. Recent reports about Aung San Suu Kyi's health are of great concern. We demand that she be given the necessary medical assistance without delay," said the Nobel committee. link...

How ObamaCare Will Affect Your Doctor

2009-05-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

At the heart of President Barack Obama's health-care plan is an insurance program funded by taxpayers, administered by Washington, and open to everyone. Modeled on Medicare, this "public option" will soon become the single dominant health plan, which is its political purpose. It will restructure the practice of medicine in the process.

Chad Crowe
Republicans and Democrats agree that the government's Medicare scheme for compensating doctors is deeply flawed. Yet Mr. Obama's plan for a centrally managed government insurance program exacerbates Medicare's problems by redistributing even more income away from lower-paid primary care providers and misaligning doctors' financial incentives.

Like Medicare, the "public option" will control spending by using its purchasing clout and political leverage to dictate low prices to doctors. (Medicare pays doctors 20% to 30% less than private plans, on average.) While the public option is meant for the uninsured, employers will realize it's easier -- and cheaper -- to move employees into the government plan than continue workplace coverage.

The Lewin Group, a health-care policy research and consulting firm, estimates that enrollment in the public option will reach 131 million people if it's open to everyone and pays Medicare rates, as many expect. Fully two-thirds of the privately insured will move out of or lose coverage. As patients shift to a lower-paying government plan, doctors' incomes will decline by as much as 15% to 20% depending on their specialty.

Physician income declines will be accompanied by regulations that will make practicing medicine more costly, creating a double whammy of lower revenue and higher practice costs, especially for primary-care doctors who generally operate busy practices and work on thinner margins. For example, doctors will face expenses to deploy pricey electronic prescribing tools and computerized health records that are mandated under the Obama plan. For most doctors these capital costs won't be fully covered by the subsidies provided by the plan.

Government insurance programs also shift compliance costs directly onto doctors by encumbering them with rules requiring expensive staffing and documentation. It's a way for government health programs like Medicare to control charges. The rules are backed up with threats of arbitrary probes targeting documentation infractions. There will also be disproportionate fines, giving doctors and hospitals reason to overspend on their back offices to avoid reprisals.

The 60% of doctors who are self-employed will be hardest hit. That includes specialists, such as dermatologists and surgeons, who see a lot of private patients. But it also includes tens of thousands of primary-care doctors, the very physicians the Obama administration says need the most help.

Doctors will consolidate into larger practices to spread overhead costs, and they'll cram more patients into tight schedules to make up in volume what's lost in margin. Visits will be shortened and new appointments harder to secure. It already takes on average 18 days to get an initial appointment with an internist, according to the American Medical Association, and as many as 30 days for specialists like obstetricians and neurologists.

Right or wrong, more doctors will close their practices to new patients, especially patients carrying lower paying insurance such as Medicaid. Some doctors will opt out of the system entirely, going "cash only." If too many doctors take this route the government could step in -- as in Canada, for example -- to effectively outlaw private-only medical practice.

These changes are superimposed on a payment system where compensation often bears no connection to clinical outcomes. Medicare provides all the wrong incentives. Its charge-based system pays doctors more for delivering more care, meaning incomes rise as medical problems persist and decline when illness resolves.

So how should we reform our broken health-care system? Rather than redistribute physician income as a way to subsidize an expansion of government control, Mr. Obama should fix the payment system to align incentives with improved care. After years of working on this problem, Medicare has only a few token demonstration programs to show for its efforts. Medicare's failure underscores why an inherently local undertaking like a medical practice is badly managed by a remote and political bureaucracy.

But while Medicare has stumbled with these efforts, private health plans have made notable progress on similar payment reforms. Private plans are more likely to lead payment reform efforts because they have more motivation than Medicare to use pay as a way to achieve better outcomes.

Private plans already pay doctors more than Medicare because they compete to attract higher quality providers into their networks. This gives them every incentive, as well as added leverage, to reward good clinicians while penalizing or excluding bad ones. A recent report by PriceWaterhouse Coopers that examined 10 of the nation's largest commercial health plans found that eight had implemented performance-based pay measures for doctors. All 10 plans are expanding efforts to monitor quality improvement at the provider level.

Among the promising examples of private innovation in health-care delivery: In Pennsylvania, the Geisinger Clinic's "warranty" program, where providers take financial responsibility for the entire episode of care; or the experience of the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Virginia, where doctors are paid more for delivering better outcomes.

There are plenty of alternatives to Mr. Obama's plan that expand coverage to the uninsured, give them the chance to buy private coverage like Congress enjoys, and limit government management over what are inherently personal transactions between doctors and patients.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D., N.Y.) has introduced a bipartisan measure, the Small Business Cooperative for Healthcare Options to Improve Coverage for Employees (Choice) Act of 2009, that would make it cheaper and easier for small employers to offer health insurance. Mr. Obama would also get bipartisan compromise on premium support for people priced out of insurance to give them a wider range of choices. This could be modeled after the Medicare drug benefit, which relies on competition between private plans to increase choices and hold down costs. It could be funded, in part, through tax credits targeted to lower-income Americans.

There are also measures available that could fix structural flaws in our delivery system and make coverage more affordable without top-down controls set in Washington. The surest way to intensify flaws in the delivery of health care is to extend a Medicare-like "public option" into more corners of the private market. More government control of doctors and their reimbursement schemes will only create more problems. link...

What's Your Idea of the Perfect Mother's Day Gift?

2009-05-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

Are you a hard-working mom looking forward to Mother's Day? What's on the top of your list of best gifts for a mom this Mother's Day?ABCNews.com wants to hear from you. Please share your story by filling out the form below. An excerpt from your response may be used in a future ABCNews.com story or an ABCNews.com producer may contact you for more information. link...

Mothers’ Day: Say I Love You

2009-05-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

Dimapur | May 9: Philosophers have talked at great length their great roles; poets have sung praises of their love and caring nature; sculptors have immortalized their beauty in their works. And still words often fail to describe the love and care of a mother: Mothers’ Day, the time for everyone to honor their mothers for their eternal love. Just say, ‘I love you.’
While Dimapur city teemed with shoppers, card-sellers did brisk business selling Mothers’ Day cards. Families everywhere, especially children, secretly went about trying to surprise their mothers with a special gift on the special occasion. Perhaps, a simple gift it may be, but meaningful for that special woman in the family called ‘Mom’. “We were just sitting together here (at home) just discussing and talking how fortunate that we are with our mother,” said a government employee in Dimapur, whose father expired a few years ago. “Even my nephew has made a handmade card and presented it to my mother…for him it is his granny but she is like his mom (for his mother is dead),” she added, while wishing not to be named.
“For a mother she suffers and still feel great till her last breath,” said a single mother of two residing in Duncan Basti whose husband has also expired. She maintained that right from the time she carried her babies and their birth, she felt “great”, and still feels happy to look after her children. Tomorrow, she would quietly spend the day with her 78-year old mother.
The president of the Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA), Khesheli Chishi said mothers hold a huge responsibility in the family. “Nobody can take the role of a mother, when it comes to children,” the NMA president said while making a wish that all Naga mothers would know their responsibilities as a homemaker and have fear of God in their hearts.
While traditionally, mothers have been seen to take the role of staying at home and take care of children; modern day Naga mothers have dared to come out of this traditionalist notion and have taken up more responsible roles in the society. Starting from responsible positions in the government, private offices or NGOs, women, or for that matter, mothers, have taken on the mantle of bringing about active change in the society, besides taking care of their families side by side with their husbands.
Despite all these roles which mothers have taken up, there can’t be a time when your mother is not there by your side in sickness, sorrow and happiness; she is the perfect person to share moments with and is someone who would never do anything bad for you. “I don’t have any other wish just that I have my mom there for me,” said journalist when queried to make a wish on Mothers’ Day.
Perhaps it might be just another ordinary day for many, but it is a day nonetheless to express ‘I love you’ to a person who has to be loved for simply being the person that she is- mother. So don’t lose that chance. link...

Record crowd for Mother's Day Classic

2009-05-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

More than 2,500 people have turned out for the Mothers' Day Classic walk and run in Hobart.

The national event raises money for breast cancer research.

Perfect weather greeted hundreds of runners early this morning who lined up for the eight and four kilometre races on Hobart's domain.

Organisers struggled to keep up with those registering for the four kilometre walk, eventually running out of numbering bibs.

One of the organisers Alison Dixon says the turn out was overwhelming.

"Just amazing, I'm one of the very lucky people who gets to stand on the stage and watch the crowd and in the walk today we believe we have over 1800 people so it's absolutely fantastic," Ms Dixon said..

It's hoped $30,000 will be raised from today's event. link...

Andy Flower hopes England's thrashing of West Indies is not a seasonal blip

2009-05-09T21:31:00.002-07:00

It was the perfect start for Andy Flower in his first Test as the official head honcho. West Indies were swept aside by two of his new brooms, Ravi Bopara and Graham Onions, and at last, after 15 attempts England had won the first Test of a series.

Flower may be a novice when it comes to international coaching, but he does not sound like one. After trooping around the Caribbean without a Test win he must have been mightily relieved by the outcome at Lord's, but an hour after the victory he was as measured and analytical as we have come to expect.

"I'm very pleased," Flower said, "but it's only a start, the first Test of a very busy summer." Yet now his regime has an impetus, which has come from the new boys, plucked out by Flower and his fellow selectors.

"Its more important for them than me," he said. "They should be proud of how they handled the situation. Brezy [Tim Bresnan] did not have much of a go, but they all mixed in easily and I'd also like to congratulate the senior members of the side for giving them such a seamless welcome."

Flower is not a man who uses superlatives wantonly – though he is more likely to employ them than Duncan Fletcher – but he could have hardly have been more impressed by the man who has resolved England's No3 conundrum.

"Ravi handled the transition from Twenty20 to Test cricket very well. He left the ball beautifully; he moved his feet beautifully. His innings was lovely to watch in that it was like an artist painting a picture.

"I rate him highly talent-threshold-wise [this was Flower's only excursion into modern coach-speak]. But only he will determine how far he goes," a phrase Flower often uses about his players. "I like his attitude. He has assurance in a nice way. He has confidence rather than arrogance. The blend is right and he's a popular member of the dressing room as a result.

"I think he enjoyed the drama of approaching a hundred. He said that he wanted to get there with a single so he could run to the other end. That showed how clearly he was thinking."

"I first saw him in the nets at Essex when he was 17 and I liked what I saw straightaway. He can be tight enough for No3 and he can play a variety of innings.

"He leaves well and can defend but he can accelerate with that on-drive as his signature shot." There are echoes of Tendulkar when he plays that stroke, which is hardly surprising when you consider who he modelled his game on.

Now he is mixing with the best in the world and Flower is aware of the benefits. "Ravi mentioned that he came out of the IPL feeling more relaxed about his game after playing with and against so many great players, watching how they behave in the dressing room, how they practise. But I stick by what I said before the Test: coming straight from Twenty20 to Test cricket is not ideal."

Bopara will surely have a long England career. Onions may do. There have been meteors of his type before, revelling in spring conditions at Lord's and Chester-le-Street. Ed Giddins took 12 wickets in four Tests at an average of 20, Richard Johnson 16 wickets in three at 17. Giddins may have lacked the dedication for international sport; Johnson's body was quick to rebel. Onions has the potential to last much longer.

Flower is young enough to have faced him in first-class cricket. "I like Onions's character," he said. "He can be fiery and aggressive and I don't think he gives up easily. And he keeps his feet on the floor."

So England head north in buoyant mood with their squad to be named this morning. The temptation to focus on the Ashes is intruding. "We have not talked about the Ashes series in detail but we have had a few thoughts and discussions. We aim high. We want to win the Twenty20 World Cup and [to the inevitable question] yes, I do believe we can win the Ashes."

Flower also patted away the Andrew Flintoff question, the suggestion, which the statistics can support, that England play better in his absence. "No, we are not better without Flintoff. He is a good man and has been a great player for England." Certainly Flintoff, if fit, offers more than Bresnan just now.

Logically England should take another batsman to Chester-le Street to give maximum flexibility to captain and coach. The pitch there is traditionally more bowler-friendly than the one at Lord's, where Bresnan was an onlooker. So they should keep all options open.

But strategically they may not want to pick one, though by taking this course they are in danger of underestimating the West Indies. If Australia were the opponents at Chester-le-Street a sixth batsman would definitely be on hand. Their dilemma is this: Michael Vaughan has not scored the runs; Ian Bell, the likeliest addition, has not quite served his penance and goodness knows where Owais Shah is. So while they should pick an extra batsman, they might not bother

As for the West Indies they have a massive task to convince themselves that they can prevail in England at this time of year. Leaving aside the problems of an absentee captain, frailty against the moving ball, fallible catching and an attack overly dependent upon Fidel Edwards, it is usually bloody cold in Durham in May.

Chris Gayle did not deny how alien the prevailing conditions are for his team. "Even when I was batting at Lord's, I was still cold. When that wind hits you and you get water in the eyes, well, that makes a difference." But even if the temperature rises the momentum now is with an England team that has started to satisfy one of Flower's criteria – "it should always be hard to force your way in." Vaughan, Bell and Steve Harmison, take note. link...

Hubble ready for final service

2009-05-09T21:31:00.001-07:00

NASA will on Monday launch the shuttle Atlantis and seven astronauts into orbit on a high-risk last service mission to one of the greatest scientific instruments ever, the space telescope Hubble.

There is no room for error, the US space agency warned this week, in the fifth and final maintenance operation on the Hubble before the shuttle fleet is retired.

If all goes well, NASA says the telescope's long-overdue service will extend the star-gazer's life by at least five years.

"If successful we will be entering our second quarter century. That's not bad for a mission that we hoped will last for 10 to 15 years," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA'S science missions directorate.

Hubble "will be more powerful and robust than ever before and will continue to enable world class science for at least another five years an overlap with the James Webb Space Telescope" its successor, he added.

Launched in 1990, Hubble has long been considered the greatest tool in the history of astronomy.

Using powerful instruments to peer into deep space, it has provided profound insights into the origins and evolution of the universe.

A journey to the 11-ton Hubble carries more risk of being hit by space debris or micrometeorites than a flight to the International Space Station, as the telescope orbits at almost twice the height of the ISS.

But officials hope the nearly 11-day mission will allow Hubble to keep functioning until 2014, when it is due to be replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope, a highly sophisticated space telescope with an eagle-eye camera.

The mission launch is scheduled for 1801 GMT Monday from the Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral, Florida.

But even before undertaking the challenging task of carrying out a maintenance job 575 kilometres above Earth, NASA has left itself only a limited window for a launch.

The shuttle must liftoff on either May 11, 12 or 13 because planned military launch activities would block all other launches until May 22.

Hubble's servicing will entail five space walks, each lasting up to seven hours. Crew members plan to replace the telescope's six gyroscopes and batteries and upgrade its optical instruments.

The crew will carry out a variety of tasks including replacing electronic circuit boards, said scientist Dave Leckrone.

Astronauts will also install a new imaging camera and a Cosmic Origins Spectrograph -- an especially sensitive instrument designed to split light it captures into individual wavelengths.

The spectrograph, NASA says, will not only be able to study stars, planets and galaxies but also basic elements found throughout the cosmos, such as carbon and iron.

And the new instruments will allow Hubble to peer even further back into time, perhaps as far back as some 600 million years before the Big Bang, much further than the billion years it can reach back now.

The maintenance is overdue after the years-long delay for US space flights since the 2003 Columbia disaster that saw the shuttle disintegrate as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crewmembers.

Last year a flight by the shuttle Atlantis to the telescope had to be twice rescheduled after it had a computer failure on board.

NASA announced this week that the IMAX Corporation and the filmmaking Warner Bros. company will launch IMAX 3-D cameras with the shuttle to document the mission.

Astronauts will use the cameras during the five spacewalks and, along with the telescope's astounding array of images of distant galaxies, the footage will be released next year as the movie "Hubble 3D." AFP link..

Drone strike kills nine in Waziristan

2009-05-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

PESHAWAR - At least nine militants were killed and 11 others injured when the US forces camping across the border in Afghanistan fired missiles at a compound from two drones in Shamanki-Kharerai area near Laddha South Waziristan Agency on Saturday.
Those killed and injured included foreign militants. As per details, militants' compound established in a school at Shamankai-Kharerai in Sararogha Tehsil, was targeted with missiles through drones. The local tribesmen informed that from four to six missiles were fired against the compound, used for training and shelter of the militants in the area.
Soon after the missile strike, the site came under siege of the militants and they did not permit the local people to enter or contribute to the rescue activities.
The locals said that nine people were killed and 11 others injured. Conditions of several injured were stated to be serious. The identity of those killed and injured has not been ascertained so far.
However, local tribesmen believe that a number of non-local and foreigners were killed and injured in the missile attack. The site was in occupation of the militants from last several months. link...

EU presidency plans first summit with Pakistan

2009-05-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

The European Union plans to hold the bloc's first ever summit with Pakistan in June to "help strengthen the civilian government" there, an EU presidency source said Saturday.
The decision to hold the summit is also "a testament to the political importance the EU attaches to its relationship with the country," the Czech EU presidency source said.
"This is the first EU Pakistan summit ever to be held, the EU wants to help strengthen the civilian government in Pakistan by showing strong support on the highest level," added the source for the Czech presidency, which will hand the European Union's reins over to Sweden in July.
Among the subjects mooted for the summit, provisionally planned for June 17, are the fight against terrorism -- including in neighbouring Afghanistan -- as well as enhanced cooperation in the field of the rule of law and trade issues.
The European Union and the United States have in recent months showed a growing urgency to boost ties with Pakistan amid fears of increasing Islamic militancy and due to its strategic importance to the US-led action in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's mountainous border region with Afghanistan is an Al-Qaeda haven.
US President Barack Obama has pledged a new focus on fighting Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists in the region.
A key US senator on Thursday pledged quick action on a giant aid package to stabilize Pakistan as a committee cleared an early one billion dollars to support the insurgency-hit US ally.
Last December European nations signalled their wish to reinforce links with Pakistan.
"The European Union stands ready to strengthen bilateral relations with Pakistan and to look for possible ways of increasing its financial assistance to the country," EU foreign ministers said in a statement then.
The 27 EU nations agree that cooperation should be boosted in the areas of trade and development, intercultural exchange, non-proliferation, human rights, migration, counterterrorism and education.
The EU has sent some 500 million euros in aid to Pakistan since 1976, according to the European Commission, and has quadrupled its funding for the 2007-2010 period, with 50 million euros (65 million dollars) earmarked so far.
Brussels wants to target Pakistan's lawless border areas with Afghanistan with its aid, focusing on rural development, natural resources management, education and the development of human resources.
Britain is championing a free-trade deal with Islamabad. link...

Netanyahu to urge Egypt, Jordan to help Israel counteract Iran

2009-05-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will tell Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah II at meetings this week that they need to work with Israel to counteract the Iranian nuclear threat.

At the talks, which come before Netanyahu's May 18 meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Netanyahu is expected to brief Arab leaders on preliminary details of Israel's policy toward the Palestinians.

A source close to Netanyahu said on Saturday that the premier would tell Mubarak and Abdullah that the Iranian regime was attempting to use nuclear weapons to impose its agenda on the region, and that it could be stopped by working together. Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive on Monday at Sharm el-Sheikh, where he will meet with Mubarak in the presidential compound. Netanyahu will be joined by Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who is on good terms with Mubarak and Egyptian intelligence chief General Omar Suleiman. Ben-Eliezer has been sending messages to Cairo for Netanyahu over the past few weeks.

