Khmer Economy, Khmer Economic

US homemade balloon lands, but six-year-old boy still missing

2009-10-16T18:37:00.001-07:00

A homemade flying saucer-shaped balloon in which it was feared a six-year-old boy could have been trapped has been found to be empty after it landed in a field in Colorado following a desperate chase through the skies.

The silver, car-sized craft reportedly came untethered from the garden of the man who had constructed it. Reports named him as Richard Heene, an amateur science and weather investigator.

It was feared that Heene's son, Falcon, had climbed through an entrance into a small plywood-lined capsule at the bottom of the balloon, which was not designed to carry people, shortly before it drifted into the skies above Fort Collins, a town north of the state capital, Denver, at around 11am local time (6pm BST). Some reports said a sibling had seen Falcon climb in.

As the balloon drifted dozens of miles to the south-west, climbing hundreds of metres into the air, it was pursued by helicopters while emergency crews in ambulance followed its path from the ground.

But after more than two-and-a-half hours in the air, when the helium-filled craft drifted gently to the ground in a ploughed field, rescue workers found no one inside, television pictures showed.

It was not known whether the child climbed into the balloon, and so, whether he might have fallen out in mid air.

There were fears that flights from Denver's international airport could have to be diverted as the balloon began drifting towards its flight paths.

Jon Gosselin sued by TLC for breach of contract; Kate may take legal action against 'hacking' claims Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/200

2009-10-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

The TLC network filed a lawsuit this morning in Maryland against the octodad for breaching his contract, according to the Associated Press.

The network claims the "Jon and Kate Plus 8" star hasn't kept up his end of its exclusive deal, by allegedly getting paid to appear on other shows and making unauthorized disclosures about the show.

That's just one of the legal issues he faces this morning.

Also, thanks to the Gosselin's ex-nanny, who told RadarOnline.com yesterday that Jon had allegedly hacked into Kate's personal email, phone and online bank accounts, Jon may also be facing another legal battle battle with his ex.

According to the site, Kate read the interview with Stephanie Santoro and her attorney released a strong statement on her behalf.

"Kate Gosselin has heard the allegations made by Stephanie Santoro that Jon Gosselin ‘hacked' into her e-mails, phone, and online accounts, and she is profoundly disturbed by them. Under the circumstances, Ms. Gosselin is carefully considering all of her legal options regarding this matter, and she will pursue them if and when the time is right."

Cue his lawyer.

"I spoke with him today concerning this statement made by Stephanie and he unequivocally told me that he's never illegally invaded Kate's electronic privacy in any way," Mark Heller told People.com shortly after Kate's statement. "He also finds it a little disappointing that Kate would give credence to an uncorroborated statement made by an individual who clearly has a motivation to tell stories about Jon that might result in financial [compensation]."

This is just days after a judge ordered Jon, 32, to pay back $180,000 to couple's shared bank account, after Kate, 34, claimed he took $230,000 without her knowledge.

Santoro was rumored to have had a romantic fling with Jon while working for the family.

The divorcing duo's reality show "Jon and Kate Plus 8" will be going off the air in November..

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/10/16/2009-10-16_jon_gosselin_sued_by_tlc_for_breach_of_contract_kate_may_take_legal_action_again.html#ixzz0TMfMIUT5

Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Group, ex-Bear Sterns directors, others charged in insider trading scam Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/10

2009-10-16T18:24:00.000-07:00

A piggish hedge fund hotshot who ranks among the world's richest men was charged by the feds Friday with making millions of dollars on insider-trading tips.

Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of the New York-based Galleon Group, was among six people charged in what federal prosecutors labeled the largest-ever hedge fund insider-trading case.

"The defendants operated in a cozy world of you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference announcing the arrests.

Rajaratnam, who Forbes ranked as No. 559 on its 2009 list of the world's billionaires, was snared in a $20 million insider-trading case touted by the authorities for its first-ever use of court-authorized wiretaps against Wall Street big wheels.

"They may have been privy to a lot of inside information, but there was one secret they did not know - and that was that we were listening," Bharara said.

The six suspects are accused of having enriched themselves by using non-public information about companies that included Google, Hilton Hotels and Sun Microsystems.

Some of their conversations intercepted by investigators via wiretap are detailed in the federal criminal complaint.

"I'm dead if this leaks," Danielle Chiesi, who worked for the one-time equity hedge fund group of Bear Stearns Asset Management, is quoted as saying. "I'll be like Martha f------ Stewart."

Rajaratnam, whose fortune was pegged by Forbes as $1.3 billion, is accused of being at the heart of several insider trades by leading Galleon Technology Funds to make dirty deals off privileged information.

Authorities said the Sri Lankan hedge fund guru used his high-level contacts at other Wall Street firms to engage others in the scheme.

"He is not a master of the universe," said Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission. "He is a master of the Rolodex."

The others charged include Mark Kurland, a top executive at New Castle Funds; Rajiv Goel, a director at Intel's investment arm; Anil Kumar, an executive with the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and Robert Moffat, a senior vice president at IBM.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/10/16/2009-10-16_hedge_fund_billionaire_exdirectors_at_bear_sterns_charged_in_20m_insider_trading.html#ixzz0TMe2TsQn

Middle East peace plan threatened after UN passes Gaza war crimes report

2009-10-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

The UN Human Rights Council today voted to endorse a Gaza war crimes report despite Israel's threats to pull out of the Middle East peace talks in retaliation.

The international body approved a resolution recommending the report after two days of heated debate. The document condemns Israel’s conduct in last winter’s conflict and theoretically paves the way for international prosecution of Israelis and Palestinians accused of war crimes.

Britain opted out of the vote in protest after the failure of frantic last-minute negotiations between London, Paris and Tel Aviv to wring Israeli concessions in return for a no vote.

Britain and France had been planning to abstain and had hoped for a united European position. But as it became clear that other European countries would vote against, a decision was taken to use the lure of a no vote as a bargaining tool with Israel.
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Opening quote For Mahmoud Abbas the future is bleak, even after the report condemning both Israeli and Hamas for their actions Closing quote
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Gordon Brown spent the morning in intense telephone exchanges with Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, according to British officials, offering him Britain’s support in return for three concessions: an immediate independent Israeli investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Gaza; a freeze on all settlement activity; and full freedom of access to Gaza.

“Obviously that would have influenced our decision on the vote,” Peter Gooderham, the British Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told The Times.

Last night Mr Brown and Mr Netanyahu engaged in a "robust exchange", when the Israeli leader strongly urged Britain to oppose the resolution.

France’s representative urged the Council to defer the vote until the afternoon to allow negotiations to continue but was refused twice by Egypt, the co-sponsor of the resolution, which insisted that the vote go ahead immediately. It passed with 25 votes for, 6 against and 11 absentions. Britain, France, Madagascar, Kyrgyzstan and Angola were the only countries that refused to register a vote.

Eli Yishai, the Israeli Interior Minister, said it was an “anti-Israel decision".

“The Israeli Army acted with silk gloves towards innocent [civilians],” he said. “The committee’s decision is a diplomatic farce.”

The resolution calls for the endorsement of the recommendations contained in the report produced by Richard Goldstone, a South African international war crimes prosecutor, who investigated the 22-day conflict.

It also “calls upon all concerned parties including United Nations bodies, to ensure their implementation".

Mr Goldstone concluded that both Israel and Hamas, Gaza’s rulers, committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the conflict launched by Israel in response to rocket fire from the enclave in late December 2008.

The report recommends referring its conclusions to the International Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague, if Israel and Hamas fail to conduct credible investigations within six months.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said he was delighted that the resolution had been passed. “The Palestinian Authority welcomes the decision of the UN Human Rights Council and we hope this will be followed up in the UN Security Council to ensure such Israeli crimes are not repeated,” he said.

FDA approves Glaxo's cervical cancer vaccine

2009-10-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON -- GlaxoSmithKline said Friday U.S. regulators approved its vaccine Cervarix to prevent the leading cause of cervical cancer in women, following a two-year delay.

The approval from the Food and Drug Administration allows the British drug maker to compete against Merck's billion-dollar selling vaccine Gardasil, which has been on the U.S. market since 2006. Glaxo said it expects to launch Cervarix in the U.S. later this year.

Cervarix is already approved in nearly 100 other countries, but had been delayed in the U.S. since 2007. The FDA had requested more data on muscular and neurological problems, which turned out to be unrelated to the vaccine. Side effects from Cervarix were mostly mild, including pain and swelling at the injection site, fatigue and headache.

The vaccine blocks human papilloma virus strains 16 and 18, the two types of HPV that cause 75 percent of cervical cancers. Glaxo said the vaccine is also highly effective against strain 31, which is the third most common HPV type that causes cancer. There are more than 100 types of HPV, though about 15 are known to cause cervical cancer.

Cervarix's effectiveness against extra strains of the virus could help differentiate it from Gardasil, which protects against HPV 16 and 18, but not other cancerous strains.

SeparatelyMerck said the FDA cleared its Gardasil vaccine to prevent genital warts in boys ages 9 to 26. While the new use for the vaccine could double the market for Gardasil, analysts do not expect it to be widely used in boys because genital warts caused by HPV usually clear up by themselves.
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Still, Glaxo is likely to face an uphill battle in the U.S. Besides an established brand, Merck's vaccine also defends against two HPV types that cause 90 percent of genital warts, which Cervarix does not target.

Gardasil became an early success story for Merck after its 2006 launch, achieving sales that are rare for a vaccine. The Whitehouse Station, N.J., company has sold about 50 million doses worldwide, with more than $1.4 billion in revenue last year. But sales have been slowing amid questions about the longevity of the vaccine's effect and its price tag of nearly $400 for the three-injection regimen. Glaxo has not discussed pricing for its vaccine.

HPV infects about 6 million people in the U.S. each year, and is spread mainly through sexual contact. It usually causes no symptoms and goes away within two years, although rare cases can develop into warts and cancer in both men and women.

Last year, nearly 4,000 women died of cervical cancer in the U.S., less than 1 percent of all deaths from cancer.

Health Insurers Cherry-Pick Facts

2009-10-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

The insurance industry trying to pick holes in the Democrats health care overhaul, is using facts selectively, while mixing accurate assertions and putting a misleading spin on them, embracing worst-case scenarios.

