Tuesday News Bucket

27 Comments

1. 

   Oui on July 24, 2007 at 8:07 am

   .

   Medics Arrive Home After Libya Ordeal

   (CBS/AP) – Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were pardoned by President Georgi Parvanov upon their arrival in Sofia after spending 8½ years in prison in Libya.

   

   The medics, who were sentenced to life in prison for allegedly contaminating children with the AIDS virus, arrived on a plane with French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy and the EU’s commissioner for foreign affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

   Role of Gadaffi’s son and Qatar Government to Fund Children’s Hospital in Benghazi.

   ● Timeline: Bulgarian Medics’ Trial in Libya

   ≈ Cross-posted from my diary —
   Islamist Move Through Intelligentsia in Turkey Election [Update] Early Results ≈

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

   • 

     CabinGirl on July 24, 2007 at 8:16 am

     After 8 1/2 years.  Wow.

2. 

   Alice on July 24, 2007 at 8:13 am

   This was good news to me, my kind of politics – have fun with it:

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1qG6m9SnWI

   • 

     CabinGirl on July 24, 2007 at 8:21 am

     That is the perfect retort, isn’t it?  Highlight the real issues that the media don’t cover when they’re talking about made up garbage.

     What did you think of the YouTube debate?  Here’s another Edwards clip, from it.

     • 

       Alice on July 24, 2007 at 9:04 am

       Thanks Cabin.  I didn’t watch.  I’m just too pissed that we have to be distracted by this whole ‘horse race’ thing when we should be focused on ending the war, impeaching bu$hco, reforming elections, cleaning up NOLA, health care etc.

       Of course, there’s no avoiding it, is there?  Edwards is my man now.  I’m trying to concentrate on staying out of the circus, doing what needs to be done this year, and praying for his continued safety and success.

       I think Al Gore is the only leader we’ve got now, and he’s doing a fine job these days.  Most of those candidates have already got jobs.  Is it right that they take time away from their present occupation to seek another?

       • 

         CabinGirl on July 24, 2007 at 9:12 am

         It is ridiculously early to be having all these debates, and I’m gladI’m not the only one wondering how so many of these guys (and gal) can collect their Senate paychecks while jetting around the country collecting campaign cash and making speeches instead of legislating.

         I like Edwards too…I’d vote for Elizabeth in a heartbeat.  🙂

3. 

   CabinGirl on July 24, 2007 at 8:14 am

   wreaking havoc in the Everglades: NYT

   Skip Snow, a federal biologist in Everglades National Park, would love to spend his days monitoring the dizzying array of native wildlife across this 1.5-million-acre “river of grass” west of the ever-expanding Miami metropolis.

   Lately, however, he has been spending ever more time studying the remains of the park’s birds and animals, extracted from the stomachs of captured or road-killed Burmese pythons, the latest — and most spectacular — addition to Florida’s growing list of biological interlopers…

   …The South Asian snakes, which can top 200 pounds and 20 feet, probably entered the park as discards or escapees from the bustling global trade in exotic pets. Year-old, footlong pythons are a popular $70 item at reptile fairs and on the Web but in a few years can reach room-spanning, cat-munching size, prompting some owners to abandon them by the roadside. That practice may not pose an ecological problem in Detroit, Mr. Snow said, but in a near-tropical Florida park, it is an unfolding nightmare.

   Some very rough estimates put the state’s pet python population above 5,000. More than 350 have been found in the park since 2002, with others showing up in mangroves along Florida’s west coast and farther north in the state. There are perhaps 10 more for every one that is seen, Mr. Snow said.

   In May 2006, biologists confirmed that Everglades pythons were not a transient curiosity when they found the first eggs. “There were 46 eggs, 44 fertile,” Mr. Snow said. Shortly afterward, they found another clutch of two dozen, already hatched.

   Signs abound, he said, that the pythons are still colonizing new terrain. “This is a species that is really made for invading.”

4. 

   Oui on July 24, 2007 at 8:29 am

   .
   Radio Netherlands Worldwide broadcasting has a nice website with a review of news headlines and a page for the current affairs in the Netherlands. The Dutch do listen to main topics related to other continents.