Netanyahu's bureau has been discussing possible dates for a meeting with King Abdullah. The meeting may be held on Wednesday or on Friday morning.

"The timetable is very crowded, but we are making every effort to hold a meeting before the prime minister's trip to Washington," a government source in Jerusalem said.

Abdullah invited Netanyahu to take part in the Davos Forum discussions scheduled for this weekend on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea, and to meet on the sidelines. However, Netanyahu may have to decline the invitation due to his trip to Washington.

Netanyahu told Israeli Russian-language journalists Thursday that he would not stop settlement building designed to meet natural population growth. "When the demand is made to freeze construction in the settlements entirely, I always ask, what are the children of the settlers to do? Live on the roof or underground?"

No preconditions for PA talks

Netanyahu also told reporters that he would not present preconditions for negotiations with the Palestinians, and would not accept preconditions from them.

On the possibility of talks with Syria, Netanyahu said Israel would never withdraw from the Golan because the region was strategic for Israel's security.

The prime minister stressed that he is ready to stand up to U.S. President Barack Obama and that he would not give up on matters he believes are critical to Israel's security.

Netanyahu said he intends to emphasize to Obama the need to deal with Iran and its "nuclear program, which is a major obstacle to peace in the Middle East."

"If Iran turns into a nuclear power, it will force all Arab states to ally with it, and the extreme Iranian regime that revealed its plan to eliminate Israel will not allow Arab states to normalize relations with Israel," Netanyahu said. link..

Firefighters gain upper hand over California blaze

2009-05-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

Thousands of residents forced to flee a wildfire raging in California returned home as cooler weather allowed firefighters to gain the upper hand on the blaze.
A moist layer of marine mist from the Pacific Ocean had drifted over the coastal town of Santa Barbara after days of sizzling temperatures and powerful local gusts sent the fire roaring out of control.
The benign weather enabled firefighters to increase containment of the blaze to 40 percent, officials said. So far, the flames have destroyed or damaged some 80 homes and scorched 8,700 acres (3,500 hectares).
Fire officials expressed optimism that the weather break would see them make further inroads into the blaze, which was now burning away from Santa Barbara and into unpopulated mountain areas.
"We're going from a defensive in the past few days to an offensive," said fire commander Kevin Wallace. "We're going to start chasing the fire and not have it chase us."
Fire commanders said the fire could be fully contained by Wednesday but cautioned that the weather conditions which fueled the fire could return.
"The weather tends to be a little fickle around here, so we're keeping our guard up," Santa Barbara County Deputy Fire Chief Chris Hahn.
Later Saturday, officials said most mandatory evacuation orders -- which had forced 30,500 people to leave their homes -- had been lifted. Residents were allowed to return in phases throughout the day.
"I don't have the exact figures, but the bulk of the people that have been displaced are now going to be able to go home," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at an emergency shelter to applause from evacuees.
Around 15,000 people were given the green light to return home.
An army of around 4,300 firefighters tackled the fire Saturday. Fourteen air tankers, including a retardant-dropping DC-10 jet plane, and 15 helicopters were bombarding the fire in a sustained aerial assault.
So far, 13 mostly minor injuries have been reported in the fire, including three firefighters, who were overrun by flames on Wednesday. Two of the men are still being treated for burns while the third has been released.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declared a state of emergency in the region earlier this week, toured an evacuation center Saturday along with actor Rob Lowe, one of many celebrities who live in the region.
California is frequently hit by scorching wildfires due to its dry climate, winds and recent housing booms that have seen home construction spread rapidly into rural and densely forested areas.
In 2007, California suffered devastation from wildfires among the worst in its history that left eight people dead, gutted 2,000 homes, displaced 640,000 people and caused one billion dollars in damage.
Last November, at least 100 homes were destroyed by a wildfire in the celebrity enclave of Montecito near Santa Barbara. link...

Week's Best: Holy Site Prayer, More

2009-05-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

A Christian pilgrim prays near the Cenacle, traditionally believed to be the site of the Last Supper, in the Tomb of David complex near Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. Pope Benedict XVI will visit Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories during his eight-day Holy Land tour that began Friday, May 8. It's only the second official papal visit to the Jewish state and comes nine years after a groundbreaking trip by Pope John Paul II. link...

Zuma to announce South African cabinet on Sunday

2009-05-09T21:10:00.001-07:00

South African President Jacob Zuma names his cabinet Sunday, with investors eager to know the fate of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, widely considered a deft handler of the economy.

Zuma faces pressure to appoint effective ministers who can deliver on the ruling ANC's promises to tackle widespread poverty, crime and AIDS and create jobs.

He said in his inauguration speech Saturday the country should acknowledge it faces tough economic times and will not be spared the impact of the global credit crunch.

Manuel could stay in his post or be transferred to a powerful new planning commission. A transfer would be welcomed by markets provided it kept him at the heart of policy-making.

Stacking his cabinet with loyalists could undermine the credibility of Zuma, who has told ANC officials they should not expect jobs just because they supported him.

Zuma won a wide mandate in the ruling African National Congress' (ANC) April 22 landslide election victory. His toughest task may be balancing the interests of unions and communists who helped him rise to the top against those of investors who fear he will steer the economy to the left.

One of the most divisive figures in South African politics, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has returned from the political wilderness after a fraud conviction to appear alongside Zuma at party rallies, and may well join the cabinet.

Feared by investors for her old-style revolutionary rhetoric, Nelson Mandela's ex-wife is unlikely to secure a high-profile ministry. But her return to prominence may provide clues about Zuma's focus and priorities.

Accused by critics of embarrassing South Africa by backing governments with dubious human rights records, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also has a frosty relationship with her ex-husband Zuma, and may get the boot from her job.
Whoever Zuma appoints as finance minister will be tasked with helping him guide Africa's biggest economy through what may already be its first recession in 17 years.

A frontrunner for the post is Pravin Gordhan, who has headed the South African Revenue Service since 1999, serving under Manuel, and has been praised for turning it into an efficient body that has repeatedly collected tax over target.

His appointment could lead to a relatively seamless transition and policy continuity, a key hope of foreign investors.

Zuma might choose ANC heavyweight Cyril Ramaphosa to head the finance portfolio.

The former trade unionist served as ANC secretary-general and was an architect of the globally-admired constitution that took effect after the end of apartheid. link...

Critics warn US air strikes bolstering Taliban

2009-05-09T21:09:00.001-07:00

KABUL (AFP) — Charges that scores of villagers died in US bombings against the Taliban have led to demands for a halt in air strikes amid warnings that civilian casualties are driving Afghans to join the insurgency.
But the US and NATO forces taking on the militants say air power is an essential advantage that insurgents are trying to disable by engineering situations in which it harms civilians.
Several investigations are trying to clarify what happened in the western province of Farah nearly a week ago when troops battling Taliban fighters called in the strikes.
President Hamid Karzai says around 130 civilians, including children and the elderly, were killed in the bombings; a local investigation says 147 civilians died, including 94 girls.
The US military concedes only that "a number" of civilians died although it is not yet clear how.
The bombs hit compounds where people had taken refuge from the fighting, Granai village tribal chief Mohammad Na'eem Qader told AFP by telephone.
"At that time there were no Taliban in the village," he said, adding that US President Barack Obama must "stop his military from bombing innocent people or the people will join the Taliban. This is dangerous for him."
Karzai meanwhile demanded an end to air strikes saying they were not an effective way of fighting terrorism but rather cause civilian casualties.
Any military action that harms civilians becomes a recruiting tool for the insurgents, parliamentarian and former army general Noor-Ul Haq Ulumi told AFP.
"The more you kill civilians, the more you've added to the list of your enemies. One house you destroy, one person you kill, you've added 10 to your enemies," said Ulumi, who heads parliament's defence committee.
And in Afghanistan's complicated battleground where insurgents are often among ordinary people, "Using air strikes is like using an artillery shell to kill a fly," he said.
"Would you bombard an American facility if a few Taliban broke into it somehow?" he asked.
Ulumi said the security forces would do better to surround areas where militants were holed up and wait them out. "You don't need to kill women and children only because there are few enemy fighters hiding among them," he said.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has long called for an expansion of ground forces and a reduction in air strikes for the same reason, commissioner Nader Nadery told AFP.
Civilian casualties win support for the Taliban and play into their propaganda against the government and international forces, he said.
The Farah incident "is likely to be the largest and most tragic loss of life to US bombs so far in Afghanistan," added Human Rights Watch.
"Yet another devastating error inevitably calls into question the continued viability of the use of US and NATO airpower in Afghanistan," said researcher Rachel Reid.
Military procedures in place to stem the civilian toll from air strikes, including verifying intelligence before launching attacks, were not working and must be reviewed, she said.
The United Nations says nearly two-thirds of 828 civilians allegedly killed by pro-government forces in the conflict last year died in air strikes.
Insurgents were however responsible for 55 percent of 2,118 civilian deaths in 2008, the deadliest year since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime, it says.
And humanitarian groups have warned that a surge of about 21,000 US troops this year will likely see more civilians caught up in the fighting. link...

Ministers' 'Expenses' Prompt Explanation From U.K.'s Brown

2009-05-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

LONDON -- The U.K. prime minister and several officials are embroiled in a public fray over their use of taxpayer funds to cover their expenses, giving rise to another embarrassment for Gordon Brown's government.

Mr. Brown was forced to issue an explanation Friday after a London-based newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, published details of the expenses he and other officials claimed while serving in Parliament.

The expenses, which are allowed under a system that reimburses members of Parliament for certain personal costs of doing their jobs, include toilet-seat repairs for a former deputy prime minister. They also include £6,577 ($9,911) in payments Mr. Brown made to his brother for cleaning services at the prime minister's London apartment. Mr. Brown's spokesman said the payments were passed on to the cleaner and didn't benefit the brother.

The expenses revealed in the news reports weren't filed only by parliamentarians from Mr. Brown's Labour Party. Some were from conservative members of Parliament, who sought reimbursements, including one for £134.30 for two table lamps with elephant motifs.

While the reimbursements don't appear to have broken any rules, their publication presents another headache for Mr. Brown, whose government faces rising voter resistance amid the recession.

In recent years, the U.K. has seen a series of political scandals over expenses, in which lawmakers have hired several family members as staff, or, in one case, submitted expenses for a spouse's pornographic movie rentals. Mr. Brown has made efforts to reform the system, and the government plans to publish four years of expense data in July.

U.K. rules allow members of Parliament to claim any expenses necessary for them to carry out their roles -- including the cost of maintaining a second residence for politicians with constituencies outside central London. Lawmakers are supposed to avoid extravagance, and their expenses must be approved by parliamentary officials.

Many of the expenses detailed in the Daily Telegraph involve politicians' second homes. Several cabinet ministers changed their designated second home several times in as many years, claiming thousands of dollars for refurbishments. Communities Minister Hazel Blears submitted expenses for £5,000 of furniture for second homes over a three-month period. Peter Mandelson, the business minister, billed taxpayers almost £3,000 for work carried out on his home a week after he announced his decision to step down from Parliament in 2004. A spokesman for Mr. Mandelson, who later sold the property, said all the work done was "necessary maintenance."

The triviality of some expenses could prove embarrassing for politicians. Foreign Secretary David Miliband's claim for a £199 baby stroller was rejected. Former deputy prime minister John Prescott had a toilet seat in his home repaired twice in two years at taxpayer expense. Spokeswomen for Messrs. Miliband and Prescott and a spokesman for Ms. Blears said they followed the rules laid out by parliamentary authorities. link...

Canada's first swine flu death, US cases double

2009-05-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

The Americas are back in the spotlight over swine flu fears after Canada announced its first death, the number of US infections almost doubled, and more cases were found in Latin America.
On the other side of the world, Japan and Australia announced their first confirmed infections.
Brazil on Friday also confirmed its first case transmitted from person to person while Mexico said it was investigating 10 more possible swine flu deaths.
US President Barack Obama warned the United States was not out of the woods yet, as across the nation's northern border a woman in western Alberta province became the first person in Canada to succumb to the disease.
"We have our first fatality in Alberta that is associated with the H1N1 flu," said Andre Corriveau, the province's chief medical officer.
Canada has the third highest number of swine flu infections with 224 cases, but the United States overtook Mexico on Friday to become the country with the highest number of patients, recording 1,639 cases in 43 states.
Mexico, which was the epicentre of the worldwide epidemic, raised its swine flu death toll to 45, with confirmed cases going up to 1,319, of which more than half were younger than 20. Two people have also died in the US.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that 2,500 people in 25 countries had tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus, with 46 deaths.
As the number of US cases jumped overnight with more tests put in place, Obama warned Americans to remain vigilant.
"We are seeing that the virus may not have been as virulent as we at first feared," Obama said at a Spanish-language town hall-style meeting at the White House.
"But we are not out of the woods yet. We still have to take precautions."
The US president warned the autumn and winter flu season later in the year could be "even worse" and see cases spike again.
Brazil confirmed its first case of swine flu transmitted from person to person within the country.
Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao said a new case, one of two found on Friday, was "up to now the only case of person-to-person transmission (of the virus) in Brazil."
The discovery brought to six the total number of cases detected in Latin America's largest nation.
Earlier, Panama confirmed a case of the virus while Guatemala said it had two people who had caught the disease.
However, life in Mexico was slowly returning to normal after a week-long shutdown with the reopening of schools and tourist sites, Mexico City eateries, theatres and cinemas. Primary schools were due back on Monday.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Australia and Japan became the latest countries to confirm cases of the A(H1N1) virus.
An Australian woman tested positive for the disease as she returned from a trip to the United States, the government said.
"We have a person who had contracted the disease overseas and has fully recovered by the time they returned to Australia," Health Minister Nicola Roxon said.
She said authorities were contacting other passengers who were on the woman's flight from Los Angeles, which arrived in Brisbane on Thursday.
In Japan a teacher and two students returning from North America tested positive for swine flu in the first confirmed cases of the virus in the island nation, the government said.
Japanese authorities quarantined the three males, who had been on a high school trip to Canada, and 49 others who were aboard their flight, which arrived Friday at Tokyo's Narita international airport from the US city of Detroit.
Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said the government was trying to contact for testing all of the 391 passengers and 21 crew who were on the Northwest Airlines flight that arrived around 4:30 pm (0730 GMT) Friday.
"All the passengers who were aboard the plane could possibly have contracted the flu," he said. "We want to track all of them down by this evening."
In Hong Kong, still haunted by memories of the 2003 SARS epidemic that killed nearly 300 people there, more than 280 guests and staff were finally allowed to leave a hotel after spending a week in quarantine. link...

Shane Watson expects to play in Twenty20 World Cup

2009-05-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

INJURY-prone Australian all-rounder Shane Watson is adamant his latest groin problem won't keep him out of next month's Twenty20 World Cup.

Watson hurt his groin during the seven-wicket loss to Pakistan in the Twenty20 match in Dubai last Thursday, which was the final fixture of the short tour.

He returned to Australia on Saturday morning to rest and recover, rather than go to South Africa for a short Indian Premier League stint.

The latest in a series of injuries cast some doubt over Watson's participation in the Twenty20 tournament, but he stressed it was only a minor problem.

"My groin is pretty good, it's only a very minor sort of strain," Watson said.

He said he would "definitely" be right by the time the Twenty20 World Cup started.

"But the medical staff at Cricket Australia thought it was better for me to come home and get over it with probably a week or two's rest instead of flying over to South Africa.

"We've got a couple or three weeks or so before the first practice match, so it should be plenty of time to get it right,"

He was also optimistic he would be able to resume bowling in a couple of weeks time.

"The last three weeks have been a big build up to my bowling so not to bowl (in the Twenty20 match in Dubai) was very disappointing for me," Watson said.

"I'm still so excited about improvements there are going to be in my bowling with little technical changes that I've made. I can't wait to be able to get out there in the next couple of weeks."

Watson finished off Australia's 3-2 series win in the one-day series against Pakistan with a couple of big scores including a century and said he was very happy with the way he was batting.

He was relishing the opportunity to open in limited overs cricket on a regular basis and doubted whether he would return to the middle order.

"I love being able to take on the new ball, there's a few more gaps when you're batting," he said.

"But also being able to take on the best fast bowlers in the world with a brand new ball is always a great challenge." link...

Fergie predicts Champions League classic with Barca

2009-05-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

MANCHESTER (AFP) — Sir Alex Ferguson is predicting a classic Champions League Final between Manchester United and Barcelona after the two European giants were left standing following a week of semi-final drama.
United?s semi-final victory over Arsenal on Tuesday, followed by Barcelona?s dramatic injury-time equaliser at Chelsea 24 hours later, has set up a dream final that has been welcomed by neutral supporters throughout the world.
And Ferguson believes that the quality of the two sides means the May 27 final will be the kind of spectacle everyone hopes for.
"I think you have the potential for a great final," he said. "That?s what the public were looking at. Both clubs are recognised for playing good football, there?s a good history to both clubs and I think it?ll be a great final.
"I was looking at it in different ways, on the one hand Chelsea and on the other Barcelona, but we?ve got them now and that?s how we are going to prepare.
"I really enjoyed their performance (in the 6-2 win) against Real Madrid. I thought they were fabulous. That (Andres) Iniesta, I don?t think he ever gives the ball away. No, they?re a terrific side, a terrific football side."
Ferguson, still pressing to secure the Premiership league title for United, has conceded that he has not yet turned his thoughts to his line-up for their second consecutive Champions League Final, although the manager is resigned to being without suspended midfielder Darren Fletcher.
The Scot is already conscious of the numerous difficult decisions he will have to face as he finalises his line-up.
"That?s the difficulty at the moment," he said. "Prior to Tuesday night?s game I was having regrets about playing Ryan Giggs the whole game, for instance, at Middlesbrough - so I wrestled with that throughout the day. But at the end of the day, I think I got it right."
Another burning issue that is already on the agenda ahead of the final concerns the selection of the referee for the most high-profile game on the club calendar.
Norway?s Tom Henning Ovrebo has come in for widespread criticism for his handling of the Chelsea and Barcelona semi-final and even United?s semi-final referee, Italian Roberto Rosetti, clearly made an error in dismissing Fletcher and costing him an appearance in Rome.
Diplomatically, Ferguson refused to comment on the choice of official for the final, other than to claim he has confidence in UEFA making the correct appointment.
"You?re getting a European final so you expect the referee to be the top and experienced, there?s no question about that.
"You can?t think it?ll be anyone other than the best referee and the one who deserves it most.
"It may be Mr Rosetti because the game is in Italy, for instance. Sometimes it goes that way, in recognition of where the game?s actually played. I don?t have any worries about that." link...