A 30-second TV spot run by America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's trade group in six states, even as the Senate Finance Committee was approving the overhaul of the legislation, we saw a series of beleaguered, elderly people on camera, as a soothing female voice accurately informed the Congress was proposing an over $100-billion cut from Medicare Advantage. Private firms administering the programme, provide extra services like eye and dental care, including serving about a quarter or 10-million Medicare beneficiaries.

Soon after, we hear the announcer add: 'The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says many seniors will see cuts in benefits,' even as '50% reduction in extra benefits,' flashes on the screen for three seconds. The words are true, but can be easily misunderstood making one think basic Medicare coverage is at risk.

The fact that Medicare Advantage has been targeted for savings, as it is far too expensive for the government to administer, as it costs about 14% more per recipient than regular Medicare, is not mentioned.

A favoured tactic of Washington interest groups, the ad arouses worry about the bill among a key constituency, which in this case happen to be elderly voters, even as the announcer concludes: 'Call your senators. Tell them we need health care reform that protects seniors.'

According to a top Medicare official, the premiums seniors are paying for Medicare Advantage plans are set to increase by an average of 25% next year i. e. from $32 to $39 a month, mostly because insurers responding to new federal requirements, have cancelled many plans that carried no premiums.

About 400-plans will be eliminated next year, as according to Medicare officials they have too few enrollees or the plans are much too similar to other plans.

Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Group, ex-Bear Sterns directors, others charged in insider trading scam Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/10

2009-10-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

World Divided on Obama The Nobel Peace Laureate

2009-10-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

When the chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee announced this morning that President Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize the news was received with a collective gasp from the room full of journalists. Around the world the announcement was received with similar surprise and divided reactions. His allies applauded the choice, while his critics questioned his qualifications.

For many in the two countries that have most recently seen U.S. military intervention, Afghanistan and Iraq, an award for peace to a president still at war is anathema.

"The peace award which has been given to Barack Obama is not right because under Obama, a lot of civilians have died here in the bombing," Abdul Rasoul, a resident of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, said. Afghans are questioning Obama's receipt of a medal that rewards efforts to broker peace when violence has increased there since he became president. This year has been the most violent year of the war for both civilians and troops.

The Taliban echoed this sentiment in a statement that condemned the award.

"He reinforces the war in Afghanistan, he sent more troops to Afghanistan and is considering sending yet more. He has shed Afghan blood and he continues to bleed Afghans and to boost the war here," the Taliban said.

There is, however, a widespread hope in Afghanistan that a president who has reached out to the Muslim world can figure out a way to tackle the growing insurgency there. Many Afghans ABC News spoke to today -- especially the better educated -- believe that even if Obama hasn't brought peace yet, he will.

Across the border in Pakistan, however, there is huge mistrust of the United States right now. Anti-Americanism is running rampant as coverage of the Kerry-Lugar bill to boost nonmilitary aid to Pakistan portrays the bill as an invasion of Pakistan's sovereignty.

Pakistanis are much more critical of Obama than Afghans, arguing that he has brought more violence to the country. As Muhammad Munir asked ABC News in Islamabad today: "There are killings all over the world, whether it's Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine or Kashmir. Who is doing the killing? They [Americans] are doing it. But he is getting peace prizes as well?"

Lahore hit by three Taliban attacks

2009-10-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

The Taliban has stepped up its assault on Pakistan's security establishment with synchronised commando-style raids on three law enforcement agencies in the country's second-biggest city, Lahore.

In the fifth major terrorist attack in Pakistan in 10 days, heavily armed militants staged gun and bomb attacks at Lahore's Federal Investigation Agency building and at two police training centres yesterday.

The attackers, some wearing police uniforms, took hostages and detonated suicide jackets. There were reports of women among the attackers. At least one attacker was reported to be in custody last night.

The death toll from the raids was at least 39 last night, including 12 policemen, eight militants and two civilians. But there were fears that figure could rise.

''We found grenades and a suicide jacket near one dead person,'' a police spokesman said. ''Two dead bodies have been found near the front gate.

''The building has been cleared and the employees are safe.''

The attacks were the latest to underscore the growing threat to Punjab, the province next to India where the Taliban are believed to have made inroads and linked up with local insurgents.

Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, said the bloodshed that has engulfed the nation would not deter the Government from its mission to eliminate the violent extremists.

Meanwhile, in the town of Kohat in northern Pakistan, a suicide bomber rammed a car into a police station, killing 10.

Witnesses say civilians and police officers were among the dead.

The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, which created mayhem in Lahore.Pakistani commandos were deployed last night at an elite police training centre at Bedian on the outskirts of Lahore, where terrorists were holding hostages.

The police academy at Munawan on the outskirts of Lahore was hit for the second time in six months.

In March more than 30 recruits were killed and about 90 injured when terrorists attacked the academy and took hostages.

Seven were reported killed at the FIA headquarters including a senior inspector. In March last year, 21 people were killed in a suicide attack on the agency's Lahore headquarters.

Lahore has been on high alert after terrorist attacks in Islamabad, Peshawar and Rawalipindi in the past nine days.

Even so, Taliban militants were still able to carry out the sophisticated attacks, which bore similarities to the March attack on the Munawan police academy and a commando-style ambush on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the same month that killed six police.

The well-organised attacks come amid speculation that the Pakistan army will launch a major ground offensive against Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan, a lawless province ordering Afghanistan.

''The enemy has started a guerilla war,'' said Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

He also congratulated security forces on their response to the attacks in Lahore.

More than 100 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan over the past 10 days. On Saturday, Taliban gunmen dressed in military uniforms attacked Pakistan's military headquarters in Rawalpindi and staged an 18-hour hostage siege.

Last Friday, a suicide car bomb in the north-western city of Peshawar killed 49 a few days after a suicide bomber blew himself up in the UN's World Food Program building, killing five humanitarian workers.

Gorgeous 'Wild Things' roars to the screen

2009-10-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES -- "Where the Wild Things Are," the book, is just 339 words long. But in turning it into "Where the Wild Things Are," the movie, director Spike Jonze has expanded the basic story with a breathtaking visual scheme and stirring emotional impact.

It's a gorgeous film: This may sound contradictory, but it's intricate and rough-hewn at the same time, dreamlike and earthy. What keeps it from reaching complete excellence is the thinness of the script, which Jonze co-wrote with Dave Eggers.

The beloved and award-winning children's book, which Maurice Sendak wrote and illustrated 45 years ago, still holds up beautifully today because it shows keen insight into the conflicted nature of kids - the delight and the frustration that can often co-exist simultaneously.

Jonze gets that, too. There's always been an inventiveness to his films, a childlike playfulness even amid some of the darker material within "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation." With its warm lighting and detailed production design, "Where the Wild Things Are" remains lovingly faithful to the look and spirit of the book but functions assuredly as its own entity.

But Jonze obviously understands the feelings of fear and insecurity - and the inability to articulate them - that the wild things of "Wild Things" represent, and he's taken the bold step of showing the creatures not through animation but rather by using actual people in giant, furry costumes. The monsters were voiced by an all-star cast and enhanced through digital effects to make the facial features seem more lifelike.

And because talented character actors like James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O'Hara and Paul Dano had the benefit of voicing their roles on the same stage at the same time - rather than recording their parts independently of each other, which is standard practice - their interplay feels more organic.

At their center is Max, played by 12-year-old Max Records, a lonely, misunderstood kid who runs off one day to the magical land where the wild things are and becomes their king. Records is no self-conscious, precocious child actor: He makes Max feel real and relatable, full of joy and rage like any little boy. (Catherine Keener has some lovely, subtle moments at the film's start as Max's struggling single mom, who inadvertently neglects him when he needs attention the most.)

Because so much is right about the look and feel of "Where the Wild Things Are," you wish there were more to the screenplay. Despite many individual moments of great energy, the overall narrative momentum is seriously lacking, and you walk out of the film realizing that not a whole lot happens. There's the wild rumpus, of course - lots of running and jumping through the forest, leaping and wrestling and collapsing in a giddy, exhausted heap. (The indie-rock score from Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Carter Burwell adds to the film's sense of melancholy.)

Mainly, though, the wild things (who have names like Carol, Judith, Douglas and Ira) bicker among themselves about whether to make Max their king, and the best way to build a fort. Many amusing lines do emerge, though - and perhaps a potentially frightening moment or two for little kids.

"Where the Wild Things Are" is certainly as suitable for children as the book that inspired it, but it'll probably roar even more loudly to adults in the audience who aren't ashamed to get a little nostalgic about their own childhoods.

"Where the Wild Things Are," a Warner Bros. Pictures release, is rated PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language. Running time: 101 minutes. Three stars out of four.

Can the War in Afghanistan Still Be Won? Opposing arguments in a debate as old as the conflict itself.

2009-10-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Only those who were in the room know what was said in the series of White House meetings about America's policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it's likely that at least some of the views expressed paralleled those heard at last week's Intelligence Squared US debate at New York University, because the six speakers among them counted decades of experience in defense, intelligence, diplomatic, and think-tank circles. The topic, "America Cannot and Will Not Succeed in Afghanistan/Pakistan," put the question about as bluntly as possible.hose arguing for the motion were Steven Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation; retired Col. Patrick Lang, a former military-intelligence officer; and Ralph Peters, a retired Army officer, author, and Fox News strategic analyst.

Arguing against the motion were Steve Coll, CEO of the New America Foundation; retired U.S. ArmyLt. Col. John Nagl, president of the Center for a New American Security; and James Shinn, assistant secretary of defense for Asia in 2007–08. The moderator was John Donvan of ABC News. Excerpts:

Lang: General [Stanley] McChrystal [the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan] evidently wants 40,000 more people. I would say that's how we started in Vietnam too.The reason I don't think we can win with a counterinsurgency strategy is because three or four years down the pike all you good people are going to say, "Are the Taliban really our enemies, in the sense that Al Qaeda was? Is this really what we want to do?" And when that happens I suspect you're going to tell Congress you've had enough of this, and they will vote to end the war as they did in Vietnam.

Coll: We too often talk about Afghanistan as a primitive land that has been at war for centuries. Afghanistan [before the Soviet invasion in 1979] was a coherent and mainly peaceful independent state. After 2001 Afghans returned to their country from refugee camps and exile to reclaim their state. A strong plurality of Afghans still want to finish that work, and they want the international community to stay and help. Most Afghans are sick of war, and afraid of the Taliban's return. We have an obligation and a national interest and we have the capacity to stand by them.