   Mahmoud Taha – The Gandhi of Sudan and Muslim Reformer
   Death marks Arab Human Rights Day

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

5. 

   CabinGirl on July 24, 2007 at 8:31 am

   The AP spins the Gonzales testimony as a failure of the Democrats, without mentioning the complete and utter lawlessness of the Bush administration:

   The return of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the Senate Judiciary Committee is in some ways the story of Democratic failure to drum up enough pressure to force President Bush’s hand.

   Not so long ago, Republicans as well as Democrats thought they’d seen Gonzales sit before them for the last time as attorney general. There was no way Gonzales could survive the controversy over the prosecutor firings, nor the exposure of other missteps, they said. Certainly he could not resist the widespread calls for his resignation — one, from a Republican — to his face as the proceedings were broadcast live.

   They go on to mention that Gonzales won’t leave until Bush does, without mentioning that if Gonzales were to step down, Bush would have a hell of a time getting a new AG that was as “loyal” and dedicated to the destruction of the Consitution confirmed.  Nor do they meantion that the replacement of the AG in the Nixon admninistration contributed to Nixon’s downfall, and these guys learned their Watergate lessons well…

6. 

   ask on July 24, 2007 at 8:39 am

   New U.S.-Iran talks on Iraq begin

   BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. and Iranian envoys held rare talks on Tuesday to discuss Iraq’s security crisis, with Washington under pressure to stabilise the country before the U.S. Congress receives a crucial report in September.

   The envoys began a second round of talks in Baghdad on Iraq’s worsening security, following up on a landmark meeting in May between the two arch rivals.

   Underscoring the unrelenting violence, a suicide car bomber killed 26 people and wounded 70 in a crowded market near a maternity hospital in the Shi’ite town of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

   Fourteen shops were destroyed in the blast and more than a dozen cars set ablaze. Two suicide bombers killed 105 pilgrims in Hilla, a popular target for such attacks, in March.

   Sectarian violence and worsening chaos in Iraq has pushed the two countries, which have not had diplomatic ties since shortly after Iran’s 1979 revolution, to seek common ground.

   Iranian ambassador Hassan Kazemi-Qomi and his U.S. counterpart Ryan Crocker met in the heavily fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital.

7. 

   CabinGirl on July 24, 2007 at 8:40 am

   money talks:

   

   Why can’t they let all of the candidates speak more equally?  What are they afraid of?

8. 

   ask on July 24, 2007 at 8:43 am

   Turkey’s Erdogan faces rocky road after big win

   ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Monday celebrated a decisive poll victory but now faces challenges over delayed presidential elections, Kurdish separatist violence and Ankara’s troubled EU bid.

   His AK Party boosted its share of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary elections to 47 percent despite opposition efforts to portray his pro-business party, which has Islamist roots, as a Trojan horse set to turn Turkey into an Iran-style theocracy.

   It was a personal triumph for Erdogan, who called the poll early after the army-backed secular elite blocked his choice of an ex-Islamist ally as the next president — the first divisive issue parliament must tackle after it convenes next week.

   “We will resolve this matter (presidential election) without causing tensions,” Erdogan told a news conference.

   Financial markets rallied on a result that keeps in power the party most favourable to foreign investment, without any need for coalition wrangling, but does not make it so strong as to provoke the army, guarantor of Turkey’s secular system.

   The lira currency hit its highest levels against the dollar in more than two years, bonds soared and Istanbul’s stock exchange jumped five percent to a record close.

   Although unofficial results gave the AK Party 47 percent of the vote, up more than 12 points on 2002, a stronger nationalist opposition means it will get 340 out of 550 seats, slightly fewer than now.

   Parliament in one of the world’s few Muslim democracies will now feel very different, with ultra-nationalists and two dozen pro-Kurdish independents in for the first time in years.

9. 

   ask on July 24, 2007 at 8:52 am

   Humans ‘affect global rainfall’

   Human-induced climate change has affected global rainfall patterns over the 20th Century, a study suggests.

   Researchers said changes to the climate had led to an increase in annual average rainfall in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

   But while countries such as Canada, Russia and northern Europe had become wetter, areas including India and parts of Africa had become drier, they added.

   The findings will be published in the scientific journal Nature on Thursday.