Last outer space repair of Hubble telescope pairs genius of two South Bay women

2009-05-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

More than 300 miles above the Earth, Megan McArthur will extend a robotic arm next week and grapple the ailing Hubble Space Telescope toward space shuttle Atlantis.
The astronaut, who first dreamed of spaceflight as a teenager growing up in Silicon Valley, has replayed the precise maneuver again and again as she prepares for Monday's 11:01 a.m. launch.
"If you don't get that right," she said of the delicate capture, "you don't do anything else on the flight."
If not for University of California-Santa Cruz astronomer Sandra Faber, McArthur might never have gotten to set out on the mission to repair one of the most important astronomical instruments in history.
The rookie astronaut and the prominent astronomer have never met, but the two women from the South Bay are central characters in the long struggle to repair and upgrade one last time the famous space telescope, much of which was built in Silicon Valley.
With the shuttle fleet scheduled to be retired next year, this will be the fifth and final repair mission to Hubble. If successful, it will extend the telescope's operational life forward to 2014 and add two new instruments that will allow Faber and other astronomers to peer back toward the beginning of time.
Faber helped make it possible to repair the space telescope — twice. With one of her former Santa Cruz students, Jon Holtzman, it was Faber who first realized that Hubble was launched in 1990 with a profounderror in the shape of its main mirror, leading to the first repair mission in 1993.
After the Columbia disaster in 2003, NASA halted plans for a last repair mission to Hubble. The agency feared that a shuttle launched to the telescope would be unable to take refuge at the space station if the thermal tile damage that doomed Columbia were to happen again.
Faber was a key figure in the National Academy of Sciences panel that pushed NASA to undertake this final repair mission. In an unprecedented move, the shuttle Endeavour is waiting on the launch pad if a rescue mission becomes necessary.
The seven Atlantis astronauts are confident about that backup plan.
"They know they can come and get us" if the tiles on Atlantis are damaged, McArthur said. "That's something we've trained for and talked about — all the EVAs that would take place" for astronauts to spacewalk from Atlantis to the rescue shuttle.
Mysteries
The 11-day Hubble mission will feature five difficult spacewalks, with the astronauts replacing the telescope's gyroscopes and batteries, and repairing two existing instruments. They also will install two new instruments — the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
Hubble has set the age of the universe at about 13.7 billion years and discovered that virtually all galaxies have black holes at their center. It also helped find evidence that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, due to a mysterious force astronomers call "dark energy."
"You might say that Galileo's telescope was more productive, being the first view of the universe," Faber said. "But I would say that after Galileo's tiny little telescope, yeah, Hubble is right there."
Still, Faber and other astronomers around the world are salivating at the cosmological mysteries Hubble's new instruments could solve — if Atlantis is successful. The major difficulty:
The spacewalkers must replace components not designed to be changed in space. link...

Taliban's Gains in Pakistan Have Washington Worried About Nuclear Security

2009-05-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

The Taliban's advance was alarming enough to prompt an unusual declaration by Pakistan's president that the country's atomic arsenal is beyond the grasp of Islamist militants. "I want to assure the world that the nuclear capability of Pakistan is under safe hands," President Asif Ali Zardari insisted last week. His comments followed a chilling warning from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "If the worst, the unthinkable, were to happen and this advancing Taliban—encouraged and supported by al Qaeda and other extremists—were to essentially topple the government for failure to beat them back, then they would have the keys to the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan," she said. "We can't even contemplate that." At his press conference last week, Obama addressed the issue: "We have huge strategic interests, huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don't end up having a nuclear-armed militant state." Obama met with Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week and pledged cooperation in fighting the Taliban. At the same time the Pakistani army launched an offensive on the Taliban in the Swat Valley.

The rare public discussion of a subject that for years has been almost taboo shows how concerned Washington is about Pakistan's future stability. Pakistani officials dislike the attention on their nuclear apparatus, and some are said to suspect a U.S. desire to seize or neutralize their weapons in the event of a full breakdown in security. U.S. officials have tended to steer clear of the topic to avoid jeopardizing Pakistani cooperation on safety and security issues. "The more we talk about it, the harder it becomes to do the work," says Michael Krepon, a cofounder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.

Pakistan's nuclear force is the crown jewel of its strategic assets—enough fissile material for roughly 60 nuclear weapons. The actual number of bombs has not been disclosed, but they form what Pakistani officials call a deterrent to arch rival India. In recent years, U.S. officials have worked closely with Pakistan's military—though without full information on or access to the country's nuclear apparatus—to improve physical security. "We have provided some assistance over several years," says one knowledgeable U.S. official. "Pakistan takes the security of its arsenal very seriously."

The U.S. program began after 9/11 and has included tens of millions of dollars in security training for Pakistani nuclear officials in the United States and high-tech security equipment to protect Islamabad's nuclear assets. In March, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, then head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said that Pakistan had moved to enhance nuclear security but added that "vulnerabilities exist."

Among the risk-reducing steps, say nuclear specialists, Pakistan is believed to store separately the fissile core of its bombs, the non-nuclear triggering explosives, and the delivery vehicles themselves (missiles and aircraft). Key scientific and technical personnel are said to be carefully screened and monitored for any connections to the Taliban or Al-Qaeda. Mobilization of nuclear forces is said to be possible only under strict requirements overseen by a National Command Authority, a group of veteran generals and top civilian officials. Separately, the Pakistanis, says the U.S. official, have improved export controls and participated ably in a program to do radiation scanning of U.S.-bound cargo from the Pakistani port of Qasim.

The concern about Pakistani nuclear security relates not only to the Taliban's recent advances and the weakness of a young, civilian government in response but also to the country's history of proliferation. Until he was placed in custody, A. Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, orchestrated a breathtaking nuclear black market that sold technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea. link...

Poll protesters hurt in Kashmir teargas firing

2009-05-08T22:22:00.000-07:00

SRINAGAR: At least 30 people were injured when Indian police in Indian-held Kashmir’s (IHK) main city fired teargas shells on Friday to disperse thousands of people protesting the general election, police said. More than 6,000 protesters led by separatist leader and chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq marched through downtown Srinagar and pelted police with stones, said police officer Muhammed Shafi. Turnout in the valley, flashpoint of a two-decade-long insurgency, was as low as 19 percent on Thursday after anti-India separatists called for a poll boycott. “Boycott is a democratic verdict. People have rejected the 62-year-old repression by India,” said Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a senior separatist leader, at Friday prayers at a Srinagar mosque.link...

Fierce California wildfire burns into fourth night

2009-05-08T22:21:00.001-07:00

SANTA BARBARA, California (Reuters) - A California wildfire burned for a fourth day on Friday above the seaside town of Santa Barbara as firefighters hoped the weather would help them gain a measure of control over the flames that have destroyed 75 homes.

Another 3,500 homes and about 100 businesses remained in immediate jeopardy from the so-called Jesusita fire, which had blackened more than 3,500 acres in the foothills above the picturesque community by the time darkness began to fall on Friday evening. It destroyed 75 homes and forced thousands of people to flee.

No civilian casualties have been reported so far but the blaze has injured 11 firefighters, three of them hospitalized with burns and smoke inhalation.

Crews battling days of hot, dry erratic winds have made little progress in controlling the firestorm but were cautiously optimistic that unexpectedly calm, moist conditions at dusk could give them that chance.

The most dangerous time of day has proven to be nightfall, when the hot, unpredictable "sundowner" winds pick up and fan the flames through steep canyons into neighborhoods of multimillion-dollar homes.

'THE WIND COULD CHANGE'

"We have an onshore condition and when the air is coming off the ocean the humidity is fairly high and pushes the fire back away from the community," Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Tom Franklin told a late-afternoon news conference.

"And both of those things are good for now but the predictions are that the sundowner condition is still there," Franklin said. "The wind could change and blow the fire downhill. link...

Papal visit inspires Gaza Catholics

2009-05-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

Next week's visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Israel and the Palestinian territories has aroused conflicting emotions among Christians, Muslims and Jews in the region. To the small Catholic community in the Gaza Strip, his arrival offers the rare chance to escape, if only for a day, the misery of the war-ravaged territory.

Like most of the Strip's 286 Catholics, Jabrah alNajjar, a 61-year-old who lives with his wife in Gaza City, has applied for an Israeli permit to attend the Pope's mass in Bethlehem next Wednesday. The Israeli government has promised to lift the normally stringent travel ban on Gazans for the occasion, but church leaders expect there will be at most 250 permits, not all of which will go to Catholics.

For Mr Najjar, sitting in his small living room surrounded by Easter decorations and with a large wooden cross above the front door, it is proving a tantalising wait. He is still waiting for Israeli permission to leave Gaza. But he says: "I am extremely happy that the Pope is coming. For me it means peace, love and brotherhood."

The Pope's visit offers a rare moment of joy for the small - and dwindling - Catholic communities living in Israel and the Palestinian territories. By far the smallest is the one in the Gaza Strip, where 50 Catholic families form a minority within a minority, making up only a fraction of a 3,000-strong Christian community dominated by members of the Greek Orthodox church.

For the Pope, the plight of Gaza Catholics is one of many thorny issues he will face as he embarks on a visit laced with controversy and political pitfalls. The recent Israeli offensive against the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip means some Christians are looking to him for words of condemnation and protest. At the very least, they want him to highlight the desperate situation facing both Christians and Muslims in the Gaza Strip.

But the Pope, who started his visit to the region in Jordan yesterday, will have to tread carefully. Relations between the Vatican and Israel have been strained in recent months, not least as a result of his decision to rehabilitate a renegade bishop who cast doubt over the Holocaust (the Pope later said he had been unaware of the bishop's views). His visit will also be clouded by longsimmering Jewish anger over Pope Pius XII's role during the second world war and doubts over whether he did enough to help Jews escape Nazi persecution.

On the other side of the Middle Eastern divide, Palestinian Muslims have not forgotten the Pope's controversial 2006 speech, which included a quote describing Islam as a "cruel and inhuman" religion. Some Muslim residents of Nazareth, the birthplace of Jesus and the setting for a papal mass on Thursday, this week put up a banner suggesting Benedict deserved punishment for harming God and the Prophet.

The small band of Gaza Catholics - living among 1.5m Muslims and governed by the Islamist Hamas group - insist the two communities currently live side by side largely without tensions, in spite of sporadic extremist attacks on Christian institutions.

Mr Najjar points out that Gaza Christians do not have to work on Sunday mornings - a normal working day in the region - so they can attend mass. The community can bring wine into the Gaza Strip for communion, and Christian women still walk outside their homes without headscarves. "My Muslim friends come and visit me on the holy days, and we celebrate together," he says.

Hussam al-Taweel, a leader of the Greek-Orthodox community and the only Christian member of the Palestinian Legislative Council from Gaza, paints a similar picture: "We [Christians and Muslims] share everything - we share the history, we share the future and we share the struggle against the occupation."

Much to the disappointment of Gaza's Christians, the Pope will not come in person to visit their small, embattled community. But at the very least, says Mr Taweel, Gazans now expect him to give a "strong, political speech in order to assure our [the Palestinians] rights of independence".

This sliver of land, of all places, he adds, "is in need of his care and patronage". link...

35 rebels killed in Sri Lanka fighting

2009-05-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

COLOMBO, May 9 (Xinhua) -- At least 35 rebels were killed Friday as the advancing troops took control of what appeared to be the last rebel defensive earth bund in the island's northeastern battle zone.

The Army's 58 division had completely cleared the Karyamullvaikkal area in the Mullaithivu district, defense officials said Saturday. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels are now limited to an area of just 3 sq kms.

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman, said that troops would continue to carry out operations outside the newly demarcated no fire zone, a 2-km-long, 1.5-km-wide coastal strip covering the area south of Karyamullivaikkal and Velamullivaikkal.

"The troops will continue to target LTTE in order to free civilians from LTTE clutches", Nanayakkara said.

The last bits of fighting has left a massive civilian population in internally displace camps.

Some 200,000 are already in government welfare camps in the northern districts of Jaffna and Vavuniya.

Some 50,000 are still believed to be trapped in the now shrunk no fire zone where the LTTE rebels are mingling with the civilian population.

Sri Lanka's over 3 decade old conflict has cost over 70,000 lives during the LTTE's quest to set up a separate homeland for the minority Tamils seeking political independence from the Sinhala majority. link...

Pakistan Again Squares Off Against Taliban in Swat

2009-05-08T11:15:00.001-07:00

With soldiers again squaring off against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, Pakistan faces a dual test it has often failed before: fighting a counter-insurgency campaign while caring for those displaced by the conflict.

For the past several days, Pakistan's army and the Taliban have been fighting sporadically along the mountain ridges of Swat after a peace deal collapsed. Pakistani officials say they are determined that the offensive will continue until the military asserts control over the 400-square-mile area.

But even with a fresh infusion of U.S. military technology and training, it is far from clear that the army will do any better this time than last, when it was ground to a halt by the militants and entered a peace that gave control of the valley to the Taliban.

"Everyone here believes [the Taliban] are coming back," said Akmal Ali, a 21-year-old in Takht Bhai, an area near Swat that has so far remained peaceful and nominally under government control.

He recounted how Taliban fighters came through Takht Bhai earlier this week, just as the violence in Swat was intensifying. They told barbers not to shave customers and music and movie shops to shut down. "If this game continues, the militants will end up in Islamabad," Mr. Ali said.

People fleeing the now-daily bombardment of the valley say Taliban fighters are blocking roads with rocks and trees to keep residents from escaping. Some of those who are making it out say militants are sneaking out with them, warning men to keep their beards and a close eye on their women and to get ready for the consolidation of Taliban rule in the area.

Pakistan's success in preventing that will go a long way toward determining whether the nuclear-armed South Asian nation is able to reverse what top American officials and many Pakistani observers have in recent weeks warned was a slow collapse that threatens the American mission in Afghanistan and the stability of one of the world's most populous – and volatile – regions.

The Pakistani army said Friday it had lost 13 of its own men in the past 24 hours and killed 143 militants. There's been no word on civilian casualities. But front-line officers report only slight gains so far against the thousands of militants in Swat and two neighboring districts, Buner and Lower Dir.

"This is going to be hard fighting, no quarter here. These miscreants know the terrain. They are formidable," said an army major in a phone interview.

Pakistan's military, built for tank battles and artillery duels against Indian forces on the plains of the subcontinent, has in the past four years struggled through a series of campaigns against the Taliban across the mountains of northwestern Pakistan. Most, like the 18-month battle in Swat, ended in standstill.

The U.S. is stepping up its efforts to try to reshape Pakistan's military into a force that can fight insurgents in the rugged terrain along the Afghan border, where the Taliban and al Qaeda have flourished since being pushed from Afghanistan by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

U.S. and Pakistani officials say the Americans are going to provide night-vision goggles and more helicopters. There are also plans to train Pakistani soldiers in counterinsurgency doctrine and wean them from their reliance on artillery and air power, which often flattens villages and kills more civilians than insurgents.

Still, U.S. officials privately question whether Pakistan's top brass, many of whom still see India as the real threat, are committed to reorienting their forces. "Look at what they're doing right now," said a U.S. official in Washington, referring to the air strikes and artillery bombardment against Taliban positions in Swat over the past few days. "This is why they keep losing."

Fleeing residents said innocents were being killed in the military's bombardment. "We saw many bodies rotting," said Arsala Khan, a farmer who had fled to Dargai, south of Swat, from the valley's main town, Mingora.

The U.N. refugee agency said Friday in Geneva that 500,000 people had fled the fighting in the past few days. That brings the total number of displaced since August to one million. Many are crowded into camps that are fast becoming squalid, their confidence waning that the government will provide for and protect them.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said Thursday the government was setting aside $12 million for the refugees and appealed for help from abroad.

"We left everything behind, our wheat crops and small businesses," says Ghani Akbar, 37 years old, who fled Swat this week. He is now living with more than 1,000 others in neatly laid-out tents at a refugee camp in the town of Chota Lahore. "Our children ask for fruit and meat," he says, "but I have only 100 rupees," about $1.30.

Mr. Akbar, like many of the other refugees, expressed disdain for the Taliban, whom he called "rascals."

Still, the fear in Pakistan and the West is that refugees like Mr. Akbar, left with few prospects and little hope, are easy prey for the Taliban militants who inevitably infiltrate such camps, recruiting sympathizers and intimidating the rest. link...

Israel demands Pope Benedict XVI condemns Holocaust deniers

2009-05-08T11:13:00.001-07:00

The Israeli government demanded that Pope Benedict XVI explicitly condemn Catholics who deny the Holocaust, as he arrived in Jordan on the first leg of his tour of the Holy Land billed as an act of 'reconciliation'.The intervention came despite repeated concessions in the lead-up to the tour by the Vatican, which is desperate to smooth difficult relations with both the Jewish and Muslim worlds.
The Pope insists his eight-day trip is a "pilgrimage" to Holy Land sites but it has become embroiled in disputes over controversial comments he has made affecting relations with both religions.Shortly before the Pope landed in the Jordanian capital Amman, where he was greeted by King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, a minister in the new Right-wing Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu released the text of a letter in which he referred indirectly to the Pope's lifting of the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson, the breakaway English Catholic bishop who has denied aspects of the Holocaust, in January.
"I would like to point out that Holocaust survivors in Israel and elsewhere sincerely hope that your excellency will clearly condemn the purveyors of Holocaust denial and antisemitism, some of whom profess loyalty to your Church," said the letter written by Yaakov Margi, Israel's religious affairs minister.
In contrast to his popular predecessor, John Paul II, feelings in Israel are ambiguous towards Pope Benedict, a German who had to join the Hitler Youth as a child during the war.
The Pope will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on Monday, but he will not step inside the museum. He has backed the canonisation of the wartime pope, Pius XII, whose photograph in the museum is adorned with a caption accusing him of not doing enough to speak up for or help the Jews.
He has also spoken out on behalf of the beleaguered Palestinian Christian community, and presses for a two-state solution to the Palestinian issue.
Nevertheless, the Vatican has been at pains to concede to Israeli pressure over aspects of the visit.
After intense lobbying aides agreed the Pope would not make an address on a specially constructed stage in a Palestinian refugee camp that abuts the Israeli security barrier.
That platform would have provided television cameras with powerful images of him speaking against the wall, which cuts off Palestinian communities, and even of Israeli watchtowers in the background.
The address will be given inside, instead.
The Vatican also revoked an invitation to an audience with the Pope of an Arab-Israeli mayor who had condemned the invasion of Gaza, again after heavy pressure from the Israeli cabinet which called the mayor a "terror supporter".
After the row over Bishop Williamson, for which the Vatican again apologised, the bitterest divide remains that over Pope Pius. The Pope has put his beatification on hold, but has insisted Pius was a "great churchman".
Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's spokesman, said the Vatican had already made its position on the Holocaust clear.
"I don't understand what we have still to say," he told The Daily Telegraph. "It is clear that the Pope condemns those who deny the Holocaust.
"He has already said many times that the Holocaust was a terrible crime."
Muslim groups meanwhile continue to attack the Pope over a speech he made in 2006 which quoted a Byzantine emperor who said the Prophet Mohammed had introduced "evil and inhuman" ideas into the world.
Jordan's Islamic Action Front say they "reject" and will boycott his visit, because he has not apologised clearly enough.
In his opening remarks at Amman airport the Pope said the visit gave him "a welcome opportunity to speak of my deep respect for the Muslim community".
He said: "It is my fervent hope and prayer that respect for the inalienable rights and dignity of every man and woman will come to be increasingly affirmed and defended, not only throughout the Middle East, but in every part of the world."
He is due to meet moderate Muslim leaders on Saturday. link...