Obama May Be Met By Frustration in New Orleans Visit

2009-10-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

Even before Air Force One touches down in New Orleans on Thursday afternoon, President Obama is discovering the burdens of rebuilding a city that feels abandoned by the federal government. Four years after Hurricane Katrina, swaths of New Orleans remain devastated by the winds and floods that tore through. More than 65,000 homes remain abandoned. There is no public hospital. The levees that keep back the Gulf of Mexico are still vulnerable.

The responsibility for getting more federal help to New Orleans has now passed from President George W. Bush to Obama, and with it the impatience of the city's residents.

"The people that I talk to are frustrated with the setbacks that they have had to endure, are frustrated with the nature of the bureaucracy that allows decisions to be unmade for long periods of time," said Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The frustration, she said, is a reflection of "the pent-up need . . . for a sense of serious attention from the federal government."

Obama has repeatedly sent Cabinet secretaries into New Orleans, often with money to jump-start stalled projects. White House officials say they have cut red tape and loosened $1.5 billion in assistance that was stuck in the federal pipeline. They say more than 3,500 people have been moved to permanent housing.

But civic leaders are grumbling that the president's scheduled five-hour visit to the hurricane- and flood-damaged area -- his first since taking office -- is not sufficient to communicate his concern.

"A town hall event and a mystery stop? That's it?" the Times-Picayune newspaper editorialized last week before the trip was finalized and a school tour was added. "The White House plan for President Barack Obama's first post-election visit to New Orleans seems to be lacking in substance and fun."

Criticism is also coming from Mississippi and southwest Louisiana, where storm-weary residents are asking why New Orleans is the only visit on Obama's schedule before a quick stop in San Francisco for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.

The White House calls the criticism unfounded, noting that as a candidate and a senator, Obama visited the Gulf Coast repeatedly.

"The president has been to New Orleans five times since Katrina and has done most of the things people are saying they want him to do," spokesman Nick Shapiro said. "What he hasn't done is hold a public event where he can hear directly from the people."

As a candidate, Obama used the plight of the city as a rallying cry for change, often citing what he said was an inadequate response by the Bush administration to the needs of the people there.

Goldman Sachs ponders $1bn charity donation

2009-10-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

The investment bank, which is set to report its results for the three months to September on Thursday, is understood to be giving serious thought to some form of large philanthropic donation.

The aim of the donation, first disclosed by Henry Blodget's Business Insider blog, would be to deflect the likely row come at the end of the year. By then Goldman's total compensation pot is expected to be a record $22bn, delivering average pay and bonuses of more than $700,000 per employee, higher even than the average $661,000 paid out in 2007 – its last record year.

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The bank's partner managing directors – a top-tier of approximately 300 senior bankers who tend to be its biggest money-earners – are believed to be discussing the plan as one of a number of ways of deflecting political and investor backlash over the eventual size of the bonus pool.

Goldman has repaid $10bn of funds received from the US Treasury's Troubled Assets Relief Programme, but politicians are likely to question whether the bank could have made such spectacular profits without taxpayers assistance.

Meanwhile, Goldman shares fell $3.72 – or 1.96pc – to $186.43 after banking analyst Meredith Whitney downgraded its shares from "buy" to "neutral".

Ms Whitney said Goldman's shares had risen 34pc in the last quarter – past her $186 price target – but stressed that the "strong fundamentals behind our upgrade last quarter still stand".

A Goldman spokesman said: "We don't make decisions about any major expenditure or commitments until the end of the year."

Analysis: Pakistani Taleban more dangerous than ever

2009-10-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

A wave of Pakistani Taleban attacks over the last 11 days shows that the militant network is more dangerous than ever, despite the death of its charismatic leader in August and the apparent success of the army’s six month campaign in the northwest.

It also suggests an unprecedented level of cooperation between Pashtun militants in north-western Pakistan, Al Qaeda and other foreigners sheltering there, and militant groups based in Punjab - the country's most populous province.

And it shows, more vividly than ever, that Pakistan’s security forces - including the powerful army - are unable even to protect even their own headquarters against the militants, many of whom have military training themselves.

Today's triple attack on law enforcement buildings in Lahore coincided with a suicide bombing in the northwest and followed a weekend raid on the army headquarters and two more suicide bombings last week. The militants’ immediate aim is clear: to discourage the army from launching an imminent ground assault on the tribal region of South Waziristan - the main stronghold of the Pakistani Taleban and its closest allies.

The Pakistani Taleban has already suffered one major setback this year when they advanced into the north-western region of Swat - getting to within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad - only to be driven out by the army.

The government announced the South Waziristan operation in June and, ever since, the army has been moving troops into the area, blocking the roads around it and pounding militant hideouts with air strikes and artillery.

Early this month, the government and the army began saying that preparations for the operation were complete and it would start imminently. That is when the wave of Taleban attacks began.

The Taleban has also made several public statements, warning clearly that the assault on South Waziristan will trigger further militant attacks across Pakistan, where it now claims to have branches in all major regions.

What is less clear is whether they are doing this from a position of strength, having re-grouped since the death of Baitullah Mehsud, their former leader, or out of desperation in the face of imminent defeat in South Waziristan.

When Mehsud was killed by a US drone strike in August, it was prematurely hailed as a death blow for the Pakistani Taleban, which he founded and used to carry out dozens of attacks against targets in Pakistan.

There were unconfirmed reports of a violent leadership struggle within the Taleban, in which several potential successors had also been killed, including Wali-ur Rehman and Mehsud’s brother, Hakimullah.

Ten days ago, however, Hakimullah Mehsud made a public appearance at which he claimed the Taleban leadership and threatened to avenge his brother’s death.

Mr Rehman was then heard in telephone intercepts communicating with the militants who attacked army headquarters over the weekend, according to the army spokesman.

The implication is that the Taleban has indeed re-grouped under a new leadership, probably headed by Hakimullah Mehsud, and is sufficiently united to stage attacks every bit as big as those perpetrated by its former leader.

The involvement of Punjabi militants in the army headquarters raid also suggests that Mr Mehsud is working closely with members or former members of the Punjab-based groups, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Janghvi.

Analysts have been warning for years that southern Punjab, in particular, has become a fertile recruiting ground for these groups, some of which have had close links to the Pakistani military.

The government and the army will now come under increasing political and public pressure to begin the ground assault on South Waziristan to show that they are taking firm action against the militants.

The hope is that the army will be able to reduce the Taleban's capabilities by killing or capturing leaders like Mr Mehsud and Mr Rehman and destroying militant training camps and hideouts.

The fear, however, is that even if the army prevails in South Waziristan, Taleban allies in other tribal areas, and particularly in Punjab, will still be able to respond with attacks like those over the last 11 days.

Meditation Helps Women with Breast Cancer

2009-10-15T06:36:00.000-07:00

A meditation technique has been found to help relieve stress and improve mental health among women with breast cancer.

Researchers from St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago studied the use of a transcendental meditation technique among 130 women with breast cancer.

All participants were 55 years and older and were randomly assigned to either the transcendental meditation technique or to a usual care control group.

Patients were administered quality of life measures, including the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B), every six months for two years. The average intervention period was 18 months.

“It is wonderful that physicians now have a range of interventions to use, including transcendental meditation, to benefit their patients with cancer,” said Rhoda Pomerantz, M.D., study co-author and chief of gerontology, Saint Joseph Hospital.

“I believe this approach should be appreciated and utilized more widely.”

Stress contributes to the onset and progression of breast cancer

According to background information in the article, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, striking about 13 percent. Women over the age of 50 have four times the incidence of breast cancer compared to women below 50. Breast cancer remains a leading cause of death among women, according to the National Cancer Institute.

“Emotional and psychosocial stress contribute to the onset and progression of breast cancer and cancer mortality,” said Sanford Nidich, lead author of the study and senior researcher at the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.

“The transcendental meditation technique reduces stress and improves emotional well-being and mental health in older breast cancer patients. The women in the study found their meditation practice easy to do at home and reported significant benefits in their overall quality of life,” Dr. Nidich said.

“Decades of research have shown that stress contributes to the cause and complications of cancer,” said Robert Schneider, M.D., F.A.C.C., co-author and director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management.

“The data from this well-designed clinical trial and related studies suggest that effective stress reduction with the transcendental meditation program may be useful in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer and its deleterious consequences.”

The study is published in the current issue of the peer-reviewed journal Integrative Cancer Therapies.

Young, healthy adults hard-hit by swine flu: Study

2009-10-13T06:48:00.000-07:00

New York, October 13 -- A Canadian research shows that H1N1 influenza associated with respiratory failure could prove to be more fatal for the younger population with no serious underlying medical conditions, contrary to the chronically ill and the elderly who are believed to be more prone to the disease.

The findings of the study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, emphasize the fact that there is an increasing need for healthy adults to get vaccinated against the pandemic flu.

To determine whether relatively healthy adults are especially at risk from the swine flu, a Canadian research team conducted an in-depth examination of nearly 168 patients infected with the lethal virus and who were treated at 38 Canadian hospitals between April 16 and Aug. 12 at the height of the swine flu outbreak.

The average patient was 32 years old, including 113 women (67.3 percent) and 50 people under the age of 18 (29.8 percent). Only 30.4 percent who fell severely ill had severe health problems.

Healthy adolescents and adults more at risk
The results of the examination suggested that of all the admitted patients, 24 (14.3 percent) died within the first 28 days and five within the first 90 days, resulting in a 17 percent mortality rate.

“What the public needs to understand is that people who are getting critically ill with H1N1 look just like you and me – they're essentially healthy people,” said Anand Kumar who compiled the research with the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group H1N1 Collaborative.

Kumar also is an associate professor for critical care and infectious disease at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Camden.

"But healthy people can be hit. Once they are,” he said, "these people are spectacularly ill -- it's hard to believe how ill these people are.''

"Our data suggest that severe disease and mortality in the current outbreak is concentrated in relatively healthy adolescents and adults between the ages of 10 and 60 years, a pattern reminiscent of the W-shaped curve [rise and fall in the population mortality rate for the disease, corresponding to age at death] previously seen only during the 1918 H1N1 Spanish pandemic," concluded the team.

Swine flu’s toll worldwide
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 4,500 people worldwide have died of H1N1, including 79 in Canada.

Worldwide, more than 3,75,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu have been reported until recently, but many countries, including Canada, have stopped counting individual cases because the disease is so widespread.