   • 

     CabinGirl on July 24, 2007 at 9:15 am

     But hey, we don’t need to change any of our habits (or increase CAFE standards), do we?  

10. 

    CabinGirl on July 24, 2007 at 10:41 am

11. 

    cruz del sur on July 24, 2007 at 10:52 am

    Peruvian President, Alan Garcia, has issued a law by which security forces are  free to shoot and kill any citizen and not have to provide any explanations to anybody. All they have to do is to say that they were on duty so as to avoid any investigation.

    This is in response to the social unrest that have paralyzed the country for the last two weeks, which has left 4 dead and 300 arrested.

    Different government officials of the region have supported the strikes, so from now on, any official that supports them will be fired.

12. 

    Oui on July 24, 2007 at 11:45 am

    .

    Watergate figure in hospital after crash

    COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jeb Stuart Magruder, an aide to President Nixon who spent seven months in prison for his role in covering up the 1972 Watergate break-in, was hospitalized after a car crash, authorities said.

    Magruder, a retired Presbyterian minister, said for the first time in 2003 that he remembered listening in on the phone as Nixon gave the go-ahead for the plan to bug the Democratic headquarters at Washington’s Watergate complex.  

    "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

13. 

    on July 24, 2007 at 12:22 pm

    Just thought I’d bring up yesterday’s non-event of the meeting of Cindy Sheehan and Conyers, after which apparently people stormed the offices and arrests ensued.  Nary a single mention from MSM and a dailykos page completely devoid on the subject.

    Nothing to see here folks, move along, move along.

14. 

    dada on July 24, 2007 at 1:32 pm

    Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production.

    Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines.

    […]

    The first machines should be ready to put into the hands of children in developing countries in October 2007.

    […]

    Getting the $100 laptop to this stage has been a turbulent journey for the organisation and its founder Nicholas Negroponte.

    Since the idea was first put forward in 2002, the low-cost laptop has been both lauded and ridiculed.

    Intel chairman Craig Barret famously described it as a “$100 gadget” whilst Microsoft founder Bill Gates questioned its design, particularly the lack of hard drive and its “tiny screen”.

    Other critics asked whether there was a need for a laptop in countries which, they said, had more pressing needs such as sanitation, water and health care.

    Professor Negroponte’s response has always been the same: “It’s an education project, not a laptop project.”

    The view was shared by Kofi Annan, ex-secretary General of the UN. In 2005, he described the laptop as an “expression of global solidarity” that would “open up new fronts” for children’s education.

    […]

    BBC

    still a bit over budget, but moving forward.

    lTMF’sA

    

    • 

      Oui on July 24, 2007 at 1:43 pm

      .

      Dollar Bear Market Slide More Boon Than Bane for Bush

      July 23 (Bloomberg) — Everyone from Nobel Prize laureates to the world’s biggest bond investor says the Bush administration has reason to cheer the dollar’s slide to historic lows.

      The currency has lost 13.2 percent since January 2001, when George W. Bush took office, the most under any president since at least Gerald Ford, who left the White House in 1977. That’s based on a Federal Reserve index that tracks the dollar against the currencies of 38 U.S. trading partners, including Germany, Japan and Canada.

      A weaker dollar is helping the economy and may bolster voters’ confidence in the Republican party as the U.S. heads into a presidential election year. Rather than causing foreigners to flee U.S. securities, the depreciating currency is making American goods less expensive abroad and helping offset the worst housing recession in 16 years. Exports reached an all- time high of $132 billion in May, the government said this month.

      Currency markets

      "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

15. 

    Oui on July 24, 2007 at 2:19 pm

    .

    Taleban commander ‘kills himself’

    Abdullah Mehsud, who spent 25 months in custody at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, died in south-western Balochistan province, a police spokesman said.

    Mehsud, whose real name was Noor Alam, was a Pashtun, the same ethnic group as the Taleban of Afghanistan.

    Pakistan interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema told the AFP news agency that Mehsud blew himself up with a hand grenade after soldiers raided a hideout in the Zhob district of Balochistan.