American Airlines Passengers Held Over Fear of Swine Flu

2009-05-05T06:45:00.001-07:00

Boston (SmartAboutHealth) - American Airlines passengers arriving in Japan yesterday were held by health officials while a fellow passenger was tested for swine flu.
Flight 169 left Los Angeles on Sunday, arriving at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, Monday afternoon at which time it was borded by health officials.
Health officials singled out a female passenger for testing, and also detained passengers sitting near her and 2 crew members.
American spokesman Tim Wagner stated that he is unsure as to why Japanese health officials chose to single out the female passenger for testing as she did not appear to be sick.
When tests on the woman came back negative, all passengers and crew members were subsequently released.
It is now common practice for all incoming flights from Mexico, Canada and the United States to be borded by health officials upon arrival in Japan, at which time passengers are screened for swine flu before they leave the plane. link...

Molson Coors 1Q Net More Than Doubles On Increased Prices

2009-05-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

Molson Coors Brewing Co.'s (TAP) first-quarter earnings more than doubled on increased prices and what the company called "substantial" cost cuts.

Beer drinking has been a slow-growth industry in the Western world for some time, with many established brands losing market share to local upstarts. That has helped drive a consolidation push in ...link...

China Quarantines Canadian Students, Collects Citizens in Mexico

2009-05-05T06:42:00.001-07:00

China has quarantined a group of Canadian university students for a week, as part of efforts to fight swine flu. This follows recent Chinese government detentions of Mexican citizens throughout the country.

The 25 Canadian university students were beginning a language program in northeastern China.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu says the Jilin provincial government is keeping the students under medical observation for seven days in a hotel in Changchun city.

Ma says these students have normal body temperatures and are in good physical and emotional conditions, and are in his words "satisfied with this arrangement."

Across China, authorities are detaining citizens from several different countries as part of efforts to fight the H1N1 influenza virus, commonly known as swine flu.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said four Americans were quarantined in China due to swine flu concerns, but two have already been released.

Convoy of ambulances drive into hotel to transport Mexican passengers to Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, 05 May 2009
Meanwhile, a chartered plane from Mexico began collecting 70 Mexican citizens being held in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

In addition, 200 Chinese citizens have been stranded in Mexico City and Tijuana after China suspended flights in and out of Mexico. A China Southern Airlines jet has been sent to pick up those travelers.

Spokesman Ma says China and Mexico have kept close communication and contact on the issue of swine flu.

Ma says the two countries are working hand-in-hand to address this disease and further promote bilateral relations.

But Mexican diplomats have complained many Mexicans detained were not at risk for flu and were held simply because of their citizenship.

China also suspended the importation of pigs and pig products from parts of Mexico, Canada and the United States. Ma says the temporary measure is meant to protect domestic animal husbandry and people's health.

But four global organizations, including the United Nations and the World Health Organization, say there is no justification for bans on the importation of pigs or their products. They said as long as pork is handled properly it will not be a source of infection. link..

Q+A-What is Pakistan doing about the Taliban threat?

2009-05-05T06:34:00.000-07:00

ISLAMABAD, May 5 (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities urged people on Tuesday in the Swat Valley's main town to leave their homes for safer places as security forces could soon launch an offensive against Taliban militants there.

A February peace pact aimed at ending Taliban violence in the Swat valley northwest of the capital has all but collapsed as nuclear-armed Pakistan comes under U.S. pressure to get tough with the militants rather than appease them.

President Asif Ali Zardari, widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Washington on Wednesday for talks on the growing militant threat in the region.

Here are some questions and answers about the issues in Swat and the surrounding region.

WHAT IS AT STAKE?

From Swat the militants had moved into neighbouring Buner area, just 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad. Failure to stem the Taliban's creeping advance from enclaves in ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border sparked worry among both Pakistanis and Western allies that militants were close to the gateways to Islamabad.

A military spokesman said a few hundred militants in the mountains never posed a real threat to the capital. But some security analysts said the guerrillas could have used Buner as a jumping-off point to strike at Tarbela, a dam that provides water and electricity to much of the country. The militants had also moved closer to a road running north to China.

Before the military offensive in Buner, Western allies, who need Pakistani help to defeat al Qaeda and stabilise Afghanistan, worried the government seemed too willing to appease militants.

While Swat, about 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, is not on the Afghan border, Western countries with troops in Afghanistan fear the area could become a bastion for militants fighting in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Obama said last week he was confident about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal but the New York Times reported growing U.S. concern militants might try to snatch a weapon in transit or insert sympathisers into laboratories or fuel-production facilities.

ARE THE MILITARY ACTIONS A RESPONSE TO U.S. PRESSURE?

The military moves in Buner and subsequent actions in Swat itself came on the heels of a visit to Islamabad by Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who may have played a role in persuading the weak civilian-led government to act, and before the talks in Washington where Zardari is likely to press for more U.S. military and economic aid.

Washington is considering rushing hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid, the U.S. Senate's second-ranking Republican, Jon Kyl of Arizona, told reporters.

U.S. officials have applauded the military action in Buner and urged the Pakistan military to keep the Taliban on the run.

Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani has said the military halted its operations in Swat early last year in order to give politicians space to negotiate, but added the army would not allow militants to impose their will on the country.

Kayani has to counter a general perception the army, whose main focus has been a perceived threat from old rival India, is demoralised and reluctant to fight Pakistani Muslims in Swat, although security forces defeated the Taliban in the Bajaur tribal area on the Afghan border in March.

WHAT WAS BEHIND THE SWAT PEACE DEAL?

Many people from Swat were caught up in the siege of Islamabad's Red Mosque in July 2007, which commandos stormed to put down a militant movement, resulting in at least 100 deaths.

Violence flared in Swat later that year, and while military operations pushed the Taliban back, they regrouped as soon as the army relented to allow politicians space to negotiate a peace.

The North West Frontier Province government led by the Awami National Party (ANP), an ethnic Pashtun party allied to Zardari, struck a deal with a radical cleric in February to impose sharia law in the hope of ending violence.

Zardari sanctioned the imposition of Islamic law in Malakand after parliament passed a resolution last month. Days later, Taliban fighters entered Buner and nearby Shangla district, raising alarm at home and in the West. link..

Pregnant U.K. Woman Will Not Be Shot in Drug Trafficking Case

2009-05-05T06:33:00.001-07:00

A British woman held in a Laos prison for allegedly drug smuggling will not face the death penalty if convicted because she is pregnant, says the country's government.

Samantha Orobator, 20, has been allowed to see a British government official, but was refused the chance to speak to a U.K. lawyer.

The Laos government says the country's law bans executing pregnant prisoners.

Khenthong Nuanthasing of the Lao Foreign Ministry said her trial will not be held until next week so that an "appropriate lawyer" could be found to defend her.

The Foreign Office said the British vice-consul from Bangkok, in Thailand, had been allowed into Phonthong prison to speak to Orobator.

But lawyer Anna Morris, who has flown to the southeast Asian country on behalf of the legal rights charity Reprieve, said she was refused access even though she had arranged to meet the Briton.

A statement from Reprieve said no explanation had been given by the Lao authorities as to why the meeting was cancelled.

Morris said: "I am deeply frustrated by the lack of access to this vulnerable young woman. This is preventing Reprieve from obtaining first hand knowledge of her welfare and how she is being treated in prison.

"I also do not have any news of a trial date, despite being told at incredibly short notice that it will take place this week.

"We urge the Lao authorities allow us access to speak to Samantha as promised, to appoint her a Laotian lawyer and to conduct a fair and open trial process."

Orobator has been held in jail since last August after she was allegedly caught with 1.5 lb of heroin at Wattay airport.

Those caught with more than the 1.1lb normally face a mandatory death penalty.

Orobator, who is five months pregnant, is detained in Phonthong Prison in Vientiane, a collection of shabby huts, behind walls of razor wire, and watch-towers.

Former inmate Kay Danes said the jail is little more than a torture camp. Torture, which she says is both physical and mental, and involves putting prisoners in medieval stocks.

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No explanation has been given as to Orobator's pregnancy but she is understood to be denying previous reports by Reprieve, which suggested she may have been raped.

She is not thought to have seen a lawyer since her arrest but has now received her seventh visit from British officials.

There is no British embassy in Laos and the nearest is in neighbouring Thailand. link....

Zimbabwe court revokes bail on terror charges activist

2009-05-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

A leading human rights activist and 15 other suspects were sent back to prison in Zimbabwe today on what are widely seen as trumped up charges of terrorism.

Jestina Mukoko appeared stunned at the ruling and stared from the dock at the magistrate, Catherine Chimanda. Mukoko's supporters burst into tears.

The defendants have said they were abducted by state security agents last year and tortured into confessing to a plot against the president, Robert Mugabe.

The Harare court's decision is likely to intensify tensions in Zimbabwe's power-sharing government between Mugabe and the prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, amid concerns that it has done little to improve human rights or win the release of political prisoners.

The suspects, who include several members of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), say they were beaten on the feet, subjected to simulated drownings, locked in freezers and hung by their wrists to extract the false confessions.

They had been free on bail for two months. Chimanda said today that she was sending them back to prison because a formal indictment had been filed a day earlier.

The indictment accuses Mukoko and the others of sabotage, terrorism and banditry. Chimanda scheduled the trial to start on 4 July.

A lawyer for the defence, Charles Kwaramba, said the suspects would file new bail applications. His colleague, the prominent human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, told journalists: "The law is being applied maliciously."

Neighbouring governments have said they believe that the terrorism allegations are baseless, and Mugabe's opponents say the charges were fabricated to justify a clampdown on dissent.

Before being granted bail on 2 March, Mukoko and the others had been held without charge since December at Chikurubi, a maximum-security prison outside Harare known for its harsh conditions.

On his first day in office in February, Tsvangirai gained access to the jail and visited Mukoko in an apparent attempt to assert his authority.

Mukoko testified during a bail hearing that she had been tortured and assaulted during detention, and the defendants were seen with bloodied and swollen faces during court appearances late last year. Two of the defendants ordered back to Chikurubi today were not in court because they were being treated at a hospital for injuries believed to have been sustained during their earlier detention.

Tsvangirai, who joined Mugabe in the unity government in February, had called for the release of Mukoko and other detainees to show Mugabe's commitment to the coalition. Mugabe has argued that such matters should be left to the courts. link...

Report says Magna seeks only minority stake in Opel

2009-05-05T06:29:00.000-07:00

VIENNA (Reuters) - Canadian car parts maker Magna International (MGa.TO) would only seek to buy 20 percent or less of General Motors' (GM.N) Opel unit, Magna chairman and owner Frank Stronach was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

In an interview with Canadian daily newspaper Globe and Mail, Stronach also said he had taken part in meetings of Magna executives with German politicians last week.

"They have an interest, they know we are one of the major suppliers, they know we make cars and thereby they'd like to see the best solution for Germany," Stronach told the paper.

The interview was published a day after the head of Italy's Fiat (FIA.MI) outlined to German officials his plan to create Europe's biggest car maker by combining Fiat's car business with General Motors' European operations and Chrysler.

Magna only late on Monday confirmed publicly that it was looking at Opel, which previously had been revealed only by German politicians who were part of the talks. But it did not provide any details of a possible deal.

Stronach said that the Opel approach broke with Magna's principle of not competing with the carmakers it supplies but the situation may leave him with no choice.

"I've always said our preference would be not to compete, but suppose some of our customers are broken? Then we might have no other choice," he told the Globe and Mail. link...

Iraq condemns Iranian shelling of Kurd villages

2009-05-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

BAGHDAD, May 5 (Reuters) - Iraq summoned Iran's ambassador to condemn Iranian shelling of villages in its northern Kurdistan region, the Iraqi government said on Tuesday, warning of "negative consequences" if attacks continue.

Iran shelled a Kurdish village in a remote area of northern Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region on Monday, causing damage to buildings but no casualties, border police said.

That followed Iranian shelling on Saturday of Kurdish rebel positions in another part of Iraqi Kurdistan. Helicopters were also used to fire from the Iranian side of the border.

The national media centre said that Iraq's Foreign Ministry had "handed over an official condemnation letter to Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi-Qomi for the shelling of the border villages inside Iraqi territory by Iranian forces."

It added that Iraq's office for neighbouring state affairs had summoned the Iranian ambassador late on Monday to deliver the letter to him.

"The Iraqi Foreign Ministry demanded an immediate end to those violations which could lead to negative consequences for bilateral relations," the media centre said in a statement.

Villagers were wounded in the attacks, the statement said, in contrast to the border police who said no one was hurt in either attack.

Iranian forces often clash with guerrillas from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which took up arms in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey. PJAK and PKK fighters are also present within Iraq.

"The Iraqi part understands Iran's objectives to discipline its borders but that should not be done unilaterally," the statement said.

The neighbouring countries fought a long and bloody war in the 1980s, but since the ouster of Sunni Arab Saddam Hussein in 2003, relations between majority Shi'ite Muslim Iraq and Iran, another mainly Shi'ite nation, have improved.

Netanyahu moots 'fresh' approach

2009-05-05T06:26:00.001-07:00

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said he is willing to resume peace talks with the Palestinians without any delay or preconditions.
Speaking to supporters in the US, he said political talks should be part of a "fresh" triple-track approach also covering economic and security issues.
He made no mention of a Palestinian state as part of the peace settlement.
The Obama administration is committed to pursuing a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict "vigorously".
Benjamin Netanyahu was addressing the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) by a satellite link-up.The economic track means that we are prepared to work together to remove as many obstacles as we can to the advancement of the Palestinian economy."
Until now, correspondents say Mr Netanyahu has remained tight-lipped about his plan for peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said Mr Netanyahu must accept a two-state solution and stop Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank if Israel wanted peace.
Separately, Mr Netanyahu's interior minister, Eli Yishai, told an audience of Jewish property owners in East Jerusalem that the Israeli government is a government of settlers and settlements.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Yishai described the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan in the eastern Israeli-occupied part of the city - known to Israelis as the City of David - as "bedrock of our existence".
Hamas message
Mr Meshal insisted that Hamas would not revoke its much-quoted charter calling for the destruction of Israel, although he added the 20-year-old charter could be ignored as Hamas is "shaped by experience".
However, he said any deal must include handing East Jerusalem to the Palestinians, dismantling Jewish settlements on occupied land and honouring the right of return of the Palestinian refugees .
Correspondents point out that successive Israeli governments have rejected the return of all land occupied in the 1967 war, and the previous US administration implicitly backed their territorial claims.
Furthermore, allowing Palestinian refugees since 1948 the right to return to their homes in what is now Israel would undermine Israel's Jewish majority.
Speaking of President Barack Obama, Khaled Meshal is quoted saying: "His language is different and positive."
"I promise the American administration and the international community that we will be part of the solution," he added.
But he rejected the key US demand for immediate recognition of Israel, saying it is "just a pretext... to escape dealing with the real issue and to throw the ball into the Arab and Palestinian court".
He argued that Palestine Liberation Organisation's formal recognition of Israel in the 1990s failed to end the occupation or secure a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian body politic is divided between the Gaza Strip, blockaded by Israel and under de facto control of Hamas, and parts of the West Bank, which are administered by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority under an interim treaty with Israel.
In Damascus, the exiled political leader of the Hamas movement , the main Palestinian rival of the presidency of Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, has given a widely reported interview with the New York Times.
Khaled Meshal reiterated that Hamas was eager to reach a long-term ceasefire with Israel and for that to lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

"The political track means that we're prepared to resume peace negotiations without any delay and without any preconditions, the sooner the better," Mr Netanyahu told Aipac delegates.
"The security track means that we want to... strengthen the security apparatus of the Palestinians. This is something we believe in and something that I think we can advance in a joint effort. link...

England out to settle score with West Indies

2009-05-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

England will attempt to avenge their recent series defeat to the West Indies on Wednesday at Lord's, but the two-Test series is in danger of being eclipsed by the Indian Premier League and the host nation's looming confrontation with Australia.

The West Indies have been drafted in to replace England's original opponents Zimbabwe, who no longer play Test cricket, and then subsequently Sri Lanka for this two-game precursor to the Twenty20 World Cup in June and the Ashes a month later.

Where once the arrival of the West Indies would send a tremor of fear around every dressing room in England, there is now a feeling that Chris Gayle's side are simply a warm-up act.

This at least was the opinion of English fast bowler Stuart Broad, who opted out of the IPL in favor of the superior preparation he felt the West Indies would offer.

"The Ashes is a major reason that I didn't go to the IPL and a major reason why anyone plays for their country," he told The Independent. "You can make history. People have a passion for the Ashes and I think to the nation it's the most important thing in the cricketing world.

"It's the pinnacle. Beating the West Indies at home is brilliant but beating Australia gives massive national pride."

The attraction of the IPL proved stronger, though, for Gayle. The West Indies captain arrived in Britain just 48 hours before the start of Wednesday's test, so that he could play an extra game with the Kolkata Knight Riders, a situation described by his coach John Dyson as "not ideal."

Yet at least Gayle was playing cricket. Of the English contingent at the IPL, Paul Collingwood was only used as a substitute fielder, Kevin Pietersen was erratic and Andrew Flintoff aggravated an injury, ruling him out of the West Indies series - though the British media's fixation with the Ashes ensured the headlines all concerned his readiness to face Australia.

Only Ravi Bopara returned from South Africa with his reputation enhanced, though even he admitted he hadn't expected to be selected for Wednesday's test.

"If I get runs at number three there is a chance for me to bat at number three in the Ashes as well, which is a great opportunity," he said. "That is what I have dreamed about since I was a young boy.

"It was a bit of a surprise to hear that Ian Bell, Owais Shah and Michael Vaughan weren't in the squad. I thought with Fred (Andrew Flintoff) being injured one of them might have got a call-up, but I am happy. The guys have backed me and said 'You are the man to do it' and I want to prove them right."

Only 12,000 tickets have been sold for the opening day at Lord's, a venue that can hold double that number. The underwhelmed reaction of the England supporters to the West Indies series belies the fact, though, that England was beaten 1-0 when the two sides met in the Caribbean earlier this year.

It's true the bowlers no longer induce the fear they once did, but they are arguably more potent than England's unsettled attack. Tim Bresnan and Graham Onions are the latest candidates to be plucked from the county game in the hope they might prove long-term replacements for Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard.

It's also true that the West Indies' preparation for the series has been far from perfect. But despite a 10-wicket loss to the England Lions, Dyson was keen to remind his hosts of recent results.

"We're a surprising lot and we bounce back from things," he said. "I just think back to the Caribbean a couple of months ago when everyone scored hundreds for England in the practice game before the first Test at St. Kitts and (they) got bowled out for 51 in the first Test."

The key problem for the West Indies will be how they deal with English conditions which, at Lord's and then Chester-le-Street in the second test starting May 14, should help the bowlers who toiled so fruitlessly in the Caribbean earlier this year.

If they can keep an experimental English bowling attack quiet they may just issue a reminder of why they — and test cricket — still matter. link...

Apple buying Twitter? Everything points to 'absolutely not'

2009-05-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

If you have been trawling the web in the hopeless search for some piece of news that's completely stunning, how about the "rumour" being repeated (suspiciously similarly) by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington and Valleywag that Apple is in "late-stage" talks to buy Twitter - yes, that Twitter - for $700m, to be announced at WWDC in June?

But before we deconstruct, we must construct. Here's the TechCrunch post; here's Valleywag.

The TechCrunch post rather weirdly has "Google got shut down" in its headline - perhaps meaning that Google got frozen out if/when it approached Twitter with an offer (don't take the idea that Google made any approach as gospel) and then launches into it:

"Apple is in late stage negotiations to buy Twitter and is hoping to announce it at WWDC in June," said a normally reliable source this evening, adding that the purchase price would be $700 million in cash.