Modern medical therapies suggested
Health experts say that modern therapies, including breathing assistance from ventilators and antiviral medicines, can prevent most swine flu deaths as most patients can be supported through their critical illness with such therapies.

Most people with flu-like symptoms don't need to go to emergency rooms or even take antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu. However, people who undergo severe shortness of breath or very rapid heartbeat should go to hospitals, they say.

Analysis: Pakistan confronts growing terrorist menace

2009-10-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

The danger comes not only from Taliban, who are ethnic Pashtuns from Pakistan's north-west fringe, which borders Afghanistan, but also from extremists from its heartland Punjab province, who have forged a network with the Taliban.

So Pakistan is threatened by a network of extremism that has cells throughout the country, able to mount attacks seemingly at will against any target. The militants are able to mount both suicide attacks and more sophisticated commando or "fidayeen" gun and grenade assaults, using well-trained jihadists against sometimes highly protected targets. Such attacks have intensified in frequency to leave more than 100 people dead in the space of a week, mostly from suicide bombings which have predominantly killed civilians.

The deadly nexus between Punjabi jihadists from more established groups, and their Pakistani Taliban comrades was exposed in the attack on the military headquarters (GHQ) at Rawalpindi at the weekend. Five of the 10 assailants were Punjabis. Their ringleader, Aqeel alias Dr Usman, was from a Punjabi extremist outfit, but the training for the operation was carried out in Waziristan, according to the army.

The "fidayeen", military-style tactics could even be used against Pakistan's nuclear sites, according to Shaun Gregory, a professor at Bradford University and an expert on Pakistan's nuclear programme. This could result in installations being bombed, set on fire or nuclear material stolen.

"The only thing that stands between al-Qaeda and nuclear weapons is the Pakistan army," said Prof Gregory. "It is an incredible shock that terrorists can strike at the heart of GHQ . Terrorists could mount this sort of assault against Pakistan's nuclear installations."

The same sort of fidayeen attack was seen in the assault on Mumbai in late 2008 by the Pakistan-based Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT), and the ambush of the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore earlier this year. Aqeel was already being hunted as the mastermind of that attack.

While Pakistan has taken on the Taliban extremists and plans to strike their sprawling stronghold in Waziristan, the menace from Punjab, a developed and highly populated area, is much harder to tackle and so far there has been no concerted military action taken against militants operating there.

Many see the strike on the army headquarters as a "wake up" call about the threat from Punjab.

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2009-10-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - CIT Group Inc is seeing little interest from bondholders in a debt exchange offer aimed at repairing its fragile balance sheet, making bankruptcy increasingly likely, sources familiar with the matter said.

The lender to small and medium-sized businesses said earlier this month it was looking for investors to approve a large debt exchange that would reduce its borrowings, or to approve a prepackaged bankruptcy.

CIT is now more likely to try a prepackaged bankruptcy, two people familiar with the matter said. They declined to be identified because the exchange offer is ongoing and information about its progress is private.

But separately, investors in CIT securities said it is possible the company will not find enough debtholder approval for a prepackaged bankruptcy, which requires sufficient support before the company files for protection from creditors. Instead, CIT might have to aim for a prenegotiated bankruptcy, which typically has less support before the actual filing.

CIT spokesman Curt Ritter declined to comment.

CIT has limited time to work out its debt difficulties. It has about $3 billion of debt to repay in the fourth quarter, including both secured and unsecured obligations, according to a CIT quarterly filing with regulators.

CIT has lost access to unsecured debt markets, but has billions to refinance in coming years. In three of the next four years, it will have more debt to repay than cash to pay it back. CIT has roughly 1 million customers and more than $70 billion of assets, but many of its borrowers are struggling amid the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The company's debt exchange aims to reduce CIT's borrowings by at least $5.7 billion, with specific targets for lowering the company's liabilities through 2012. The exchange offer expires on October 29.

AT LEAST TWO WANT MORE

At least two groups of investors are pushing for better terms in a bankruptcy than those suggested by the company earlier this month, one of the sources and investors said.

A subordinated debt holder said last week he was hoping to press for either more equity, or for a promise from the company to pay extra money to current subordinated debt holders if the company's assets perform well enough.

Separately, investors holding debt that funded CIT business in Canada are pushing for greater consideration in any bankruptcy plan, too. These investors are entitled to recover money from Canadian assets and the parent company in the United States and could therefore get close to 100 cents on the dollar in any bankruptcy.

One investor that would take a hit in a CIT bankruptcy is the U.S. government. The United States' Troubled Asset Relief Program invested $2.3 billion in CIT in December and much or all of that could be lost if the company files for bankruptcy, analysts said.

But many debt investors are likely to end up with much more than zero if CIT files for bankruptcy. One group of bondholders lent $3 billion to the company in July. That loan is collateralized by an estimated $30 billion of assets, which would ensure that the July loan could likely be paid back in full.

(Reporting by Dan Wilchins and Paritosh Bansal; editing by Richard Chang and Andre Grenon)

Palestinian reconciliation deal delayed by UN row

2009-10-13T06:08:00.000-07:00

An agreement to reconcile bitterly divided Palestinian groups has been delayed for several weeks, Egypt's foreign minister said today. A deal was to be signed on 25 October, clearing the way for Hamas militants and the more moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to cooperate in rebuilding war-damaged Gaza and preparing for Palestinian elections in the first half of next year. The two sides have been divided since Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas's forces in June 2007. Since then there have been rival Palestinian governments in Gaza and the West Bank. Egypt has been trying to broker a deal to reconcile the groups and push them toward a power-sharing agreement. The division has also complicated efforts to revive stalled peace talks with Israel.

Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, would not name the Palestinian faction that requested the delay, but Hamas said on its website it was postponing the agreement because of a much-criticised decision by Abbas to delay action on a UN report condemning Israeli attacks on Gaza.

The report, drawn up by a team of experts led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone, accuses Israel of using disproportionate force and failing to protect civilians during its winter assault on Gaza. It also calls Hamas' firing of rockets at civilian areas in southern Israel a war crime. The report recommended that the security council require both sides to carry out credible investigations into alleged abuses during the conflict – in which 13 Israelis and almost 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed.

Israel has rejected the report's war crimes allegations. The US has called the report deeply flawed and said it disagrees with many of its assessments. Abbas was under pressure from the US to withdraw Palestinian support for having the UN human rights council forward the report to the 192-nation general assembly for possible action. Abbas's decision has been widely condemned by many Palestinians, not just Hamas.

Today, seven Palestinian groups joined Hamas leaders based in Damascus, Syria, in issuing a statement of support for the postponement of the Palestinian reconciliation deal. They called Abbas's decision to freeze action on the UN report a "crime and scandal".

The groups emphasized the importance of reconciliation but said Abbas's actions should not go "unpunished". President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, met with Egyptian officials, including the foreign minister, on Sunday in an effort to move Israeli-Palestinian peace talks forward.

MPs' expenses: Sir Thomas Legg explains his rule change

2009-10-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

Sir Thomas, a former senior civil servant, is writing to every MP about their second home expenses claims between 2004 and 2008.

Some are being told that their claims were excessive and they should pay back money. Some are being asked for more information and some are being told they are in the clear. Most controversially, Sir Thomas has imposed limits on the amounts MPs should have been allowed to claim for categories including cleaning and gardening.

The caps – of £2,000 a year for cleaning and £1,000 for gardening – were the cause of more than £10,000 of the total £12,500 paid back on Monday by Gordon Brown.

Sir Thomas's letters have been accompanied by a note in which he explained his decision.

He told MPs that there had effectively already been a limit on the amount that could be claimed for mortgage interest, because the total additional cost allowance budget prevented an annual claim of more than about £24,000 last year.

Household goods, he said, were also subject to limits. The so-called "John Lewis list", which was kept secret from MPs, told Commons officials that they could allow, for example, up to £750 for a television and £10,000 for a new kitchen.

However, Sir Thomas said that he could find nothing in the existing rules setting out the maximum allowable for other large expenses, including cleaning and gardening. Therefore, he believed that limits must be imposed retrospectively.

"Some limits must be regarded as having been in place to prevent disproportionate and unnecessary expenditure from the public purse," he said.

Congress Considers Breast Cancer Reform Bills

2009-10-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

Sponsors of several House bills focused on breast cancer today urged support for the legislation, bolstering their appeals by repeating the frightening death statistics and recounting harrowing tales of pain and suffering from denied hospital care. The House subcommittee on Health, Energy and Commerce met today to consider the pending bills in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They would support breast cancer education, encourage efforts to improve diagnosis and help breast cancer victims.

"Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer diagnosed in women," subcommittee chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., acknowledged to the key sponsors of the breast cancer legislation.
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Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told of a Kansas woman who was only allowed one nigRep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told of a Kansas woman who was only allowed one night in the hospital after a modified radical mastectomy, an Arizona woman who was discharged from the hospital two hours after a double bilateral mastectomy, and another woman not covered for an overnight stay after a mastectomy, who later developed complications from the lack of medical care.

"A member of my staff in Michigan was victim of these unscrupulous policies," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. "She succumbed to cancer. The way the insurance companies treated her was an outrage."

During this 25th annual Breast Cancer Awareness month, Congress is helping to focus on the efforts to stem the deadly disease as it considers the four bills.

DeLauro has introduced HR 1691, the Breast Cancer Patient Protection bill, which would require that after breast surgery, "adequate recovery time in the hospital should not be negotiable."

Her bill does not mandate a 48-hour hospital stay after a mastectomy, but it does insure that the doctor and patient will determine the length, not the insurance company.

DeLauro has 236 co-sponsors for the bill, and enjoys the support of many cancer support organizations, including Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the American Cancer Society, Breastcancer.org and others. Nearly 24 million people have signed a Lifetime Television petition calling for the bill to be passed.

With her arms outstretched, DeLauro pleaded for an affirmative vote: "Let's do this. Let's do this for the women of this nation."

Philippines landslides kill 160 after fresh floods

2009-10-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

Rescuers struggled through mud and pounding rain today to clear mountain roads and retrieve more than 160 bodies from dozens of landslides that buried villages and cut off towns in the rain-soaked northern Philippines.

The latest calamity brought the death toll to more than 450 from the Philippines' worst flooding in 40 years after back-to-back storms started pounding the north of the country on 26 September.