    
    Profile: Abdullah Mehsud

    "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

16. 

    dada on July 24, 2007 at 2:22 pm

    One out, all out: When flamingos go on strike

    
    flamingos, camargue, fr

    The salt mines of the Camargue may look ugly, but they are vital to the survival of the area’s most famous residents. So, when the workers took industrial action, there was only one thing for it…

    The Camargue, the great triangle of wetlands in the mouth of the river Rhône, is the last great wilderness of the north-west Mediterranean coast. It is a timeless place of pink flamingos pecking in shallow lagoons; of black bulls grazing on the salt marshes; of white horses splashing through the surf.

    The eastern corner of the Camargue is also a place of vast, ugly, man-made alps of salt, mined from the sea. The salt is used to make chemicals or melt icy, winter roads. A human intrusion? An eyesore? Yes, but the saltworks are also vital to preserve the beauty of the Camargue.

    In the past six months, the Rhône delta has been the site of an unintentional, but fascinating, experiment in mankind’s ambivalent relationship with the “natural”. Everything connects. Our activities, especially our industrial activities, sometimes threaten the planet. In the Camargue, the process is reversed. Nature depends on human activities to survive.

    Last winter, 128 Camargue salt “miners” went on partial strike. This spring and summer, 20,000 greater flamingos – one of the world’s most bizarrely beautiful birds – came out in sympathy.

    The birds are the only large breeding colony of flamingos in Europe and north Africa. Apart from a couple of small sites in Italy and Spain, they are the only breeding community of flamingos on the Mediterranean coast.

    And they have failed to lay a single egg all spring and early summer. It is now too late for them to breed this year. This is the first time this has happened in 30 years. Why?

    […]

    independent, uk

    fascinating indeed!

    lTMF’sA

    

17. 

    Oui on July 24, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    .
    See my comment in September 2005 –

    World’s Best Female Hockey Player Alyson Annan

    … many friends attended Alyson and Carole’s day of happiness, their marriage in Amsterdam.

    
    Birth of their son Sam  

    "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

18. 

    Oui on July 24, 2007 at 3:28 pm

    .

    No indictment in Katrina hospital deaths

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A grand jury refused to indict a doctor accused of murdering four seriously ill hospital patients with drug injections during the desperate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, closing the books on the only mercy-killing case to emerge from the storm.

    Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses were arrested last summer after Attorney General Charles Foti’s investigation concluded they gave four patients a “lethal cocktail” at Memorial Medical Center amid the chaotic conditions that followed the August 2005 storm.

    "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

19. 

    JanetT in MD on July 24, 2007 at 3:41 pm

    The City Council of Takoma Park, Maryland voted to support the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.  (Washington Post,  reposted at commondreams)

    Takoma Park has to be THE most liberal/progressive community in the state (and I wish I could afford to live there….).  But every town, city or state government that joins the movement strengthens it. The avalanche continues to grow.

20. 

    anna in philly on July 24, 2007 at 7:34 pm

    on the national news tonite….cant remember which one….they are all just a blob to me….there was a report of new threats to american air travellers….the government “thinks” some unidentifiably amorphous persons are trying to test getting bomb parts onto planes….did anyone else see this report?

    i guess this is the first time since 911 i can honestly say im worried….these reports come out all the time and this one was so ridiculously without real details it was laughable…..unless you are flying tomorrow….unless your kid is getting on a plane in the morning…..im just sitting here scared and finally seeing how the govt turns normally rational (though i am a little neurotic about some things) persons into scaredy cats hoping they sent these people getting on planes with wires in fake cheese straight to guantanamo.

    today is daughter #1’s 25th birthday….yes i had her when i was 9…..tomorrow she flies back from florida and her visit with my parents…..i know its safe….i know driving to florida would be much less safe….i just feel like tonite im on the side of the crazy patriot act defending boogeyman is gonna get us cause they hate us for our freedoms loonies.

    thank god i still have opiates in the house.

    • 

      Oui on July 25, 2007 at 1:15 am

      .
      Could easily be undercover operations to test security awareness by anoter government agency … or a reporter!

      Airports warned about terror dry runs

      A statement posted late Tuesday by the TSA on its Web site confirmed that “a routine TSA intelligence bulletin relating to suspicious incidents at U.S. airports” had leaked to news organizations [pdf].  

      "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."