However Arrington then expresses his own doubts:

The trouble is we've checked with other sources who claim to know nothing about any Apple negotiations. If these discussions are happening, Twitter is keeping them very quiet indeed. We would have passed on reporting this rumor at all, but other press is now picking it up.

Oh, well, if "other press" (read: blogs) are "picking it up" (read: repeating it) then it must be true, eh?

And now over to Valleywag:

"A source who's plugged into the Valley's deal scene and has been recruited by Apple for a senior position says Apple and Twitter are in serious negotiations, with the goal of unveiling a deal by June 8, when Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference launches in San Jose."

Though some doubts do intrude, even at Valleywag - basically, you can see the writer (wave to Owen Thomas) thinking "what the hell is this tieup even about if it happens":

What does Twitter, an adorable but unprofitable startup, have to do with a hardware company like Apple? The iPhone is the obvious driver of the deal: The many iPhone apps like Tweetie that people use to post Twitter messages are hot sellers for Apple. But Apple gets the benefit of Twitter-addicted iPhone users whether or not it owns Twitter. And it seems like an odd cultural fit, since Apple's hardly known for its Web prowess.

Yeah, well, that's saying. Here's the reality: Twitter is a messaging service. Apple is a hardware company. When Apple buys companies, that's because they fit into its corporate mission, which is to sell hardware at a profit. They might be companies that specialise in touchscreen technologies, or music software companies, but if you have a look at the list of (known) Apple corporate purchases, you won't find anything that gels with "platform-agnostic messaging service".

Apple isn't buying Twitter. There's no corporate fit. It's not going to be announced at WWDC. It's not going to be bought for $700m.

As Kara Swisher of AllthingsD points out, "even the wording [of the Techcrunch and Valleywag posts] is identical". (Let's hope nobody is copying anybody else here. That would be awful.)

So she neatly rips apart the rumour: Biz Stone and Evan Williams are both in New York, which isn't where Apple is, to pick up an award, which isn't the way to close a serious deal.

Quoth Swisher:

Oh, the very notion of Apple and Twitter is a Techmeme dream-ticket, sure to be chewed over for days on end. (I once considered doing a post that just said "AppleTwitterAppleTwitterAppleTwitter…." for 1,000 words to see how much idiotic traffic I would get.)

More to the point, as she notes, if Twitter were being negotiated over, then there would be epic tussles to buy it - which would include Google and Microsoft (and maybe even Yahoo? No, perhaps not these days) because it would fit so much better into what search engine companies do than what a hardware maker does. Remember all the back and forth over Facebook when it was selling a bit of itself to Microsoft - no, Google - no, Yahoo - no, it's Microsoft at the wire at the end of 2007? The owners of plush hotels with conference rooms in Silicon Valley hardly knew how to keep the teams of negotiators apart and served with coffee. This time? Nothing of the sort. Tumbleweed. No negotiations.

So if anyone suggests to you that Apple is about to buy Twitter, tell them "no, they aren't. I read that in the Guardian."

Come back and lash me if I'm wrong, obviously. But I think here the odds are astronomical. link...

Opel labor leader says Fiat deal risks everything

2009-05-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The senior labor leader of German carmaker Opel (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) warned that Fiat's (FIA.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) ambitious growth strategy was an all-or-nothing bet, rejecting the Italian rival's takeover concept for the GM Europe brand.

After a meeting on Monday with Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, Opel works council chairman and supervisory board member Klaus Franz said his plans foresee the loss of some 9,000 to 10,000 jobs at their combined European operations.

Contrary to Marchionne's comments in public, Franz said on Tuesday the Fiat boss also told him that Opel's Kaiserslautern engine plant would have to be closed along with other Fiat/Opel manufacturing sites in England and Italy.

"The financing concept for me is absolutely not convincing. In my opinion he is risking everything," Franz added in an interview with Reuters.

"He wants to build a global carmaker financed with German and American taxpayer money."

Franz, a veteran labor leader who has become the public face of Opel, defends the interests of the 50,000 Opel workers across Europe and any deal would likely require his support.

Last week, Fiat agreed to take an initial 20 percent stake Chrysler for no cash and only offering the bankrupt U.S. carmaker payment in kind by sharing its small car technology.

German Economic Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg on Monday said that Fiat, which already has net industrial debt of 6.6 billion euros ($7.94 billion), had told Berlin that the deal required "bridge financing" of 5-7 billion euros -- roughly twice as much as Opel's 3.3 billion in requested state aid. link...

Pakistani court acquits two in killing of 11 French

2009-05-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

KARACHI, May 5 (Reuters) - A Pakistani court set free on Tuesday two men sentenced to death for planning the killing of 11 French navy engineers in a 2002 bomb attack in the city of Karachi, a defence lawyer said.

The acquittal of the two could raise questions about Pakistan's commitment to tackling surging militancy and comes as President Asif Ali Zardari prepares for security talks in Washington with President Barack Obama.

The two men, Asif Zaheer and Mohammad Rizwan, were accused of belonging to the Harkatul Mujahideen al-Aalmi, an al Qaeda-linked militant group accused of carrying out the attack outside the Sheraton Hotel, which also killed two Pakistanis.

"The court has ruled that the prosecution has failed to prove the case against my clients," defence lawyer Mohammad Farooq told Reuters.

The two men were arrested in December 2002 and sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in 2003.

They later challenged that decision.

Farooq said the court had ordered that the two be released if they were not wanted in connection with any other case.

A security analyst said the court ruling could undermine the credibility of the courts as well as the confidence of foreigners, including investors. link...

Cameron keeps pressure on Brown with election launch

2009-05-05T06:18:00.002-07:00

Gordon Brown tried once again to steer Labour back on course today as MPs returned to Westminster despairing about another Bank Holiday weekend dominated by ministers shooting themselves in the foot.

The Prime Minister delivered a speech on education and was insisting that it was "business as usual" in the Cabinet, two of whose women members had grabbed the May Day headlines. Hazel Blears bemoaned the Government's "lamentable" communications, and Harriet Harman ruled herself out of a leadership race.

Mr Brown's spokesman declared the Cabinet meeting to have been "constructive" and there was no immediate information about what ministers had said to each other on the sidelines.

But David Cameron, capitalising on the disarray, rushed to launch his party's campaign for the local elections on June 4 and acknowledged Labour in-fighting was “certainly helping” his bid to win the next general election.

“They will be trying to get through the next few days, the next weeks, trying not to fall apart and that is not good for the country.”

He said it was a “tragedy” voters would have to wait before getting rid of Labour.

“What is the point of another wasted year?

“People feel frustrated, people have to put up with a divided, weak, disorientated Government.”

Asked if the Labour leadership row was handing the Tories the next election, he replied: “They are certainly helping.”

But he stressed: “I have not spent the last three and a half years waiting for Labour to screw up.”

Asked if he thought Mr Brown would still be Prime Minister when the next general election is called, he replied: “I always say it is hard enough to run one party without trying to run the others. link...

CPN-UML to lead next gov't in Nepal

2009-05-05T06:18:00.001-07:00

KATHMANDU, May 5 (Xinhua) -- 22 political parties of Nepali Constitutional Assembly (CA) concluded here their meeting Tuesday afternoon with an agreement on forming of next government comprising the all 24 parties represented in CA.

The meeting that was held at Singha Durbar, in capital Kathmandu said that the next government will be led by Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML).

Earlier on Monday, CPN-UML and the Nepali Congress (NC) had called on 24 parties meeting after Nepali Prime Minister Prachanda declared resignation from his post.

However, only 22 parties joined the meeting except Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M) and Madheshi People's Rights Forum.

Prachanda declared resignation from his post following the political chaos intensified after Nepali president rejected the government's decision to sack the army chief.

After the meeting, talking to journalist, Madhav Nepal, former General Secretary of CPN-UML said that Nepali Congress had asked his party to lead the next government which the party had accepted.

On the question of who would be the next prime minister, Nepal said that it was an internal matter of the party and would be decided Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal said that the next government had to be an all party government and if some parties were not willing to join it, his party would make sure that there was some kind of understanding that these parties would cooperate and not disrupt the process of constitution building, local news website THT online quoted him as saying.

There are altogether 24 parties representing the CA with 601 CA members to draft new constitution. The CA was formed in May 28, 2008 after signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord in November, 2006, ending the decade civil war in Nepal. link...

Pakistan expects up to 500,000 refugees from Swat

2009-05-05T06:14:00.000-07:00

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani minister says the government expects up to 500,000 people to flee fighting between the army and the Taliban in a northwestern valley.
Information minister for the northwest, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, says authorities are preparing six camps to accommodate those expected to flee the Swat Valley in the coming days.
Witness and officials say fighting between troops and militants broke out in Swat on Tuesday and that hundreds were fleeing.
The region had been covered by a much criticized cease-fire that has slowly broken down in recent weeks.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Taliban militants patrolled the streets of a northwestern town Tuesday and residents were urged to flee as a peace deal widely criticized as a surrender to the extremists appeared on the verge of collapse, witnesses and officials said.
The deteriorating situation in the Swat Valley came as Pakistan's leader prepared for talks in Washington with President Barack Obama on how to sharpen his country's fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban, which are blamed for attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
U.S. officials said Obama would seek assurances from President Asif Ali Zardari that his country's nuclear arsenal was safe and that the military intended to face down extremists in coordination with Afghanistan and the United States.
Although the administration thinks Pakistan's nuclear weapons are secure for now, concern that militants might try to seize one or several of them is acute. The anxieties have heightened amid the Taliban's recent advances and American worry about the commitment from Pakistan's government and military in battling the extremists, the officials said.
Pakistan agreed to a truce in the Swat Valley and surrounding districts in February after two years of bloody fighting with militants in the former tourist resort. It formally introduced Islamic law last month in the hope that insurgents would lay down their arms, something they have not done.
Last week, the insurgents moved from the valley into Buner, a district just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the capital, triggering alarm at home and abroad. The army responded with an offensive that it says has killed more than 100 militants, but has yet to evict them.
On Tuesday, Khushal Khan, the top administrator in Swat said Taliban militants were roaming the area and laying mines, but would not say whether an army offensive — which would spell the end of the peace pact — was imminent. The military has said it will wait for a decision by the central government before launching any actions.
A witness in the main town of Mingora said black-turbaned militants were deployed on most streets and on high buildings, and security forces were barricaded in their bases. He asked for anonymity out of fear for his life.
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the militants were in control of "90 percent" of the valley and said their actions were in response to army violations of the peace deal such as attacking insurgents and boosting troop numbers in the region. He accused the government of acting under pressure from the U.S.
"Everything will be OK once our rulers stop bowing before America," he told The Associated Press by cell phone.
Khushal Khan said authorities were lifting a curfew so that people could leave Mingora, and a camp had been set up for the displaced in the nearby town of Dargai.
"We are leaving the area to save our lives," said Sayed Iqbal, a 35-year-old cloth merchant who was putting household goods in a pickup truck already loaded with his elderly parents, wife and two children. "The government has announced people should leave the area. What is there left to say?"
Washington, which says eliminating militant havens in Pakistan is vital to winning the war in neighboring Afghanistan, has criticized the deal and called for tougher action.
While an army offensive would be welcomed abroad, it was far from certain the government would be able to dislodge the militants, who have had three months to rest and reinforce their positions.
Pakistan has waged several offensives in the border region in recent years that have often ended inconclusively amid public anger at civilian casualties. The country's army, trained to fight conventional battles against rival India, is not used to guerrilla warfare.
Pakistan is struggling to thwart an increasingly overlapping spectrum of extremist groups, some of whom have enjoyed official support. Few extremist leaders are ever brought to justice.
Also Tuesday, the High Court in the southern city of Karachi upheld an appeal by two men sentenced to death for the 2002 slayings of 11 French nationals and four other people in a bombing outside the city's Sheraton Hotel.
The judges said they suspected that the confession of one of the men, Asif Zaheer, was "not voluntary" and that prosecution witnesses had been "set up" by authorities, said state prosecutor Saifullah, who goes by only one name.
Authorities were considering appealing the acquittal, Saifullah said.
Earlier Tuesday, a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying troops near Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, killing one paramilitary soldier and four civilians, police official Ghafoor Khan Afridi said. Another 21 people, including 10 troops and police and two children, were injured, Afridi said.
Pakistani militants have threatened a campaign of suicide blasts in retaliation for U.S. missile strikes on al-Qaida and Taliban strongholds into Pakistan's northwest and for a string of military operations by government forces. link...

PML-N decides to stay out of federal cabinet

2009-05-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

ISLAMABAD: PML-N’s leadership has formally conveyed its decision of not joining the federal cabinet to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, DawnNews reports.

A meeting between Premier Gilani and the top PML-N leadership was held today in Islamabad to determine how the two mainstream political parties could share power in Punjab.

According to PML-N sources, the Nawaz League told PPP that it will be given new portfolios under new conditions in Punjab.

The sources also reveal that both PML-N and the PPP have agreed to form a four-member committee in the province to decide the allocation of portfolios and day-to-day management of affairs.

Both parties have also reached agreement to evolve a consensus on all national issues and convene an All Parties Conference soon.

The deliberations on the power-sharing formula came after the two parties agreed to share treasury benches in the province once again. link...

Hafiz Saeed's detention extended for two months

2009-05-05T06:12:00.002-07:00

LAHORE: The review board of the Lahore High Court extended the detention of the outlawed Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed and Colonel (Rtd.) Nazir for two months, DawnNews reported.

Meanwhile, other Jamaatud Dawa activists Ameer Hamza and Mufti Abdur Rehman were released by the review board.

Saeed was presented before a review board of the Lahore High Court amid strict security.

During the court proceeding, Hafiz Saeed said his detention for the last five months was without any justification.

He said if there was any incriminating evidence against him then it should be presented before the court. link...

Suicide attack on military convoy kills 5

2009-05-05T06:12:00.001-07:00

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 5 (UPI) -- A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle in a Frontier Corps convoy in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, killing at least five people and injuring 25 others, police said.
Police said the attack took place near the Bara Qadim police checkpoint on the border between Peshawar and the Khyber Agency, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.

The checkpoint's building and two vehicles were destroyed in the blast, police said.

Nine of the injured were members of the security force --- four from the Frontier Corps, three from the Frontier Constabulary and two from local police, Dawn said. link...

Nepal deal on national government

2009-05-05T06:11:00.001-07:00

A group of Nepalese political parties has agreed to form a "national government" a day after Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned.
After a meeting in Kathmandu, members of the Communist UML party agreed to head the government.
The parties have been given five days by Nepal's President Ram Baran Yadav to form the government.
Mr Dahal, best known as Prachanda, resigned after the president opposed his decision to sack the army chief.
The Maoists boycotted the all-party meeting.
They said unless the president apologised, they would not let parliament function.
Correspondents say Prachanda's resignation has pushed Nepal into a fresh political crisis following an election win by the Maoists last year.
'Agreed'
"We want the Maoists to join the government too. But if they don't join, we can still form a majority government," senior Nepali Congress party leader Ram Sharan Mahat told the BBC.
UML leader Jhala Nath Khanal said that the Maoists "gave us the offer to lead the government and we have agreed".

Nepal faces the gravest threat to its peace process since a ceasefire was agreed in 2006
Bhagirath Yogi
BBC Nepali service

Nepal: Back into the abyss?
Security around the presidential palace in Kathmandu was stepped up as Maoist activists held a number of street protests across Nepal.
Hundreds of policemen were deployed around the president's palace and police have detained 40 protesters.
"We have been holding protests in different parts of the Kathmandu valley on Tuesday afternoon," the AFP news agency quoted Uma Subedi, secretary of the Maoists' youth wing, the Young Communist League, as saying.
"We will launch regular protests until the president takes back his decision," she said.
On Monday, Prachanda said in his TV address that he was stepping down "for the protection of democracy and peace" in Nepal.
"The move by the president is an attack on this infant democracy and the peace process," he said.
His resignation followed months of worsening tensions between the ex-rebels and the military.
Correspondents say that the expectation now is that the Maoists will sit in opposition in parliament. There is no suggestion that they will abandon constitutional politics.
The Maoists want their fighters, who are currently restricted to United Nations-supervised camps, to be integrated into the regular Nepali army.
But the army has refused to take on the fighters, who number about 19,000 hardened guerrillas, arguing that they are politically indoctrinated.
Correspondents say that the crisis is the most serious in Nepal since its 10-year long civil war between the army and the Maoists came to an end in 2006. link...

Turkey says clan feud led to attack that killed 44

2009-05-05T06:09:00.000-07:00

BILGE, Turkey (AP) — Eight men suspected of gunning down 44 people during an engagement ceremony were arrested Tuesday, accused of killing the betrothed couple — whose wedding they opposed — along with relatives and friends in a 15-minute rampage.
Two girls survived by concealing themselves beneath the bodies of their slain friends during the shootings in Turkey's impoverished rural southeast, where tribal ties and rivalries can eclipse the power of the state.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attack was "the result of a feud between two families."
Security forces backed by armored vehicles set up checkpoints on roads leading to Bilge, the village where the killings took place late Monday. Authorities also cut telephone communication with the hamlet.
Anatolia news agency said the masked attackers had wanted the young woman, Sevgi Celebi, to marry one among their own group of friends or relatives but that her family would not allow it.
It cited unnamed villagers as saying there was a dispute between the attackers' family and the family of the would-be groom, and that Celebi's family had resisted pressure to cancel the marriage plans.
"No customs and mores can be used as an excuse for this massacre," Erdogan said. "This is the painful price we are paying for such customs and mores."
Among the dead, he said, were six children, 17 women and 21 men. He said some suspects had the same family name as the victims.
"The people were killed at a happy event, during a ceremony, while praying," Erdogan said in his weekly address to ruling party lawmakers in parliament. "The fact that they pointed guns and massacred children, defenseless people, is atrocious."
Reports said the gunmen opened fire as men and women prayed in separate rooms in line with tradition in parts of Turkey.
One teenage girl said she lost six members of her family. "I heard the shooting and I hid in the barn because I was afraid. I was really afraid," the girl said on television footage released by Turkey's Dogan news agency.
On Tuesday morning, four large earth-movers dug graves for victims in the village cemetery. Residents carried gravestones and two dozen seated women wept beside a tree, slapping their legs in grief. Men silently watched from a hilltop nearby as soldiers patrolled.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay said eight suspects were in custody.
"They were caught with their weapons," he said.
Abdullah Akan was one of the first villagers who entered the house where the shooting occurred during praying.
"There were bodies everywhere when I entered the house. The imam in the front and the men lined up behind him, all were dead," daily Hurriyet's Web site quoted Akan as saying. "Women and children were in a separate room, the inside was a bloodbath. I have not seen such savagery in my life."
Opposition lawmaker Canan Aritman urged the government to take steps toward eradicating the tribal system, though she did not elaborate.
"It is something that doesn't exist even in the most primitive societies," said Aritman, member of a parliamentary panel investigating so-called "honor killings" within traditional families.
Mehmet Besir Ayanoglu, the mayor of Mardin, told Channel 24 that he spoke to two survivors, both girls, who said at least two masked men stormed a house where the ceremony took place.
Bedia Akbulut, a teacher living in the village, told Anatolia her husband turned out the lights when they first heard shots fired.
"Then there was silence and we went out. Everyone in the village was in great fear," she said. "We can't believe what we went through." LINK...