More than 160 people were killed in landslides in Benguet and Mountain Province along the Cordillera mountain range, about 125 miles (200km) north of Manila, officials in the two provinces said. The fatalities included 120 in Benguet, governor Nestor Fongwan said, while 23 died in Mountain Province, according to governor Max Dalog. A further 25 people died in Baguio, city relief administrator Peter Fianza said.

Landslides blocked the roads to the mountain city of Baguio in the heart of the Cordillera region. The only way to reach the isolated mountain communities was by foot, with military helicopters unable to fly because of the storms, said Lt Col Ernesto Torres, spokesman for the government's disaster relief agency.

"We are focused on rescue at this time," he said. "It is raining nonstop."

About 100 landslides have struck the region since the weekend, said Rex Manuel, another relief official.

Seventeen bodies have been recovered so far from Kibungan village in Benguet's La Trinidad township, which was almost entirely buried in mud and debris yesterday. Up to 40 villagers were estimated to have died, while more than 100 were moved to safety.

Rescuers in the hillside villages used pulleys to transport the dead they retrieved from a pile of rubble and mud.

TV footage showed the bodies arriving in black bags in a hall in Baguio, where relatives wept. "There was a sudden rumble above us, and then the houses at the bottom were gone, including them," said Melody Coronel, pointing to the relatives she found among the dead.

In Buyagan village, also in La Trinidad, only three out of about 100 houses remained visible after Thursday night's landslide buried most structures there. Some 50 residents were saved, but it was not clear how many died, Manuel said.

In neighbouring Mountain Province's Tadian township, at least 28 people were reported missing and several bodies were recovered after the side of a mountain collapsed.

Another landslide hit a second village in Tadian early Friday. No immediate casualty reports were available.

Forecasters said tropical depression Parma was still lingering off the north-eastern coast and dumped rain overnight. It hit land more than a week ago, the second major storm to hit the country in two weeks.

Thousands of residents of coastal Pangasinan province, about 105 miles (170km) north of Manila, were rescued from rooftops after dams released excess water from recent heavy rains, inundating 30 out of 46 towns along the Agno River.

"There was really heavy rain, so water had to be released from the dam, otherwise it would have been more dangerous," said the government's chief forecaster Nathaniel Cruz. "Even our office was flooded and our staff had to move to the rooftop. It's near the river that they were monitoring."The government's disaster relief agency said it had requested that the US embassy redeploy hundreds of American troops from the massive clean-up in and around the capital, Manila, to the flood-hit areas in the north.

GM agrees Chinese sale of Hummer

2009-10-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

The two parties had been in talks about the sale for a number of months.

GM is in the process of selling and winding up a number of brands as it looks to reorganise after emerging from bankruptcy protection in July.

At the start of this month, the troubled carmaker announced it would be winding down its Saturn brand.

This was after the proposed sale to Penske Automotive Group collapsed.

GM has already announced that it is discontinuing the Pontiac brand, and is close to finalising the sale of its European brands Saab, Opel and Vauxhall.

GM BRANDS
BRANDS STAYING
Chevrolet
GMC
Cadillac
Buick
BRANDS GOING/GONE
Pontiac (discontinued)
Saturn (discontinued)
Hummer (sold)
Saab (to be sold)
Opel (to be sold)
Vauxhall (to be sold)

GM plans to reinvent itself by concentrating on fewer brands following bankruptcy protection, made necessary after car sales plummeted during the downturn.

'Next generation'

Under the terms of the Hummer deal, Tengzhong will take an 80% stake in the company, with the remaining 20% going to Hong Kong entrepreneur Suolong Duoji.

The current Hummer management team will continue to run the company.

The deal is still subject to regulatory approval.

"Hummer is a strong global niche brand and this agreement signifies another important milestone in writing the next chapter of both GM and Hummer," said GM boss Fritz Henderson.

The company also said it would be focusing on improving efficiency, including the introduction of diesel engines.

"We are excited about some of the initiatives already underway at Hummer that we believe our investment will be able to accelerate, particularly related to the creation of the next generation of more fuel efficient vehicles to meet not only future regulations but also customer expectations," said Yang Yi, chief executive of Tengzhong.

Star struck

Hummers were originally built as military off-road vehicles by a company called AM General.

The brand took off as US motorists flocked to the sport utility vehicles favoured by celebrities including Arnold Schwarzenegger.

GM bought the Hummer brand in 1999, but sales have suffered recently as the gas-guzzling performance and military image have become less popular.

Hummers weigh up to five tons and have fuel consumption of around 15 miles per gallon.

Tengzhong specialises in making equipment for the road, construction and energy industries.

It is based in China's Sichuan province.

Car Bomb Attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul

2009-10-09T02:08:00.000-07:00

A suicide car bomb exploded outside the heavily guarded Indian Embassy in downtown Kabul this morning, killing at least 17 and injuring 84, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior. The large explosion gutted a nearby market, shattered windows and severely damaged two United Nations armored SUVs that were driving by. The vehicles were empty except for drivers, the U.N. said, and they were not injured.

But the car bomb, which Afghan officials said was loaded into a Toyota 4Runner, was large enough to be felt more than a mile away. The deputy speaker of Afghanistan's parliament, who lives down the street, told ABC News that the blast was five times stronger than the one that last hit the Indian Embassy in July 2008, a car bomb that killed nearly 60 people. Security since that blast has been strengthened around the Indian Embassy, which is in a highly protected part of town, across the street from the Ministry of Interior.

But security in Kabul has deteriorated markedly in the past few months. From January to August, there was only a single major suicide attack in Kabul. Since mid-August, there has been five. This is the first of the five that was not against foreign forces.

In the past two days, security around the city has been stepped up after officials received intelligence that two suicide car bombers had entered the city. And there were unconfirmed reports this morning that the second car bomb may be circulating in town.

In New Delhi, India's Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters that the Indian Embassy was the target.

"I believe the suicide bomb was directed at the embassy since the suicide bomber came up to the outer perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives," Rao told reporters, according The Associated Press.

Philippine mudslides, floods kill more than 160

2009-10-09T02:04:00.000-07:00

MANILA, Philippines—Officials say rescuers have retrieved more than 160 dead from dozens of landslides that buried villages and cut off towns in the rain-soaked northern Philippines.

About 450 people have been killed in the country's worst flooding in 40 years after back-to-back storms started pounding the country's north Sept. 26.

Officials in the two worst-hit provinces say more than 160 people have died in Benguet and Mountain Province along the Cordillera mountain range, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Manila.

Gov. Nestor Fongwan said Friday the fatalities include 120 in Benguet, while Mountain Province Gov. Max Dalog put the death toll in his region to 23. Another 25 people died in Baguio city.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Dozens of landslides in the rain-soaked mountains of the northern Philippines killed an estimated 100 people, as a lingering storm and excess water from dams turned a portion of one province into "one big river," officials said Friday.

The latest calamity brought the death toll to more than 400 from the Philippines' worst flooding in 40 years after back-to-back storms started pounding the country's north Sept. 26.

About 100 people were feared dead in landslides in two provinces -- Benguet and Mountain Province -- along the Cordillera mountain range, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Manila, said Olive Luces, regional Office of Civil Defense director.

Landslides blocked the roads to the mountain city of Baguio in the heart of the Cordillera region and exact figures were hard to get.

"We are still accounting, but all in all our estimate is there were about 100 dead in the four major landslides," Luces said. "Retrieval operations are ongoing."

About 100 landslides have struck the region since the weekend, said Rex Manuel, another relief official.

Seventeen bodies have been recovered so far from Kibungan village in Benguet's La Trinidad township, which was almost entirely buried in mud and debris late Thursday, Manuel said. Up to 40 villagers were estimated to have died, while more than 100 were moved to safety, he said.

In Buyagan village, also in La Trinidad, only three out of about 100 houses remained visible after Thursday night's landslide buried most structures there. Some 50 residents were saved but it was not clear how many died, Manuel said.

In neighboring Mountain Province's Tadian township, at least 28 people were reported missing and several bodies were recovered after the side of a mountain collapsed.

Another landslide hit a second village in Tadian early Friday. No immediate casualty reports were available.

Forecasters said Tropical Depression Parma was still lingering off the northeastern coast for more than a week, dumping rains overnight. It was the second major storm to hit the country in two weeks.

Thousands of residents of Pangasinan province, about 105 miles (170 kilometers) north of Manila, fled to rooftops and scrambled for safety after dams released excess water from recent heavy rains.

Pangasinan provincial Vice Gov. Marlyn Primicias said she was getting frantic text messages from residents asking to be rescued, adding: "Eastern Pangasinan has become one big river."

Heavy rains, plus water discharged late Thursday night from a dam in Pangasinan, inundated 30 out of 46 towns along the Agno River in the coastal province, said Boots Velasco, the province's information officer.

"There was really heavy rain, so water had to be released from the dam, otherwise it would have been more dangerous," said the government's chief forecaster Nathaniel Cruz. "Even our office was flooded and our staff had to move to the rooftop. It's near the river that they were monitoring."

Heavy army trucks could not penetrate the area, and Primicias appealed for helicopters and boats to move people out of danger.

Mayor Nonato Abrenica of the Pangasinan's Villasis township said rain and water released from a nearby dam caused floods to rise quickly, isolating his town. He asked for food, water and medicines to be airlifted and for boats to rescue stranded residents.

The government's disaster relief agency said it had requested that the U.S. Embassy redeploy hundreds of American troops from the massive cleanup in and around the capital, Manila, to the flood-hit areas in the north.

Two U.S. Navy ships were positioning in the Lingayen Gulf in Pangasinan to provide helicopters and rubber boats for the rescue mission in the province, said U.S. Marine Capt. Jorge Escatell.

Moon crashing probes complete major milestone

2009-10-09T02:01:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON -- NASA's moon probe has separated into two pieces as planned, a major milestone toward a Friday morning double-barreled crash into the lunar surface.

The smaller probe with five cameras and four other scientific instruments is now trailing behind a 2.2-ton empty rocket hull.

That hull will smack into the moon first Friday morning while the smaller probe measures the debris the big hull kicks up. Then the smaller probe, called LCROSS (EL-cross), which is short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, will hit the moon four minutes later.

Cameras across the world and in space will look at the lunar dirt kicked up and search for some form of water in it.

Deadly power struggle follows Mehsud's death, say govt sources Monday 10 August 2009

2009-10-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

Pakistan’s Taliban appears to be in a state of disarray following the apparent killing of their commander Baitullah Mehsud. The Pakistani Taliban, considered a key Al-Qaeda facilitator by Washington, was allegedly killed in a US drone attack, according to Pakistani intelligence reports on Friday. However, Islamabad is still seeking confirmation.

Although the Taliban commander’s death has yet to be confirmed, it seems a deadly power-struggle has already begun. There were unconfirmed reports over the weekend of a fatal gun battle at a meeting of top Taliban commanders convened to discuss the choice of a successor to Mehsud.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said these reports from the lawless region of South Waziristan were being investigated.

The commanders were reportedly Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud and the warlord's main spokesman, and Wali-ur Rehman, a senior commander in Mehsud's umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement.

Despite the apparent internal turmoil among the Taliban, security analyst Hasan Askari warned that the threat was not over and said Pakistani authorities would have to re-establish control in the tribal areas.

"The current situation practically shows that the government does not really have access to the area, which makes it difficult to verify the information that is coming through diverse sources," Askari said.

FRANCE 24’s correspondent visited the Red Mosque, which is a bastion of extremists amid the current turmoil. For the worshippers at the Red Mosque, Mehsud’s death does not mean the end of the road for the Taliban in the region.

“Killing Meshud doesn't mean an end to this war because this war is an ideological battle. Killing an ideology isn't easy.” Iftikar Khan told FRANCE 24.

However, for now, Mehsud’s death could prove advantageous to the Pakistani government.

“Ikea hasn’t made any complaints about their Chinese shoppers”

2009-10-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

Du Xiaodon is a student from Shanghai who occasionally works at Ikea.

The average monthly income for someone from Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen - where Ikea has shops - is around 3,000 to 4,000 RMB [€300 - €400]. An EKTORP sofa itself costs 3,500 RMB - the same price as in the US and Europe. So I think that's why most people go there to do window shopping rather than real shopping. You see a lot of people with cameras. Some of them simply want to have pictures of the pretty furniture, others are design imitators, who then use the image to get a carpenter to copy it.

It's true that people go for ‘outings' to Ikea with their kids, and they do sit down in the chairs and have a lie down on the beds. But they only stay for a few minutes. There are few people sleeping like you see in the photos put online.

Ikea hasn't made any complaints about their Chinese shoppers. I think the company is optimistic about its market in China. They built five stores in the country between 2005 and 2009, and their sales have increased 25% each year, while only 10% in the rest of the world."
Xiaodong Du's picture

Xiaodong Du

* China
* College student, translator, blogger, business consultancy part timer

Ikea, perfect getaway for the Chinese

2009-10-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

For most people, Ikea is the place where you spend Saturday afternoon waiting in a long queue to pay for some inexpensive furniture. Not for the Chinese. They've discovered that spending the day reading, sleeping and chatting on a brand new black sofa is much cheaper if you don't leave the shop with it.

For some weeks now, Chinese Web users have been amusing themselves by posting photos taken in Shanghai's Ikea store. Passers-by stop to stare at what appears to be residents of the Swedish chain. It's not only the beds and the sofas that attract nap-seekers. The restaurant is pretty popular too. It seems that coffee, biscuits and re-fill soda in an air-conditioned canteen is a great way to spend your weekend in Shanghai.

A former Ikea worker posted this comment on an online forum:

"I worked in the bed section of Ikea. We often had to ask clients to leave because they were snoring. They were very angry to be woken up and some even made complaints to the manager."

Ireland Votes for A Stronger E.U.

2009-10-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

LONDON, Oct. 3 -- Henry Kissinger once famously asked, "Who do I call if I want to call Europe?" The answer, thanks to the Irish, may soon be the president of Europe.

Irish voters have removed the single greatest barrier to regionwide adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, which would further integrate the European Union -- the world's largest political and economic alliance encompassing almost 500 million people in 27 countries. According to official results of a referendum released Saturday, 67 percent of voters supported the charter.

The treaty would, among other things, create a full-time E.U. president and secretary of state, more closely linking the region's foreign policies and affording the alliance new clout on the world stage.

Irish voters rejected the treaty in a vote last year. But reassured that the European Union would not demand changes to its antiabortion laws or military neutrality, Ireland switched gears in a second referendum Friday.

"The Irish people have spoken with a clear and resounding voice," Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who has led the charge for the treaty's approval, said in a statement to reporters in Dublin. "It is a good day for Ireland, and a good day for Europe."

The results illustrate how the global financial crisis has forced hard-hit nations such as Ireland to find new value in their E.U. membership, reenergizing a project in cross-border governance that some said would never work.

The about-face, analysts say, appeared to be driven at least in part by fear.

Ireland is experiencing one of the worst economic downturns in the industrialized world after an unprecedented boom. It now views the E.U. as a lifeline to larger countries with more stable economies, including Germany and France. A repeat of a no vote, many Irish believed, would have reduced their influence with European partners at precisely the time when their investment, grants and loans are needed most, analysts said.

"The country is in dire straits, and we will be isolated politically if we vote no," said Jean Kennedy, 49, an auctioneer who voted Friday in south Dublin.
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Analysts note that the treaty would not drastically change European politics. It would fortify the power of the European Parliament on regional issues including security, agriculture and transportation, but E.U. nations would largely remain autonomous on the vast majority of issues.

Instead, many are pointing to the creation of a new leadership structure and the streamlining of E.U. decision-making, and its corps of diplomats and bureaucrats overseas, as the most important outcome of a ratified treaty.

The full-time E.U. president, to be elected by Europe's leaders for 2 1/2 -year terms, would replace a part-time system that rotates the seat every six months among standing leaders of member nations. The position is envisioned to be filled with a major European statesman, similar to the U.N. secretary general.

"This isn't going to change decision-making in Europe overwhelmingly. The European Union will remain a union of nations where issues of life, love and death, particularly on tax, social security and other issues, will continue to be set nationally," said Maurice Fraser, an associate fellow at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. "But by creating a central actor in the form of the new E.U. presidency, it should lead to a more credible status for the E.U. in international affairs."

Poland and the Czech Republic also must still ratify the Lisbon Treaty. Neither nation is holding a referendum, as the Irish did. Though Polish and Czech leaders are widely known as E.U. skeptics, analysts nevertheless think both nations will ratify the treaty before January.

But Irish rejection of the treaty probably would have killed it, setting back the goal of European integration by years, analysts say.

"A no vote would have weakened the E.U., cast doubt on the future of the euro and on the European project itself," said Hugo Brady, senior research fellow for the Center for European Reform in Brussels. "The E.U. will be breathing a sigh of relief."

Special correspondent Brendan Howard in Dublin contributed to this report.

IMF pledges voting power to developing countries

2009-10-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

ISTANBUL—A key panel of the International Monetary Fund said Sunday that it supports giving more voting power to emerging market and developing countries, warning that the legitimacy of the institution was at stake.The group's International Monetary and Financial Committee said it backs a shift of at least 5 percent of voting power from countries with ample representation to those with little influence. The move would seek to reflect changes in the global economy, with strong growth in countries that once lagged far behind the elite club of rich nations.

"Quota reform is crucial for increasing the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Fund," the committee said in a statement. It planned to review progress at its next meeting in Washington on April 24, and sought an agreement on the voting shift by January 2011. The change would then be subject to approval by the legislatures of some member countries.

"This is a process that will take time. It won't happen overnight," said committee chairman Youssef Boutros-Ghali. "We are reforming an organization that is complex, sophisticated and reaching every corner of the world economy."

The committee, which sets the IMF's agenda, said it was also committed to protecting the voting share of its poorest members. Panel members include IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and other finance chiefs.

The announcement came at the IMF's annual meeting, held this year in Istanbul. It followed a decision at a Pittsburgh forum that the G-20 nations would become the world's main economic decision-making forum, effectively taking over the role of the G-7 group of rich countries.

Earlier Sunday, Geithner said "a more representative, responsive and accountable governance structure is essential to strengthening the IMF's legitimacy."

He noted that G-20 countries had committed to shift some control in the IMF to countries with relatively little input. The Group of 20 includes developing economic powerhouses such as China, India and Brazil.

Geithner said the IMF should outline soon how the proposed transfer of voting power can occur. He said reform of the IMF's executive board was vital to modernizing the Washington-based institution, which represents 186 countries. The U.S. recommends reducing the board size while preserving the current number of emerging market and developing country chairs.

The IMF is usually headed by a European and the World Bank by an American. It has received pledges of more money to help poor countries struggling to emerge from the global economic crisis, and a broader range of nations wants to have more say in how the funds are handled.

Aid agency OXFAM says current voting formulas at the IMF give Luxembourg more weight than the Philippines, which has almost 200 times the population. It said the 5 percent shift in voting power was insufficient.

"They need to give more voice to the poorest countries, have fewer European seats on the Board, and get rid of the U.S. veto," said Caroline Pearce, OXFAM policy adviser. She said the IMF can only be relevant if it gives "countries hardest hit by the financial crisis a say in their own destiny."

The U.S. has a 17 percent voting stake in the IMF, effectively giving it veto power because major decisions require an 85-percent majority to pass.

SOLIDAR, a European network of non-governmental organizations, said the calls for a 5 percent shift amounted to "grandstanding" that distracted attention from the harsh impact of IMF austerity policies in nations including Ethiopia and Latvia.

"Governments are still being forced to cut pensions, jobs in the public sector, unemployment benefits, teacher's salaries, and the list goes on," Andrea Maksimovic of SOLIDAR said in a statement.

The IMF has often been criticized for allegedly imposing tough measures on countries in exchange for loans and without sufficient regard for the impact on the poor.

IMF officials say they have shown more flexibility in recent years. John Lipsky, the IMF's No 2. official, has said the IMF is undertaking "substantial efforts" toward internal reform that will provide "a fair shake for all our members."

At the Istanbul conference, a group of 35 heavily indebted countries welcomed the G-20's new role as a leader in global economic decisions, but said poor nations also needed representation to express their financing needs.

"We need at least one seat so that almost 1 billion Africans can express their views," said Lazare Essimi Menye, Cameroon's finance minister.

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8 American troops killed in 'complex attack' on Afghanistan outpost

2009-10-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

Eight American soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters ambushed two remote outposts in eastern Afghanistan in one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. troops since the war began.

"This was a complex attack in a difficult area," said Army Col. Randy George in a statement released Sunday.