IT professionals upset with Obama

2009-05-05T06:07:00.002-07:00

BANGALORE: Indian IT professionals on Tuesday slammed President Barack Obama's move to end tax incentives for US companies that ship jobs to

countries like India, saying it will neither benefit the US nor its corporate sector.

"Obama's latest move was expected, but unwelcome at a time when Bangalore's IT and BPO sectors are already reeling under the global economic meltdown," said Padma Nair, 26, an IT-professional working for a Bangalore-based American company.

"Obama's new policy is not going to benefit anyone, neither the outsourcing companies nor the country the job is outsourced to. The cost saved in outsourcing is higher than that saved by tax exemption," Nair told media.

Expressing a similar view, Shankar Banerjee, 25, a quality analyst working for another American IT company, said if Obama's proposal is pushed through, it will hit business coming India's way and many Indians would lose their jobs.

"IT and BPO companies in India have already suffered due to the slowdown. A lot of people have lost jobs. Obama's latest move will cause more problems," added Banerjee.

The comments came after President Obama said Monday that the current US tax system gave US-based multinationals that shipped jobs to places like India an unfair advantage over other domestic rivals and wanted corrective steps.

"It's a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York," Obama said, explaining why he intended to close tax loopholes and crackdown on overseas tax havens.

"I want to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world. But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits to overseas tax havens."

According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the US accounts for about 60 percent of India's software services export revenue. Bangalore-based firms account for one-third of this.

A recent study by the association, conducted along with McKinsey, shows the Indian software and outsourcing industry employs some two million people, earning total revenues worth $52 billion, of which nearly $48 billion comes from exports.

American IT companies that have set up offices in Bangalore include Accenture, Microsoft, Amazon, AOL, Cisco, Dell, IBM and Intel.

An estimated 600,000 people are employed in Bangalore's software and outsourcing sectors. And industry professionals say many could lose their jobs following Obama's latest move.

UNITES-Professionals India, a trade union for IT enabled services sector, predicts 50,000 employees in India will be handed the pink slip over the next few months. Bangalore, hailed as India's Silicon Valley, could be the worst affected.

Concurred Sumana Prasad, 32, an IT employee working for an Indian company: "The slowdown has already hit Bangalore's IT and BPO companies. Obama's latest step will affect more people." LINK...

Tank battalion mutinies in Georgia

2009-05-05T06:07:00.001-07:00

Reporting from Moscow -- A Georgian tank battalion mutinied on Tuesday, government officials said, describing the the rebellion as part of an abortive, nationwide coup funded by Russia in an effort to undermine the U.S.-backed president.

As forces ringed the rebel base to seal it off and tanks rumbled toward the mutiny from Tbilisi, the government announced that it had thwarted a widespread military rebellion. A former, Soviet-era special forces commander was arrested on charges of orchestrating the coup, an Interior Ministry official said, and at least one other alleged organizer was being sought.

Georgian officials immediately accused Russia of masterminding the uprising, and said it was timed to undermine controversial NATO military exercises set to take place in Georgia on Wednesday.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called the uprising a "serious threat" but said it was isolated. He also said the mutineers had "connections with special forces in a specific country known to us."

"I am asking and demanding from our northern neighbor to refrain from provocations," Saakashvili said in a televised address.

The rebel tank battalion consists of about 500 men in Mukhrovoni military base, about 18 miles from the capital, Tbilisi.

"One cannot calmly look at the process of destroying the country calmly, at the ongoing [political] confrontation," the battalion commander, Mamuka Gorgishvili, said in a statement carried by local news agencies. "However, there will be no aggressive actions on behalf of our tank unit. We are in barracks and we are not going to leave them."

The base was quickly encircled and sealed off, the government said. Reporters were being kept away by police checkpoints, and Georgian television showed images of tanks rumbling toward the base. Defense officials said they were negotiating with the mutineers.

"They cannot articulate clearly what they want," Deputy Interior Minister Shota Utiashvili said. "They just released a statement saying they're unhappy with the political situation, and that's it."

Russian officials have bridled at the growing influence of the West in former Soviet states, and have complained bitterly about this week's military exercises. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week called them "an open provocation" and warned of "negative consequences" should NATO press ahead with the exercises.

But despite the public accusations and questionable timing, Utiashvili acknowledged in a telephone interview that there is no concrete evidence of Russian involvement in Tuesday's uprising.

"We don't have direct evidence for the moment," the deputy interior minister said. "The timing of this mutiny coincides with these exercises, so that's what we're looking at."

Saakashvili has faced extreme political pressure since last summer's disastrous war with Russia, which resulted in Georgia's two breakaway republics being recognized by Moscow as independent states.

His political foes accuse the U.S.-backed president of consolidating personal power at the expense of democracy and rushing headlong into an ill-advised confrontation with Moscow.

On Tuesday, some members of the opposition accused Saakashvili's government of fabricating the coup for propaganda purposes.

In Brussels, Moscow's envoy to NATO scoffed at the accusations of Russian involvement.

"We have slowly begun to get accustomed to mad accusations by Georgian political and military authorities that if there is hail or thunderstorms, this is all Moscow's work," Dmitry Rogozin told Interfax news agency. "Both the Georgian army and Georgian nation are undergoing complete destruction, and the reason is, again, Saakashvili's mad policies." LINK...

Pakistanis to Obama: Stop drone attacks

2009-05-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON, May 5 (APP): Interviewed by a major American newspaper just before this week’s meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and President Barack Obama, common people on the streets of Pakistan had a single message for the U.S. leader: stop drone attacks.

Although many Pakistanis had welcomed the election of President Obama as an opportunity for some fresh thinking about their troubled region, The Los Angeles Times reported, the honeymoon hasn’t lasted long.

Pakistanis from different walks of life say they’d give the American leader an earful if they were at the White House table, correspondent Mark Magnier wrote from Islamabad.

One of the biggest complaints: the deadly drones, the hugely unpopular unmanned aircraft involved in spying and firing on suspected “high value” militants on Pakistani soil. Islamabad sees them as violation of its territory.

“These drones are very bad,” Ashraf Bhatti, an apparel merchant, was quoted as saying in the Anjuman bazaar in Lahore. “What would America think if someone started shooting rockets and killing people in their land?”

The anger and resentment remain so great, some here argue, that America loses far more in goodwill than it gains in assassinated militants.

“It just hits everyday people like us,” said Mohammed Yasin, a retired shopkeeper.

Some Pakistanis say they would be less distrustful of U.S. motives and objectives if Washington put a quick end to its “Af-Pak” terminology, strategy and mind-set, some told the The Times correspondent.

Besides Pakistanis, a number of lawmakers on the Hill have also questioned the use of the term Af-Pak, calling it an affront to the sense of sovereignty of the two nations.

The American approach is meant to combine policy toward the two countries into a single cohesive plan, the dispatch pointed out. But people here say that while the region may look like one big mess from afar, there’s a world of difference between themselves and their neighbour to the west.

Pakistan, they say, is a nation with a functioning government, respected universities, a longstanding legal tradition and a vibrant arts tradition. Afghanistan is a land without much in the way of law, government or other conventional definitions of a nation, some contend.

“The majority of Pakistanis really don’t want to be put in the same category,” said Abid Sulehri, head of Islamabad’s Sustainable Development Policy Institute. “It’s very bad if they continue to use that term.”

David Kilcullen, a key adviser to the US Central Commander Gen David Petraeus told a Congressional committee last week that the predator strikes are creating more extremists than they are taking out the bad guys. He pointed out the drone attacks have taken out some al-Qaeda terrorists but they have killed 700 Pakistanis.

Pakistan and the United States have been cooperating closely since 9/11 in fighting al-Qaeda militants who crossed into Pakistani tribal areas when the U.S. swept the Taliban out of Kabul. The U.S. is a major economic and trade partner of Pakistan but has angered Islamabad with a series of drone attacks in its tribal areas. The Pakistani side is expected to raise the issue at Wednesday’s talks. LINK...

H1N1 Swine Flu Widespread in U.S.

2009-05-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

The new H1N1 swine flu is circulating in "virtually all the U.S.," a CDC official said yesterday.

Anne Schuchat, MD, the CDC's acting director for science and public health, noted that the count of states with confirmed flu jumped to 30 on Sunday -- and said she expects that nearly all states soon will see case

Like people, pigs can get influenza (flu), but swine flu viruses aren't the same as human flu viruses. View the slideshow.
© 2009 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
"I believe that virtually all the U.S. has this virus circulating. It does not mean everyone is infected, but within communities, it has arrived," Schuchat said at a news conference.

In New York City, the new flu spread quickly through a high school, infecting one in three students.

"What we can learn from the New York City survey is this virus spread pretty easily in those high school students," Schuchat said.

The H1N1 swine flu remains a relatively mild flu illness for most people who come down with it.

But to slow its spread and buy time for vaccine development, the CDC recommends that schools shut down for two weeks if a student comes down with a confirmed or even suspected case of the new flu.

This means parents should make plans for what they would do if their children's schools were affected.

The sudden appearance of the new flu raises a number of questions. The one that worries Schuchat is whether the H1N1 swine flu can keep smoldering throughout the spring and summer months -- and what will happen if it hits hard when flu season starts back up in the fall and winter.

"I am particularly concerned about what will happen in the fall," Schuchat says.

Although most U.S. H1N1 flu cases have been mild, the CDC fully expects more hospitalizations and more deaths.

It's possible the new flu could mutate to become even milder. On the other hand, it's also possible it could become much more severe. That is the specter that keeps public health workers awake at night -- and working every weekend. link...

White House links up on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace

2009-05-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama’s administration linked the official White House web site to various social sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

During his campaign for president, Obama had already shown himself to be attuned to new media like YouTube, and he took steps to continue use of a personal mobile device — specially secured — after being elected.

This move also gives ordinary people more ways to communicate with the White House through comments on the administration’s Facebook page. Some analysts mused that because the comments left on the Facebook page don’t appear directly on whitehouse.gov, the administration still maintains some protective distance from them.

“Because it’s not the White House’s site,” wrote blogger David Weinberger, any “trashy” or racist comments won’t appear on the official government site.

Twitter, based in San Francisco, is a “micro-blogging” service, and within a short time of joining the service on Friday, the White House already had thousands of followers.

Facebook, based in Palo Alto, started as a web site for college students. MySpace, based in Santa Monica, is now owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. link...

Ravens sign QB Beck

2009-05-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

The Baltimore Ravens have signed free agent quarterback John Beck to a one-year contract.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Beck was a second-round selection by Miami in the 2007 NFL Draft, the 40th overall pick. He played in five games -- four starts -- for the Dolphins during the 2007 season, completing 60-of-107 passes for 559 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions.

"John is a player we evaluated thoroughly in preparing for the 2007 draft," said Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome. "He was a very productive college player, but what also impressed our scouts was how competitive he is. We like to bring in good athletes who love to compete and he fits that."

Beck did not play in 2008 and was released by the Dolphins a week ago. Miami has a number of quarterbacks, including starter Chad Pennington and backup Chad Henne, along with 2009 draft pick Pat White, a quarterback from West Virginia.link...

Boston Globe Still Seeking Accord With Guild to Avoid Closure

2009-05-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

The Boston Globe said it’s still trying to reach a cost-cutting agreement with its largest union after getting tentative accords with six other unions that brought it closer to avoiding a possible closure.

The Globe has agreements with unions representing mailers, drivers, pressmen and machinists, among others, Robert Powers, a spokesman for the newspaper, said in an e-mail, without providing further details. Members must vote on the proposals before they take effect.

New York Times Co., the Globe’s publisher, has asked unions to find $20 million in savings, half of it from the Boston Newspaper Guild, according to the union’s president, Dan Totten. The Guild submitted a new proposal with more than the $10 million in cuts, Totten said yesterday.

“It’s a game of chicken, not unlike what we just saw happen in the car industry,” Claire Gruppo, managing director of investment bank Gruppo, Levey & Co., said in an interview. “The entire newspaper is in a similar quandary.”

New York Times has been cutting jobs, reducing sections and seeking to sell its minority stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team as advertising revenue slumped. The Globe may lose $85 million this year, Times Co. has said.

The Guild said it is awaiting a new time and date for resuming talks. The newspaper’s management had extended a May 1 deadline by two days after drawing closer to an accord with its 10 unions.

The union’s proposal includes cuts “across virtually all categories of compensation and benefits,” Totten said yesterday. The Guild represents about 600 newsroom employees.

Guild Talks

The New York-based publisher added 19 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $5.59 at 12:49 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares had lost 26 percent this year before today.

Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for Times Co., said in an e- mail yesterday that talks were ongoing. She said the publisher doesn’t comment on the specifics of internal negotiations.

The Guild has said that Times Co. had threatened to close the Globe if no agreement was reached. Yesterday, the Globe said it had prepared paperwork required under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act for a possible closure of the Globe as soon as two months after the filing. Powers, the Globe spokesman, said the paperwork won’t be filed today.

Most U.S. newspapers, facing declining revenue amid the recession, hold little potential for a turnaround, Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is the largest shareholder of Washington Post Co., said on May 2.

Union newsroom workers at the New York Times newspaper reached a tentative agreement for a 5 percent pay cut last week that they said would help preserve as many as 80 jobs and save the publisher $4.5 million.

Times Co. imposed salary cuts of as much as 5 percent on almost all of its non-union staff through year end. link...

Supreme Court to consider life in prison for juveniles

2009-05-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide the constitutionality of giving juveniles who commit crimes other than murder a sentence of life in prison without the chance of release.

The nation's high court agreed to hear two Florida cases, one involving a 13-year-old convicted of raping an elderly woman and the other involving a 17-year-old who took part in an armed home-invasion robbery while on probation for an earlier violent crime.

Their lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court and argued that life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole, for juveniles whose crimes did not involve murder violated the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Supreme Court in 2005 abolished the death penalty for juveniles.

The justices will consider in the two cases whether to extend that ruling to sentences of life without parole for juveniles convicted of crimes other than murder.

The justices are expected to hear and then decide the two cases during their upcoming term that begins in October.

In one case, Joe Sullivan, now 33, was convicted of burglary and rape of a 72-year-old woman in Pensacola, Florida, a crime he committed in 1989 at age 13.

According to his supporters, Sullivan is only one of two people in the United States to be serving a life sentence without possible parole for a crime other than murder committed at age 13. The other inmate, also in Florida, was convicted for a 1990 robbery and attempted murder.

Sullivan's attorneys argued that the extremely rare imposition of a life-without-parole sentence for a 13-year-old for a crime other than murder reflected "a national consensus on the reduced criminal culpability of children."

The other case involved Terrance Graham, who was 17 when he was arrested for a 2004 home-invasion robbery. He had pleaded guilty the previous year to burglary and attempted armed robbery and was on probation. LINK...

Poll: Flu response one bright sport for Paterson's ratings

2009-05-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

ALBANY - While his overall job performance continues to tank, Gov. David A. Paterson is receiving good grades for his handling of the swine flu outbreak, according to a poll released Monday.

Forty-six percent of voters told the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion that they approved of Paterson's handling of the health crisis. Eighteen percent disapproved and 36 percent were unsure.

The poll of 1,029 voters was conducted last Tuesday and Wednesday, three days after Paterson publicly ordered the state Health Department to take steps to combat swine flu. He began holding daily briefings on the outbreak that Tuesday.

Paterson's addressing the health crisis is the only bright spot among otherwise dismal poll results. Marist found that only 19 percent of voters said the governor was doing an excellent or good job while 40 percent rated him as poor. Thirty-seven percent rated Paterson as fair and 4 percent were unsure.
Dissatisfaction with Paterson has reached the point where 51 percent said they would prefer to have Eliot Spitzer back in the Executive Mansion even after the scandal surrounding his use of high-priced prostitutes. Among Democrats, 50 percent say "resurrect Spitzer" while only 22 back Paterson, said pollster Lee Miringoff.

He added that Paterson received surprisingly low marks for leadership, tackling the economic crisis and understanding people's needs.

If a hypothetical Democratic gubernatorial primary were held today instead of next September, Paterson would lose to state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, 21 percent to 70 percent.

In the general election, Paterson would be defeated by Republican Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, 32 percent to 56 percent. Paterson would tie former Rep. Rick Lazio (R-Brightwaters). Cuomo would defeat both Republicans.

Paterson's pick to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand of Hudson, is trailing former Republican Gov. George Pataki in a hypothetical matchup, 38 percent to 46 percent. She had led him by four percentage points in a March poll.

Voters continue to back Gillibrand over U.S. Peter King (R-Seaford) but her led has shrunk to 42 percent compared with his 31 percent. LINK...

Nepal’s Maoists lose support over Army chief’s sacking

2009-05-04T11:29:00.001-07:00

KATMANDU, NEPAL - A day after his controversial decision to sack the country's Army chief, Nepal's Prime Minister and Maoist leader Prachanda found himself so politically isolated that he resigned Monday.

Prachanda's unilateral move to fire Gen. Rookmangud Katawal had prompted the president to overrule him Sunday. Coalition partners also withdrew their support of the Maoist-led government, stripping it of its parliamentary majority.

But Maoist hardliners – who wanted to replace General Katawal with a leader more willing to integrate fellow ex-rebels into the Army – supported the sacking.

The prime minister's decision to fire Katawal highlights the immense pressure he had been facing from within his party.

"Prachanda chose to lose his premiership rather than lose his command over his party," says Ameet Dhakal, editor of Republica, a leading English-language daily.

The political disarray also jeopardizes a peace process launched in 2006, which invited former rebel Maoists to join the government and help write a new constitution by 2010.

But in his televised address announcing his resignation, Prachanda ruled out the possibility of his party returning to war. "I remain committed to the ongoing peace process," he said.

He also defended his decision to sack Katawal as asserting civilian supremacy and accused President Ram Baran Yadav of making an "unconstitutional and undemocratic move."

SACKING ENDS UP HURTING MAOISTS

The pullout of two key parties – including the second-largest coalition partner, the Communist Party of Nepal – cost the Maoists 118 votes in the 601-member parliament. The Maoists command 238 seats after a surprise win in assembly elections last April. Another coalition partner, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, which holds 51 seats, may also quit.

These and other political parties saw Prachanda's move as a step toward helping Maoists establish a Communist state, says Mr. Dhakal.

Katawal had opposed efforts to fold into the Army some 19,000 former Maoist fighters, arguing that they were "politically indoctrinated." That's why Maoist hardliners had wanted Lt. Gen. Kul Bahadur Khadka, who is set to retire next month, to replace Katawal in the top post. But if Katawal were to serve his full term, which expires in August, General Khadka would no longer be in line for Army chief. LINK...

Obama talks to lawmakers on court pick

2009-05-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

President Obama called two key senators on the Judiciary Committee today as he mulls his pick to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court.

Obama talked to Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who switched to the Democratic party last week, and to Orrin Hatch of Utah, who has already expressed some concern that Obama might nominate an activist liberal. Meanwhile, conservative Jeff Sessions of Alabama is in line to become the Judiciary panel's ranking Republican with Specter's switch.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, disclosing the early phone discussions, reiterated Obama's desire for the nominee to have real-life experience.

"I think the president described that there should be a diversity of experience. I am sure he will look at candidates for diversity in background," Gibbs said.

"But again, I think the president is looking for somebody with a record of excellence, somebody with a record of integrity, somebody who understands the rule of law, and somebody who understands how being a judge affects Americans' everyday lives." LINK...