The soldiers were preparing to vacate the isolated outposts located in Nuristan province near the Pakistan border when Taliban fighters attacked from positions in the surrounding mountains early Saturday morning.

Nuristan is the province where nine U.S. soldiers were killed when their outpost was overrun by militants in July 2008, prompting an investigation into whether the troops were neglected by senior commanders.

On Friday, two U.S. soldiers, including one from the upstate Fort Drum-based 10th Mountain Division, were killed by a man dressed as an Afghan police officer in Wardak province, south of Kabul.

Three other U.S. troops were killed this month in separate attacks across the country, bringing the October death toll to 13.

Last month, 37 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan.

The deaths came as White House National Security Advisor Jim Jones hit the Sunday morning talk show circuit declaring that the Taliban was "very diminished" in Afghanistan.

"I don't foresee the return of the Taliban," Jones said on CNN's "State of the Union." "Afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling."

That's in stark contrast to the assessment of the top U.S. commander on the ground, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who warned recently that the insurgency could win if a new strategy -- including more U.S. troops -- wasn't put in place.

Jones criticized media leaks surrounding McChrystal's review of the war, saying "ideally, it's best for military advice to come up through the chain of command."

But he said he agreed that more troops are "a portion of the answer, but not the total answer" to winning the war in Afghanistan.

President Obama is expected to announce his strategy for the war this month and whether that includes adding more troops to the more than 68,000 troops expected there by the end of the year.

Earthquake Victims in Indonesian Villages Need Help to Rebuild

2009-10-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

The full extent of the damage caused by the earthquake that struck the Indonesian Island of Sumatra is still being assessed. In the city of Padang the collapse of a number of tall buildings caused a large number of casualties but many other buildings were still intact. This VOA correspondent traveled to some small villages to the North where few people were killed but damage to houses was massive.Earthquake victims throughout the affected areas of Southwest Sumatra are sorting through the collapsed remains of their homes and their lives, and wondering what to do next.

The taller buildings that collapsed in the city of Padang will almost certainly be rebuilt. Large businesses and public organizations have the resources, the labor force or overriding social need to make reconstruction a priority.

For the poor, the future is not so certain.

In some farming villages in the nearby district of Pariaman hundreds died when landslides caused by the quake buried the houses and those within.

In other villages few have died or have been severely injured. At an emergency medical tent set up to care for earthquake victims, Dr. David Joba has treated a number of people for shock but nothing serious.

He says about five or six people have mild coughs.

But the homes in these villages have sustained massive damage from the quake. House after house has either collapsed or has severe structural damage. Some houses were a pile of rubble. Others were teetering, the walls ruptured, the roofs full of holes. Broken glass and piles of bricks covered the ground.

Families are now living in makeshift tents. They are reacting to their loss in a variety of ways.

One family in the village of Lansano lost the small store they operated, the school they ran and their home. When asked what they will do, the mother responds with determination that life go on.

She says they will wake up again!

In the village of Barung, Iza Wati's home is in ruins and she is distraught.

She says what will happen she does not know. What can I do? she asks.

Adi Kato runs a small radio station that is affiliated with VOA in Padang, but his family's home is in Barung. He was born in the house in 1944. Now the ceiling has fallen, and the brick and mortar exterior has crumbled. His mother's picture still hangs on the inside wall. He says he and other poor people hurt by the earthquake need help from foreign countries, like the United States to rebuild.

"But we have no money," said Kato. "We hope US aid can help me."

His plea was echoed by many villagers. They want to rebuild their lives but they cannot do it by themselves.

Iran's Jalili meet U.S. Burns in Geneva at U.S. request: official

2009-10-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

TEHRAN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian official said a meeting between Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and U.S. envoy William Burns in Geneva was held at the request of the American side, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday.

"The meeting of the U.S. delegation with the Iranian delegation was held at the request of the Americans," Iran's Supreme National Security Council Undersecretary for Foreign Policy Affairs Ali Baqeri was quoted as saying.

"The meeting was held merely within the framework of Iran's proposed package," he said, adding that the two sides discussed the ways for continuing the path to attain the goals specified at the Geneva meeting.

On Thursday, Jalili held talks with top envoys from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany in Geneva, Switzerland. They agreed to hold a second round of meeting focusing on Iran's nuclear issue by the end of this month.

"Given that Iran is now a nuclear state, it will develop the industry in the geographical and software arenas and will establish new installations within the boundaries of IAEA rules and regulations," Fars quoted Baqeri as saying.

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday at a joint press conference in Tehran with Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, that the UN nuclear watchdog would inspect Iran's newly disclosed uranium plant near Qom on Oct. 25. TEHRAN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that the UN nuclear watchdog would inspect Iran's new uranium plant near Qom on Oct. 25.Full story

N.B. launches seasonal flu vaccination program

2009-10-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

New Brunswick's deputy chief medical health officer feels confident about the way the Health Department is rolling out its flu vaccination programs.

Dr. Paul Van Buynder made the comments Thursday, while announcing the start of the seasonal flu vaccination program.

Swine-flu immunizations will follow in early November, he said.Influenza hasn't hit New Brunswick, and Van Buynder said he doesn't expect either virus to appear in the next couple of weeks.

By the end of the immunization schedules, "We will have protected all the residents of New Brunswick against seasonal influenza and against pandemic influenza, and the discussions regarding the studies and who is right and who is wrong will not matter in New Brunswick because everybody's protected against both viruses," said Van Buynder.

Unlike New Brunswick, many provinces are delaying giving their seasonal flu shots until the swine flu vaccine programs are completed.

Recent studies suggest people who receive the seasonal flu shot could be at greater risk of getting the swine flu.

Van Buynder maintains the studies are preliminary and don't back other, similar studies.

He urges people over 65, pregnant women, children between six months and 23 months, and people with chronic conditions to get the seasonal flu shot within the next two weeks.

400,000 evacuated as typhoon Parma lashes Philippines raising new flooding fears

2009-10-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

The danger of heavy rains causing more flooding in Manila, the capital, was enough to force families to flee their homes in low-lying areas. Farther north thousands were evacuated. Nearly half a million people in total are now thought to have fled their homes because of typhoons.

But the worst affected area on Saturday was the coast in the north of Luzon, the biggest island in the archipelago, which was ravaged by winds in excess of 110 miles an hour.

Trees were uprooted, electricity poles snapped, and homes and bridges destroyed by the force of the typhoon before it moved inland.

Tuguegarao City, capital of Cagayan Province, bore the brunt of typhoon Parma's fury, with 1.2 metres of rain in six hours. There were early reports of four deaths. That figure was expected to rise.

Troops were on standby in Manila to cope with expected flooding. Sewers were still blocked with mud and reservoirs were full after last week's heavy rains.

Philippine National Red Cross administrator in Cagayan, Aileen Torres, said: "Many areas around the city have been hard hit and we can not get out to see if people are safe because the roads are blocked by fallen trees.

"It's pretty chaotic at the moment with the wind howling outside and sheets of tin being torn off roofs."

Chito Castro, head of the Office of Civil Defense in Cagayan Valley, said the typhoon was blowing "very, very strong winds" across the province.

In Vietnam, across the South China Sea, the death toll rose to 107 from Typhoon Ketsana on Saturday, one of the deadliest typhoons to hit the nation in recent years.

The cost of damage was estimated at nearly £370 million. When the typhoon tore across the Philippines last weekend it killed at least 293 people. It also claimed 17 lives in Cambodia and 24 in Laos, neighbours of Vietnam.

All along the eastern seaboard of Luzon the army, police and volunteers forced thousands of people to move over the past three days ahead of the typhoon's landfall. But almost as soon as it struck land Parma turned and moved up the coast, before sweeping in across the northern province of Cagayan, a sparsely populated rural area.

It had been feared that the typhoon would make landfall farther south. The capital is still reeling for a tropical storm that poured a month's worth of rain on the city in just six hours flooding 80 percent of land area of the metropolis of 12 million people.

The clean-up in Manila has been painfully slow although international relief aid has poured in from overseas. Fearing a repeat of last weekend's disaster the president, Gloria Arroyo, declared a nationwide state of calamity. She began ordering local governments in the path of Typhoon Parma to force people out of their homes if they refuse to move.

Officials said the risk of another major disaster eased after Parma changed direction.

Weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said: "We all breathed a sigh of relief when the typhoon changed direction. But it still brought strong winds and rain over much of Cagayan before blowing further inland towards the mountains. It was a strong typhoon, packing winds at its height of 110 miles an hour," Mr Cruz said.

Dr Susan Espinueva, assistant weather services chief of the Hydro Metrological Division of the weather bureau, said five major dams in Luzon remain open and are releasing water to increase storage capacity in anticipation of the typhoon.

More than 400,000 people still remain in evacuation centres in areas hit hard by last weekend's floods.

Explainer: Samoa tsunami

2009-10-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

The tsunami that killed dozens of people in the Pacific islands of Samoa and American Samoa, and sent smaller waves to the east coast of Japan almost 5,000 miles away, was caused by a huge subsea earthquake.

A tsunami – literally "harbour wave" in Japanese – is typically caused by seismic activity under the seafloor that sends fast-travelling waves to shore, sometimes with devastating consequences.

A powerful, shallow earthquake occurring under the sea can create waves that move at speeds of up to 500-600 miles per hour. As they approach the shore, the waves, though almost imperceptible in the open sea, slow and swell to heights of 10 metres or more.

While ordinary sea waves involve only the top layer of water, tsunamis comprise entire columns of water stretching to the ocean floor. They can travel several hundred miles, and the most powerful across entire oceans.

The use of "tidal wave" to describe tsunami has fallen out of favour: tsunami are not caused by tidal movements. Aside from earthquakes, they can be caused by volcanic eruptions, underwater explosions, landslides and other factors.

Experts believe major tsunamis occur every 10 years. Historically, almost 60% have occurred in the Pacific ocean, 25% in the Mediterranean and 12% in the Atlantic. The Indian ocean, scene of a huge tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 12 countries in December 2004, accounts for only 4% of recorded major tsunamis.

The largest recorded earthquake, of magnitude 9.5, which struck Chile in 1960, generated tsunamis that killed people as far away as Hawaii and Japan.

Not all tsunamis involve giant waves, however. The waves that reached the Japanese island of Hachijojima today, 10 hours after the earthquake, were described as "very weak" by the country's meteorological agency.