Obama Calls for New Curbs on Offshore Tax Havens

2009-05-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

President Obama presented a far-reaching set of proposals on Monday that are aimed at the tax benefits enjoyed by companies and wealthy individuals harboring cash in offshore accounts.

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Doug Mills/The New York Times
While most Americans paid their fair share of taxes, President Obama said, “there are others who are shirking theirs, and many are aided and abetted by a broken tax system
These steps, he said, would be the first in a much broader effort to fix a “broken tax system.”

Mr. Obama made the announcement in the Grand Foyer of the White House, standing alongside Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, Douglas Shulman. His remarks echoed the sentiment he voiced again and again during the presidential campaign, when he pledged to crack down on "illegal overseas tax evasion."

The proposed tax overhaul, which will be fully unveiled later this week when the White House presents a more detailed budget, could help raise $210 billion in revenues over 10 years, the administration estimates.

While most Americans paid their fair share of taxes, Mr. Obama said, “there are others who are shirking theirs, and many are aided and abetted by a broken tax system.” Multinationals, he said, paid an average tax rate of just 2 percent on their foreign revenues. And some wealthy individuals hid their fortunes in foreign tax havens.

The president thus set up a frontal clash with big business over the tax advantages enjoyed by companies with extensive overseas operations.

Large multinational companies like Microsoft, General Electric and Cisco Systems have been bracing for such an initiative from the Obama administration. Critics of the approach say that it could lead not to the administration’s hoped-for repatriation of taxes but rather to job losses or higher prices as companies try to compensate for a greater tax burden.

Marty Regalia, chief economist of the United States Chamber of Commerce, challenged the administration’s reasoning.

“The United States is the only major industrialized country which double-taxes the overseas earnings of our companies,” he said in a statement. By limiting companies’ ability to defer tax payments, he said, “you limit the ability of U.S. companies to compete, you impede growth in the U.S. economy, and you cause the loss of jobs — both at the companies directly impacted and companies in their supply chains.”

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said he supported tax reform and efforts to crack down on tax evaders. But, he added, “I cannot endorse a plan that gives preferential treatment to foreign companies at the expense of U.S. companies.”

He called the plan “a significant tax increase on companies representing 44 percent of total U.S. private employment” and said that in the depths of recession, it seemed “particularly harmful to our shared goal of creating more American jobs rather than driving them overseas."

President Obama addressed some of the concerns Monday, saying that “I want to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world” but that the way to do that was “not to reward companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits” abroad.

One key proposed change would restrict companies from deferring the payment of taxes on profits earned overseas. Administration officials said the plan would keep businesses from taking deductions against their taxes by inflating the amount of foreign taxes they paid.

Mr. Obama raised the idea frequently during his presidential campaign. In his remarks to Congress in February, as he outlined his priorities for the year, he pledged to make the tax code more equitable by “finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.”

The White House said that Mr. Obama is seeking to crack down on overseas tax havens in an attempt to “close the international tax gap.”

Mr. Geithner noted that the Group of 20 industrial countries had agreed this year to act against tax havens like Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Monaco. Amid such rising pressure, 10 countries have agreed to adopt new international standards, he said.

“For years, we’ve talked about shutting down overseas tax havens,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s what our budget will finally do.”

The president hopes to remove the competitive advantage for companies that invest and create jobs overseas, working to replace their tax advantages with incentives to produce jobs in the United States. LINK...

Nepal’s Maoist Prime Minister Resigns

2009-05-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

Nepal’s prime minister resigned on Monday amid a power struggle over his firing of the army chief, saying he was stepping down to salvage democracy in the country and the peace process that brought the Himalayan nation out of a bloody decade-long civil war.

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Deepa Shrestha/Reuters
Nepal's Prime Minister Prachanda submitted his resignation arrives at the President's office in Kathmandu Monday.
In a televised address to the nation, the prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who goes by the name Prachanda, said that he was stepping down one day after Nepal’s president overruled his decision to fire the head of the army, Rookmangud Katawal.

“I announce, through this address, my resignation from the cabinet I have chaired so as to put an end to this difficult situation and create a positive environment for salvaging democracy, nationalism and the peace process that are currently at risk,” Prachanda, a former Maoist guerilla fighter, said in his 13-minute address.

Large clusters of people gathered in front of television shops in the capital, Katmandu, to watch the prime minister give his address, as many parts of the city didn’t have electricity due to an ongoing power crisis.

Prachanda’s party entered into competitive politics after signing a peace deal in 2006, ending a decade-long Maoist rebellion. He became prime minister in August after four months of political wrangling; in May, the nation’s elected constituent assembly declared the nation a federal republic, ending 239 years of Hindu monarchy.

But despite the Maoists’ rise to power, over 19,000 of their former fighters remain restricted to United Nations-monitored barracks under a peace accord.

Prachanda, whose name means “the fierce one” in Nepali, wanted the guerrillas freed and integrated into the military, as prescribed under a U.N.-brokered peace agreement. But the army chief resisted those efforts and sparred repeatedly with the government.

The disagreement over the army chief fractured the nation’s ruling coalition on Sunday, and analysts said it put a serious question mark over the government’s ability to keep the ex-combatants in their cantonments.

The Communist Party of Nepal, a unified Marxist-Leninist party that holds the second highest number of seats in the 601-member Constituent Assembly, pulled out of the government on Sunday, accusing the Maoists of acting unilaterally.

Earlier Monday, Maoist cadres held demonstrations in the capital to protest the president’s decision to reinstate the army chief. Activists with the main opposition Nepali Congress party held counter rallies in support of the action, which was termed as “unconstitutional” by the Prachanda government.

Anger against the government has been running high in Nepal, where much of the public blames the Maoists for power outages that can last more than 16 hours a day, fuel shortages that have created endless lines at gas stations, and rising prices for food and other household staples.

But the Maoists are still revolutionary heroes to many, especially among rural villagers who voted them into power last year in Nepal’s first elections.link....

Rutgers grad's resume needs some star power

2009-05-04T03:23:00.001-07:00

TODAY'S APPLICANT

Melissa Tozzi of Edison graduated from Rutgers University in 2007 with a degree in Communications.

Unable to find a job in her chosen field, she has decided to make use of her psychology minor, temporarily working as a mental-health associate.

While she remains open-minded in her job/career search, Tozzi aspires to work in the entertainment industry.

View this applicant's full resume.
What I do outside work: I will be taking part in the Lyme Disease Association 5K run/walk fundraising event in Long Branch on May 17. I am involved with CASA, as a court appointed special advocate for children. I also have a passion for fitness and I love to travel and learn about different cultures.

What I'm reading: "Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential," by Joel Osteen. I enjoy inspirational books that have a positive outlook.

If I didn't have to work: I would spend my time traveling around the world, being a motivational speaker for young children on how to make the best of their lives. I would install programs that deal with mind, body and health in stress-reduction for their future.

Why you should hire me, in 25 words or less: My perseverance and professionalism is a valuable component to the drive I have to succeed. I am diversified and work well collaborating with others. I crave the feeling of fulfillment and do my best to see through to the best possible outcome.

RECENT EXPERIENCE
April 2008-present: Summit Oaks Hospital. Mental health associate functioning in a support role with the registered professional nurse caring for individual and groups of patients.

June 2007-Jan. 2008: Coors Brewing Company. Administrative assistant to the sales, finance and marketing team at this Edison-based company.

STRENGTHS
I am well-spoken, perceptive, outgoing, investigative/researcher and a quick-learner. I am able to adapt to any environment and work as a team player. I have been complimented on my professionalism.

TOP ACHIEVEMENT
Working at the "LIVE! With Regis & Kelly" show and assisting with the campaign and red-carpet premiere of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Spider-Man 3 movie.

EDUCATION HIGHLIGHT
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, N.J.
B.A. Communications

TODAY'S EXPERT
Don Goodman, master resume writer, certified career coach and certified job search strategist, About Jobs in North Caldwell (GotTheJob.com).

THE MARKET
Melissa wants to be in the entertainment field, which is not experiencing high growth right now. She needs to either create a highly focused job search program to enter the market or identify other types of positions that she desires.

THE RESUME
Melissa's resume is an older style design that might have worked well 10 years ago, but will not work well today. She essentially has a very general objective followed by a listing of the jobs she held, detailing her roles and responsibilities. It is not clear what kind of position she is seeking and the skills and experience she has to offer.

ADVICE
• Melissa needs to start with a "Profile Summary," which is the most important part of the resume, as it answers the big question, "Why should we hire you?" It needs to be compelling and make someone want to read more. She should stress her academic and work experience highlighting the skills that are relevant to the position she is seeking.

• Melissa needs to continue the theme established in the profile section by detailing how she used these core skills successfully on the job. Her resume now lists such duties as "coordinated travel itineraries" and would be better if she focused more on her performance. statements. "Recognized for consistently meeting aggressive deadlines in a fast-paced environment" is an example of this.

• Melissa's resume would benefit from a "Highlights" section that showcases her experience in the entertainment field and makes it easy for someone to see relevant experience at a glance. For example, she could highlight her role in supporting the "Ghost Rider" film premiere.

• Because she is fairly entry-level, she should try to have a one-page resume, as opposed to the resume she has now, which is 1Â¼ pages.

• At a glance (and that's often all you get), it looks like Melissa has job hopped a lot. Careful reading will show that some positions were internships, but she should highlight that better. For other jobs, she should highlight why she left so people do not think it was for poor performance.

• Melissa should realize that responding to positions through job boards has less than a 5 percent effectiveness rate versus networking, which has more than a 50 percent effectiveness rate. She should identify companies she is interested in and network into a meeting with decision makers where she can demonstrate her knowledge of the firm, their issues and how she can be of benefit. link...

Zambia: Press Must Have More Independence

2009-05-04T03:21:00.000-07:00

YESTERDAY'S commemoration of the World Press Freedom Day should remind all of us about the importance of the media in fostering national development as well as democracy.

It is generally agreed that freedom of the Press is cardinal for the growth of any society. All the key players, including farmers and business entrepreneurs, need accurate information to come up with proper decisions.

Even ordinary citizens faced with the task of selecting leaders need information for them to make informed choices and elect leaders who can drive their communities and nations forward.

That is why stakeholders, journalists and politicians included, are agreed that the Press should be given greater independence.

Freedom of the Press and access to information are key ingredients for the success of democracy.

Differences only have to do with the manner in which such freedom can be guaranteed to journalists without putting the security of the nation at risk or straying into the privacy of citizens.

For instance, the Government has stated that it supports the proposed implementation of laws such as the Freedom of Information Bill but would want to have certain structures in place before the law takes effect.

The Government has also challenged the media to come up with a self-regulatory mechanism to ensure that all media houses adhere to the same code of conduct as they perform their duties.

Coming from the observance of the World Press Freedom Day, journalists and other stakeholders, especially the Government, should work together and agree on how best Press freedom can be enhanced for the greater good of both parties.

It is equally an opportunity for us in the media to strengthen our self-regulatory bodies like the Media Council of Zambia so that we do not give an excuse to anybody to introduce other forms of regulation.

Media bodies and the Government should sit down and discuss how best the proposed legislation like the Freedom of Information Bill could be enacted in the interest of national development.
Now is also the time to re-activate the stalled media law reforms whose implementation is key to the attainment of greater media freedom.

Progressive media laws passed by Parliament should be made operational for the benefit of the nation.

The Press needs to enjoy freedom for journalists to play the critical role of fostering dialogue for mutual understanding, reconciliation and development. link...

Magna Bankruptcy Hearing Today

2009-05-04T03:20:00.000-07:00

Attorneys for Magna Entertainment will be in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Monday, as the court considers its request to auction a number of its race tracks to pay off its creditors.

However, Pimlico, Laurel Park and the Bowie Training Center will not be among the tracks sold.

The Preakness Stakes is not on the list of assets to be sold.

Magna notified the court late Friday that it would not sell the Maryland properties. It did not give a reason, but in its court filing said it would explore "all alternatives with respect to the remaining assets."

Last month, Governor Martin O'Malley signed legislation that would allow the state to seize Pimlico, Laurel and the Preakness Stakes by eminent domain, if the company were to sell the tracks to a buyer who would move the race out of Maryland.

O'Malley Administration officials welcomed Magna's decision.

Magna will still sell Santa Anita Park in California, Remington Park in Oklahoma, Thistledown in Ohio and Portland Meadows in Oregon.

During today's hearing the judge will hear objections to the auction from PNC Bank, Wells Fargo Bank and the Bank of Montreal, who are arguing that the tracks may not be sold to the highest and most qualified bidders.

Bankruptcy attorneys representing the State of Maryland will attend the hearing, even though the Maryland tracks are no longer on the list of assets going on the auction block.

Magna is proposing that any bids be submitted by July 31, with the auction to take place in New York on September 8. link...

Nepal PM quits over army chief crisis

2009-05-04T03:11:00.000-07:00

Nepal's Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda resigned on Monday from the cabinet after a crisis sparked by his sacking of the country's army chief.

The Maoist-led government fired General Rookmangud Katawal on Sunday, accusing him of disobeying instructions not to hire new recruits and refusing to accept the supremacy of the civilian government.

But President Ram Baran Yadav, who hails from an opposition party and is commander-in-chief of the army, called the move unconstitutional.

"I have resigned from the cabinet," Prachanda said in a televised address to the nation.

The crisis is a huge blow to a 2006 peace pact that ended a decade-long civil war that pitted the army against the Maoists. The peace agreement ushered the Maoists into the political mainstream and they won an election last year.

Two government parliamentary allies have withdrawn from the ruling coalition to protest against the army chief's dismissal, leaving the Maoists with a thin majority and possibly leading to a confidence vote in the government. link...

Lord Mandelson and Ed Balls to help Prime Minister after turmoil

2009-05-04T03:10:00.001-07:00

Gordon Brown has turned to Lord Mandelson and Ed Balls, his oldest and closest political allies, to beef up his internal support operation after three weeks of Labour turmoil.

The Times has learnt that the Prime Minister asked the two men jointly last week to head a weekly strategy meeting in No 10 to plan the Government’s response to future events and act as an early warning system for him. The move follows a black period for the Prime Minister that has marked the resignation of his aide Damian McBride for suggesting the smearing of opponents, his attempt to reform MPs’ expenses system, his first parliamentary defeat — over the right of Gurkhas to settle — and yesterday’s attack by Hazel Blears over a “lamentable” failure to communicate.

The Communities Secretary, who swiftly denied that she had intended to criticise Mr Brown personally, came under fierce attack herself from Cabinet colleagues for prolonging the party’s troubles. One said: “She’s telling everyone it was not malicious. Well if it was not malicious it was bloody inept.”

Mr Brown’s reliance on Mr Balls and Lord Mandelson will be seen as ironic by many MPs. Lord Mandelson was his close confidant and ally in the years after he entered Parliament in 1983 until they fell out in 1994 when the Business Secretary backed Tony Blair rather than Mr Brown for the leadership.

RELATED LINKS
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Mr Balls, the Schools Secretary, was Mr Brown’s economic adviser from the mid-1990s and during his first two terms as Chancellor, and was a key figure in the decision to make the Bank of England independent. Mr Balls was at Mr Brown’s side throughout the long period when relations with the Blairites, including Lord Mandelson, were poor.

However, since Mr Brown surprisingly resurrected Lord Mandelson’s political career in October by bringing him back into the Cabinet, the two have worked closely. In recent months Mr Brown, Lord Mandelson and Mr Balls have met regularly.

Now, after repeated suggestions that Mr Brown needs more heavyweight political support at the centre, he has asked them together to sharpen up the Downing Street and Cabinet Office operation.

Senior officials, political advisers and Liam Byrne, the Cabinet Office Minister, will attend the weekly meeting, which will discuss policy, communications and strategy, trying to identify in advance looming pitfalls such as the Gurkha fiasco.

Mr Brown has been planning the move for some time but it was confirmed last week after he returned from his trip to Pakistan.

Cabinet ministers weighed in to support Mr Brown yesterday after Ms Blears attacked the failure of the Government to connect with the instincts of people, and appeared to join with the criticism of Mr Brown’s appearance on YouTube to explain his expenses reform plans. “YouTube if you want to,” she said in an article in The Observer. “But it is no substitute for knocking on doors or setting up a stall in the town centre.”

When the story broke on Saturday night Ms Blears rang Mr Brown to insist that she was not criticising him.

But ministers privately and publicly told Ms Blears yesterday that while criticising a failure to communicate she had managed to help the media to keep the narrative about Labour chaos going. Several privately accused her of trying to raise her profile for any leadership contest that might happen next year if Labour lost the election. One said it was inconceivable that she could not have foreseen that the YouTube gibe would be interpreted as “going for Gordon”.

Others said that although she had criticised the way the Government handled the Gurkha issue she had been involved in Cabinet discussions on the subject. One government aide said: “She is feeling very silly today.”

At the same time Alan Johnson, who is regarded widely as a potential unity candidate if Mr Brown steps down after an election defeat, kept open the possibility that he might still one day stand. Some disaffected Labour MPs are saying they hope that he could be persuaded to put himself forward this summer.

Discussing whether he would launch an attempt at the leadership, Mr Johnson said: “I am not saying there’s no circumstances.”

But he added: “I have no aspiration for the leader. My aspiration was for the deputy leadership and I couldn’t even get that. I am not driven by this ambition. I want to be part of a good government and I want it to be led by Gordon Brown. I actually admire Gordon Brown tremendously. I think he is a man for these times.”

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, dismissed suggestions that Mr Brown’s position could be under threat if Labour did badly at next month’s European and local council elections.

“Whatever the results concerned are, they will be mid-term results and they won’t make any difference to Gordon Brown’s position. He is far and away the best man to lead the Labour Party,” he told the BBC Radio 4 programme The World This Weekend.

He rejected Ms Blears’s claim that there had been a “lamentable failure” by the Government to get its message across. “Hazel is Hazel. She made her point but she subsequently issued a statement clarifying that,” he said.

He expressed concern that internal issues within the Labour Party were distracting people from the central economic argument and the need to take on the Tories. “One of my frustrations is that internal preoccupations are drowning out the message about the Conservatives,” he said.

Amid further signs that Labour discipline was being strained to the limit Charles Clarke wrote a newspaper article that was interpreted as a call on Mr Brown to sack Mr Balls. The Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle called on Ms Blears to consider her position. He said there should be less “sniping and griping” from Cabinet ministers. Mr Hoyle, MP for Chorley, said: “If you’re in Cabinet you have a collective responsibility and that is: ‘Keep out of the argument, keep out of the media, let’s have less comment’.” link...

Hong Kong Confronts Swine Flu

2009-05-04T03:07:00.000-07:00

The Hong Kong government warned that an outbreak of swine flu may happen before the summer holiday after the city confirmed the first case of H1N1 influenza in Asia last Friday.

Hong Kong's Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok warned Sunday that it was just a matter of time before the World Health Organization raised its epidemic alert level to the highest degree, and an outbreak of the deadly epidemic was difficult to avoid in highly populated Hong Kong, the epicenter of the SARS outbreak in 2003. SARS killed nearly 300 people in Hong Kong alone, and around 800 worldwide.

Article Control
The city hoisted the highest emergency alert level after a 25-year-old Mexican tourist was found to be carrying the A(H1N1), the so-called swine flu virus, on Friday in the first confirmed case in Asia.

The Mexican, whose name hasn't been disclosed, was admitted to a hospital in Hong Kong on Thursday night, just seven hours after he landed the city after flying via Shanghai from Mexico. The patient had a fever and other flu symptoms, and tested positive on Friday for swine flu virus.

Chow and a team of experts, including microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung of the University of Hong Kong, are speeding up their efforts to track down those who had close contact with the victim in Hong Kong. They are hoping to delay any outbreak until summer so as to avoid a scenario in which doctors and scientists do not have time to prepare a sufficient amount of vaccine or gather enough clinical data to help fight the disease.

Seared by its SARS experience, Hong Kong is taking no chances. About 30 passengers who sat close to the Mexican tourist on the plane have all been traced. Another 300 guests and staff at Hong Kong's Metro Park hotel where he stayed have been quarantined for seven days, starting Friday night. However medical officers are still looking for a further 50 hotel guests who have not returned to the hotel since the news of the quarantine became public.

The names of the missing guests have been passed to Immigration Department officials in order to prevent them from leaving the city and potentially spreading the virus to other countries.

In addition, a taxi driver who could be carrying the H1N1 flu virus is still at large, perhaps still driving passengers around the city. Hong Kong authorities believed they had located the taxi driver who had taken the Mexican man to a hospital after a driver called the government hotline to claim he had driven the man there. But the caller admitted Sunday that he had lied, saying he just wanted to test whether the government hotline was efficient.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong is also stepping up border screening and taking other precautions familiar to city residents from the SARS era. All arriving at the Hong Kong airport must fill out a health declaration form with a checklist of swine flu symptoms. And schools are requiring parents to take students' temperatures daily before they will be allowed to go to class.

Chow, the top health official in Hong Kong, said the authorities should not solely target Mexican tourists and travelers, adding it was more important to monitor all those who had been to Mexico or other affected countries
The Mexican government complained that China was discriminating against Mexicans after Beijing quarantined more than 70 Mexican citizens, even though some of them didn't have any flu symptoms.

To prevent swine flu, China canceled the only direct flights between China and Mexico and banned imports of pork from Mexico and some parts of the U.S. and Canada.link...

Manny Pacquiao stuns Ricky Hatton with second round knockout

2009-05-04T03:06:00.001-07:00

Manny Pacquiao underlined his status as the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer with a stunningly destructive second round knockout of Britain’s Ricky Hatton this morning at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The 30-year-old Filipino, a rare amalgam of brutal power and virtuoso artistry, dominated his bigger opponent with speedier, more precise, explosive punches which reduced the 30-year-old from Manchester to a stumbling, impotent, overwhelmed version of the proud fighter who had marched to the ring with a record of 46 wins, 32 by stoppage, against just one previous defeat.

Hatton was twice knocked down in the opening round before Pacquiao put together a savage sequence of punches which further diminished the Mancunian before a bombshell left to the jaw sent him crashing onto his back unconscious. Wisely, American referee Kenny Bayless chose not to complete the count before he waved it over at 2:59 of round two, with Hatton in a frighteningly endangered state.

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Thankfully, he managed to climb off the floor several minutes later but the wait was an anxious one for his father, Ray, and mother, Carol, who were seated at ringside alongside his distraught fiancée, Jennifer. The nightmare they may have feared in more private moments had come to pass, ending their son’s dream of beating the best boxer in the world and also his four-year reign as the world’s best light welterweight, a position he has held since his stoppage of Australian Kostya Tszyu at the MEN Arena in June 2005.

An intemperate lifestyle had reduced his effectiveness as a fighter in the years since and the strong belief that his 11th round stoppage of Paulie Malignaggi here in November would prove to be illusory was validated. Malignaggi, a hugely appealing personality behind his bombastic veneer, is no Pacquiao but on current evidence he is boxing’s nonpareil. Perhaps only a further jump in weight into a welterweight collision with Floyd Mayweather Jr, who announced a July comeback fight against Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez yesterday morning, could threaten this position.

It is incredible to consider that Pacquiao began his career in 1995 as a light flyweight, weighing 7st 8lb. Weighing 9st 12 lb at Friday’s official weigh-in and several pounds heavier when he stepped in the ring, he was a formidable specimen and too much for Hatton by far. Not long into the first round Hatton walked onto a right hand which stunned him and moments later he walked onto another from which he staggered discernibly.

The timing of Pacquiao’s punches was assassin-like and he kept tagging Hatton with his southpaw right hook. A right-left-right combination hurt Hatton and a follow-up right to the jaw, just as Hatton missed with a wild left, floored him for the first time. His expression was that of a man caught in a storm from which he could see no escape. He beat the referee’s count but was in serious trouble and Pacquiao’s relentless attack, culminating in an overhand left, put Hatton down again. He got up and, fortunately, there was no time left for Pacquiao to pursue him as the bell intervened.

But the minute’s rest was merely a brief stay of execution. Hatton tried to rough up Pacquaio at the start of the second round but he was hurt by two more quick lefts to the jaw before he walked onto another right hand. Momentarily, he stalled Pacquiao’s momentum with a right uppercut to the Filipino’s chin but Pacquaio held the shot well and fired back with a right-left to the chin. The final overhand left he threw was sinister in the extreme, sending Hatton down and into a parallel world.

When he recovered sufficiently for paramedics to be able to sit him on his stool in the centre of the ring he remained unable to communicate coherently. Back in his dressing room before being taken to the nearby Valley Hospital he managed to say, “It was a hard loss but I’m okay. I really didn’t see the final punch coming but it was a great shot. I know I’ll be okay.”

Pacquiao compared this victory to his previous win in December, a stoppage of Oscar De La Hoya who retired on his stool at the end of eight one-sided rounds. “This was as big for me as the De La Hoya fight,” he said. “I’m surprised this was so easy but I worked hard in training camp. He was open for the right hook. I knew he’d be looking for my left, so we worked on landing the right for three months in training camp. It’s nothing personal. I was doing my job.”

Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, had predicted a third round stoppage and he insisted afterwards that the result was no surprise. “Hatton pumps his hands before he throws a punch, he’s a sucker for the right hook and we worked on that the entire training camp,” Roach said. “Ricky cocks back before he throws a punch and he fights the same way over and over. I studied tape for two months and I knew him as well as I knew my own fighters. This was no surprise.”

It may prove to be a career-ending fight for the Hitman from Manchester. No boxer has any desire to go out on a conclusive loss, especially one as successful as Hatton has been. But a corrosive combination of the wars he has fought and bad living have caught up with him and he will be a shadow of his former self should he continue his career. He lost to a gem of a fighter, one who has lost three times but the marked improvement he has made under Roach’s tutelage makes Pacquiao stand out as a fighter apart. There is no shame for Hatton this morning, only a sore head. The pain will pass but the performance of a champion who subsequently went off to the Mandalay Bay to play with his band will remain etched in the memory. link...

Berlusconi has no plans to reconcile with wife

2009-05-04T03:04:00.000-07:00

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has no plans to seek a reconciliation with his wife and has demanded an apology from the former actress for comments she made.

His wife Veronica said over the weekend she planned to file for divorce, days after publicly criticizing Berlusconi's selection of pretty young women to run in European elections.

La Stampa newspaper quoted the premier Monday as saying he had ordered his lawyers to take care of the situation and that Veronica's comments might even warrant a lawsuit.

"To tell the truth, there may even be conditions to sue for defamation, but it's best to leave that alone," he said.

Lamenting to the Corriere della Sera daily that his wife had "fallen into a media trap," Berlusconi said salvaging his marriage of 19 years appeared unlikely now.

"I don't think so, I don't know if I want it this time. Veronica should publicly apologize to me," Berlusconi said.

"And I don't know if that will be enough. It's the third time that she has pulled off a trick like this during an election campaign. It really is too much."

Berlusconi said he did not believe the media frenzy surrounding his private life would have an impact on his approval ratings or the European elections in June.

Berlusconi, a 72-year-old media magnate, defended his party's choice of female candidates that his wife had lambasted last week as "shamelessly trashy."

"We never included any showgirl in the list and the three that we excluded at the last minute were very capable girls, with an excellent education. Anything but showgirls," he said.

"Veronica has believed many inaccurate things written in the press, unfortunately."

He also shrugged off Veronica's anger at his presence at the Naples birthday bash of an 18-year-old woman. He said he agreed to stop by only at the insistence of her father, an old friend.

"There's nothing strange here, it's happened several times with birthdays and marriages," Berlusconi said.

Supporters of Berlusconi have criticized Veronica, who rarely appears with him and has long lived in a separate house, for the latest public clash with her husband. The two have been together for 29 years but got married only in 1990.

Berlusconi, who is Italy's second-richest man, has three children aged 20, 22 and 24 with Veronica.

However, it is his two children by his first marriage who play the most prominent roles in his business empire.

Son Piersilvio is vice-chairman of media group Mediaset while daughter Marina chairs holding company Fininvest and publishing arm Mondadori. link...

Pakistan greats rue missed Aussie opportunity

2009-05-04T03:02:00.000-07:00

LAHORE: Former Pakistan greats on Monday lamented their team's 3-2 series defeat to an out-of-form and under-strength Australia as a great opportunity missed to restore faith in the game back home.

"Pakistan cricket has been reeling from problem after problem. Had the team won the series, it would have been a great boost to the game in the country, sadly we lost that chance," said former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram. Wasim was critical of Pakistan's decision to rest frontline paceman Umar Gul for the pivotal fourth game. Wasim believes Younus Khan's elevation to the captaincy had blunted his batting. "Younus made a couple of costly mistakes, he should have promoted Kamran Akmal top of the order because he has been batting well," said Wasim, adding the side needed to improve its running between the wickets.

Former paceman Sarfraz Nawaz agreed on-song Gul should not have been rested, branding his omission "a crime". "I think Pakistan must include new players who are young and energetic and get rid of players like Shoaib Akhtar who have fitness problems.

Chief selector Abdul Qadir said that with Pakistan virtually a no-go area for international cricket, the game in the country was crying out for a series win. "It was very important that we won an important series considering the situation in Pakistan, where we are having no cricket," said Qadir.

Another former captain, Moin Khan, blamed Pakistan's defeat on poor batting. "I fail to understand why we can't bat the full 50 overs, it shows that our batsmen struggled against Australia," Khan said. link...

Pakistan battles Taliban; pact hangs in balance

2009-05-04T03:00:00.002-07:00

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani forces battled Taliban fighters on Monday as the militants denounced the army and government as U.S. stooges and said a peace pact would end unless the government halted its offensive.

The February pact and spreading Taliban influence have raised alarm in the United States about the ability of nuclear-armed Pakistan -- which has a vital role in efforts to stabilize Afghanistan -- to stand up to the militants.

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Islamabad of abdicating to the Taliban while President Barack Obama expressed grave concern the government was "very fragile" and unable to deliver basic services.

Obama will present his strategy for defeating al Qaeda to Pakistan and Afghanistan leaders on Wednesday amid growing U.S. concern it is losing the Afghan war.

In the Buner valley, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the Pakistani capital, security forces backed by helicopter gunships and artillery attacked militants in three hamlets, residents and a security official said.

"There's been heavy firing going on since morning. It's very scary. Troops are using heavy artillery and gunships," resident Nasir Khan told Reuters by telephone.

A military official, who declined to be identified, said 20 militants had been killed.

Buner is to the southeast of the Swat valley, where in February authorities gave in to a Taliban demand for Islamic sharia law as part of a deal to end nearly two years of violence in the former tourist destination.

But the Taliban refused to give up their guns and pushed into Buner and another district adjacent to Swat last month, intent on spreading their rule.

"WORSE THAN THE AMERICANS"

Amid mounting concern at home and abroad, security forces launched an offensive to expel militants from Buner and another district just over a week ago.

More than 170 militants have been killed, according to the military, although there has been no independent confirmation of that casualty estimate. link...

Nepal crisis should be resolved through democratic means'

2009-05-04T03:00:00.001-07:00

Kolkata (PTI): Expressing concern over the prevailing political turmoil in Nepal following sacking of army chief R Katawal, the CPI(M) on Monday said the crisis should get resolved through democratic means.

"The CPI(M) wants that whatever solution is found out should be within the democratic process," CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.

"It is a serious development...it should be resolved through democratic means and discussion in political process ...unless this happens whatever the people have achieved in Nepal through struggle will be derailed," he said, adding that there should be no external interference in the neighbouring country's development.

"India has not interfered earlier in Nepal and not doing so now. I feel it (India) should not interfere in the crisis," Mr. Yechury said.

Nepal plunged into a crisis on Sunday after the ruling Maoist party sacked Army Chief Gen Rukmangad Katawal for alleged defiance of government orders.

The action of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as "Prachanda", triggered protests from most political parties in the coalition.

The situation aggravated further when President Ram Baran Yadav asked the Army Chief to continue in his post as his dismissal by the prime minister did not meet the "constitutional requirements and due process". link...

US says Swat deal a real wake-up call for Pakistan

2009-05-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

Washington, May 4 (ANI): US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the failure of the Swat deal is a real wake-up call for Pakistan, adding that the Pakistani military has started to regain the initiative in its northwestern areas that recently fell under the Taliban control.
It is my impression from the great distance that they have begun to regain the initiative, he said when asked about Pakistan armys operations against the Taliban militants in Buner and other areas around the Swat valley.
Gates told CNN that the militants posed an existential threat to Pakistan, noting that the countrys leadership is determined to confront the menace.
I think the leaders of Pakistan do understand this. President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the others. But I think there is a need for them to help the rest of Pakistan understand why it is an existential threat.
Asked to comments on Pakistans criticism that the US was reluctant to provide it with the necessary counterinsurgency equipment, including helicopters and night vision goggles, Gates said that was not the case.
In fact, he said, there was hesitation on Pakistans part to have a too much American involvement on its soil. The United States is prepared to help Pakistan with training and counterinsurgency equipment, Gates said.
We have been willing to provide that kind of training and that kind of equipment, as much as we can provide as much as they can take.
Pakistan, he said, does not want a significant American footprint on its soil. I understand that. But we are willing to do pretty much whatever we can to help the Pakistanis in this situation.
Asked if America will send more counterinsurgency trainers beyond a small number, Gates replied: I think that remains to be seen. I think it will depend on how the situation develops and the views of the Pakistani government.
Similarly, Gates said on the news programme that Pakistan is beginning to develop the counterinsurgency capability, citing Americas own experience of several years in changing its tactics after the Iraq war. (ANI) link...

US Increasingly Concerned About Pakistan Nuclear Program

2009-05-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON: US government is increasingly concerned about the potential vulnerability of the country’s nuclear arsenal.
Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the administration of President Barack Obama is worried about the potential for militants to snatch a weapon in transport or to insert sympathizers into laboratories or fuel-production facilities.
The officials emphasized that there was no reason to believe that the arsenal, most of which is deployed south of Islamabad, was facing an imminent threat, the report said. But the United States does not know where exactly all of Pakistan’s nuclear sites are located, and its concerns have intensified in the last two weeks, after Taliban entered Buner, a district just 60 miles from the capital, the paper said. According to The Times, the insurgency has left US officials less willing to accept blanket assurances from Pakistan that the weapons are safe. But the Pakistanis have continued to rebuff American requests for more details about the location and security of the country’s nuclear sites, the report noted.
Some of the Pakistani reluctance stemmed from longstanding concern that the United States might be tempted to seize or destroy Pakistan’s arsenal if the insurgency spread further, according to the paper. But the officials said the US government had not yet engaged the most senior officials of the Pakistani government on the issue, The Times said.
That may begin this week as Obama meets at the White House with President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday, the report said. “We are largely relying on assurances, the same assurances we have been hearing for years,” The Times quotes one senior official as saying. “The worse things get, the more strongly they hew to the line, Don’t worry, we’ve got it under control.’” link...

Indian Squad for T20 World Cup being Shaped-up in South Africa

2009-05-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

Behind the pleasing veneer that Chairman of the Indian Selection Board, Krishnamachari Srikkanth poses every time a match of Chennai Super Kings unfolds in the second season of the Indian Premier League, his prying eyes are also on the prowl for the probable for the 15 member squad of India. He indeed is living up to his nick name of "chika", and in a tiger like proportion he is present in all the matches and preparing a list of probable from whom the final squad would shape up to be shipped to England for the T20 World Cup Championship. The players who are playing in the second season of the IPL are also therefore leaving no stone unturned to impress the selectors to carve out a place for themselves in the final Indian squad.

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BCCI has already been on the job and has short listed 30 probable from which 14 players have done their bit to make a case for themselves once again. Among the creditable performances that are worth noticeable is that of R P Singh who is really relishing bowling in the South African condition and could be able to make it up to the English squad on account of his ability to perform in the South African conditions.

If a comparison from the previous Indian squad that won the inaugural World Cup of 20-20 variety, S Sreesanth, and Joginder Sharma may not be able to fit into the Indian squad, Sreesanth on account of his fitness problems and Joginder Sharma for a lack luster performance. Pathan brothers would be there in the squad and there is a distinct probability that Munaf Patel and Pragyan Ojha would also find a place for themselves.

There could be an interesting toss up between Munaf Patel and either Virat Kohli or Abhishek Nayyar. It may be on account of the fact that Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni may decide to strengthen his bating department, and inclusion of either of these two players may also give him an additional bowling option, and a better fielding option, when compared to Munaf Patel. link...

Flu cases increase, but US officials optimistic

2009-05-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - The number of confirmed cases of swine flu continued to increase yesterday, affecting additional countries in Europe and Latin America and increasing the likelihood that the World Health Organization might raise its alert to the highest level.

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But health officials in the United States expressed some optimism about the course of the disease. And the Mexican health minister said that in his country, the hardest hit and where the flu was first reported, the worst had passed.

Janet Napolitano, US homeland security secretary, yesterday that WHO might "very well" elevate its flu alert from Level 5 to Level 6, the highest, this week. WHO officials have also indicated that such a move may be imminent.

Napolitano emphasized, however, that even the highest-level WHO warning was not in itself a cause for grave concern. It would indicate that the flu strain has reached pandemic status, but there can be a pandemic of a mild disease, and this strain is looking milder than first thought.

"Level 6, which they very well could go to this week, all that means is that it is widespread around the world," Napolitano said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Other American health officials spoke of "encouraging signs" in the flu's course, even while cautioning of the substantial uncertainties surrounding any new strain.

The WHO said Saturday that there was still no evidence of the flu's sustained spread outside North America, a requisite condition for raising its alert level.

Still, 19 countries have now been affected, including Colombia, which yesterday reported the first confirmed case of swine flu in South America.

The course of the disease in Mexico - where 19 confirmed deaths have been linked to the flu, with many other deaths suspected - is now "in its phase of descent," Jose Angel Cordova, health minister, told a news conference, Reuters reported. Scientists suspect many of the dead in Mexico might have waited too long - a week on average - to seek help.

Worldwide, more than 900 people have been infected, predominantly in North America. Spain now has 44 confirmed cases, more than any other European country, but all the patients had responded well to treatment, the health ministry said. Britain, Italy, and Germany reported new cases, the Associated Press reported.

In Spain, all but four of the cases involved a patient who had recently traveled to Mexico, the Spanish Health Ministry said. Spain is a hub for travel to Mexico, with dozens of flights each day between the two countries.

The ministry said it would seek to tighten controls at airports today but did not offer any details about additional measures. Passengers arriving from affected areas this week have been completing questionnaires about possible virus symptoms, and cabin crews have been supplied with gloves and masks in an effort to isolate suspected cases and contain contagion. link...