U.S. Threatens Iran With Sanctions Over Nuclear Program, Though Effectiveness in Doubt

2009-10-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

President Obama has let Iran know that it faces an arsenal of sanctions if it fails to completely disclose the nature of its nuclear program and ambitions.

But with three rounds of U.N. sanctions already in place -- and Iran's defiant refusal Tuesday to put its nuclear program on the table when it meets Thursday with representatives of the five permanent Security Council members and Germany -- some officials question whether yet another round of sanctions, especially ones dependent on Russia and China, would have any teeth.

If Iran does not cooperate Thursday, the Obama administration has been working up plans to target Iran's energy, financial and telecommunications sectors, U.S. officials said Monday. A Congressional Research Service report released in early September examined the use of such possible penalties, as follows. Some contain apparent loopholes or would be virtually impossible to pass, while others are considered potentially effective:

-- Ban on exporting refined petroleum to Iran.

Iran, which suffers from a lack of refining infrastructure, imports between 30 and 40 percent of its gasoline needs, so a ban on oil exports is considered a potentially devastating penalty. A similar measure is also being considered in Congress.

"A gasoline quarantine is the sanction that would actually work," Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., a co-sponsor, told FOX News Radio. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Friday that he wants to bring the bill, which has hundreds of co-sponsors, before his panel in October.

The CRS report, though, noted that Iran could get around the sanctions by offering high prices to suppliers willing to defy the sanction or raising its own prices to discourage Iranian drivers from consuming gas. John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told FOXNews.com that Iran is in the process of expanding its refining capability anyway. "This was a good idea six or seven years ago," Bolton said. "Unfortunately, it's not going to squeeze them now."

-- Ban on international investment in Iran's energy sector.

According to the CRS report, this would essentially take the United States' Iran Sanctions Act worldwide. It could prevent companies of U.N. states from shipping to Iran the technology it needs to build oil refineries and other infrastructure. Some analysts consider this to be potentially effective. Nile Gardiner, with the Heritage Foundation, said a complete European freeze on Iran investment would have a "devastating impact" on the country's economy. The CRS report, though, noted that since the U.S. started penalizing foreign and U.S. investment in Iran's energy sector, no projects have been sanctioned and Iran has made agreements to "slow deterioration" of its energy sector. Bolton also expressed skepticism that Russia and China would ever support such a sanction.

-- Ban on international flights in and out of Iran.

The CRS report noted that a similar ban was imposed on Libya after the bombing of PanAm Flight 103. Another option is to expand the list of Iranian officials restricted from travel.

-- More financial and trade sanctions.

The option could impose a broad freeze on all Iranian assets abroad, or ban all transactions with Iranian banks. Another potential sanction could ban international finance institutions from lending to Iran. Some European nations, though, have already started to do this.

-- Insurance ban.

This option would ban insurance for Iran's tanker fleet, potentially making it more difficult and more expensive for Iran to ship oil. The CRS report noted that Iran claims to be able to "circumvent" this sanction.

-- Ban on Iranian oil imports and other trade.

This would ban countries from purchasing oil from and conducting other trade with Iran. The CRS report said this is the most sweeping possibility and the most unlikely, considering the impact a cutoff of Iranian oil would have on global energy prices and the fact that almost every U.S. ally conducts trade with Iran.

Iran is already subject to three rounds of U.N. sanctions, most of which restrict Iran's ability to import or export weapons and weapons material.

The U.S. officials said Monday that the U.S. would expand its own penalties against Iranian companies and press for greater international sanctions against foreign firms, largely European, that do business in the country unless Iran can prove that its nuclear activities are not aimed at developing an atomic weapon.

They said that the asset freezes and travel bans against Iranian and foreign businesses and individuals who do business in those areas are also being considered.

The options are on the table as diplomats from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and Germany prepare to meet with Iran's top nuclear negotiator on Thursday.

But U.S. officials familiar with the process that dates back to the Bush administration are skeptical that Iran will agree to demands to fully disclose its intentions. Iran repeatedly has denied it wants the bomb and maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

A top Iranian official told Reuters that his country will not abandon its nuclear activities, "even for a second."

Bolton told FOX News on Monday that he's concerned another round of Security Council sanctions will be "just as watered down as the first three."

"I don't think sanctions are going to work," Bolton said. He said some increase in banking sanctions and tightening of trade restrictions might have some effect. But ultimately, he said they will likely be too incremental to deter Iran from pursuing its nuclear program.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he's not "optimistic" about Thursday's talks, but that sanctions -- while worth trying - should not be the only tool available.

McCain told FOX News that he has "serious doubts" that Russia and China will cooperate and said the United States, in the long-term, needs to do more to advocate for "regime change" by encouraging dissenting elements inside the country. He also said a naval blockade of Iranian shipments, as conducted with Cuba under President Kennedy, should be "seriously considered." And he said the military option needs to stay on the table.

"There's no good options," McCain said, adding: "I think we have to try the sanctions."

Previous meetings -- the last in July 2008 -- have not made progress, and the officials said they did not think Thursday's talks in Geneva would produce any significant developments on the nuclear front.

Instead, the officials said they expected Iran to raise a broad range of global political concerns while the other participants focused on Iran's nuclear program, including the disclosure last week of a new uranium enrichment facility.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the talks, said they believed another round of talks would be scheduled before mid-November, at which Iran would face demands to address the international community's concerns.

If they refuse, the officials said the U.S. and its partners would move ahead with new penalties.

Hundreds more feared dead in Sumatra quake

2009-10-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

Landslides triggered by an earthquake in western Indonesia wiped out at least three villages this week, an official said today.

As many as 644 people, including a wedding party, were buried under mountains of mud and debris, according to Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry's crisis centre.

If all 644 are confirmed dead, the government's death toll from Wednesday's quake would jump to more than 1,300 from the current 715.

Pakaya said the villages of Pulau Aiya, Lubuk Lawe and Jumena were completely levelled by the landslides. Four hundred people attending a wedding in Pulau Aiya were buried by a quake-triggered landslide, and 244 people were buried in the two other villages.

Rescuers searching for survivors in the Sumatran city of Padang had been spurred on by a text message received from a survivor trapped in a collapsed hotel, saying that he and some others were alive.

But hopes were fading as sniffer dogs failed to detect life.

Padang's police chief said voices and handclaps had been heard from survivors buried in the Ambacang hotel since the 7.6-magnitude quake on Wednesday and that yesterday one survivor had sent a text message to relatives.

Colonel Boy Rafli Amar told reporters today that, after more than six hours of searching, "so far rescuers have found nothing".

In remoter areas outside Padang the full scale of the disaster was only starting to become clear, with survivors drinking coconut water after their drinking sources were contaminated, Reuters reported.

"In my village, 75 people were buried. There are about 300 people missing from this whole area. We need tents and excavators to get the bodies but the roads are cut off," said Ogi Martapela, 28, who said his older brother had died in the landslide.

The aid effort appeared to be cranking up today, but it has yet to reach many areas.

Testos, an Indonesian Red Cross worker at an aid station in central Padang, said his team now had about half the supplies it needed for people made homeless by the quake. "We also need drinking water and clothes because many peoples clothes were burnt in fires," he said. "And we need medicines to stop infection."

An Australian naval vessel set sail for Sumatra equipped with a mobile 40-bed hospital with surgical facilities, and Sea King helicopters, the country's defence ministry said. More emergency teams and further aid from Britain were being dispatched to the region today.

Oxfam sent water treatment units and plastic sheeting for shelters and extra staff from its warehouse in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

A team from the British Red Cross was due to leave London's Heathrow airport this afternoon to co-ordinate the charity's distribution of aid, while last night a team from the search and rescue charity Rapid UK arrived in Padang with specialist equipment such as thermal cameras and lifting gear.

They were the first official search crew from Britain to arrive in the crisis-hit country.

Another planeload of search and rescue personnel, organised by the Department for International Development, will arrive later today to join in the effort.

Sixty-five British firefighters were grounded at Gatwick airport yesterday after a fault developed in a government-chartered aircraft. The delay frustrated British officials, who said time was running out for people trapped in collapsed buildings.

But the military stepped in and an RAF C17 aircraft is flying the search and rescue experts and 17 tonnes of aid from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to Padang.

The quake, from one of the world's most active seismic fault lines along the Pacific "ring of fire", struck with a force that shook buildings hundreds of kilometres away in Singapore and Malaysia.

The United Nations estimated that 1,100 people had been killed in the earthquake. Indonesia's disaster management agency put the toll of confirmed dead and missing so far at 809.

Rescue teams, many wearing masks to cover the stench of bodies as they worked in the tropical heat, were fanning out from Padang to some of the worst-hit surrounding areas.

Asked about rescue efforts in Pariaman, the vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, said it was now about retrieving bodies. "We can be sure that they are dead. So now we are waiting for burials," he said on Metro TV.

Typhoon slams into northern Philippines

2009-10-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

MANILA, Philippines — Typhoon Parma slammed into the Philippines today, ripping off roofs, toppling power pylons and swelling rivers in the country's mountainous north. At least two people were killed, an official said.

The storm -- the country's second in eight days -- cut a path across the northeastern tip of the main island of Luzon and was headed toward Taiwan, where evacuations of southern villages were under way.

The capital, Manila, escaped the worst of the storm. The city was still reeling from one on Sept. 26 that caused the worst flooding in four decades, killing at least 288 people and damaging the homes of 3 million more.

The provinces of Cagayan and Isabela were hardest hit today by powerful winds and drenching rain, cutting some communications and roads to some towns.

"The damage is quite heavy," Cagayan police Chief Roberto Damian told ABC-CBN television. "We are clearing highways and roads to reach people calling for rescue."

In Isabela, one man drowned and another died from exposure to the cold and wet weather, said Lt. Col. Loreto Magundayao of an army division based in the province.

Tens of thousands of people were moved to safe ground across the Philippines ahead of the typhoon, though officials said the threat of another national disaster eased as Parma changed course overnight Friday and bypassed the capital, parts of which are still chest-deep in floodwaters.

Trees were uprooted and power poles toppled in the provincial capital of Tuguegarao, Cagayan local government official Bonifacio Cuarteros told The Associated Press by telephone. Buildings had their roofs torn off. Similar damage was reported in neighboring Isabela.

Parma hit the coast packing sustained winds of 108 mph, though they weakened as the storm passed overland, the national weather bureau said.

Weather bureau chief Prisco Nilo warned that the heavy rain could trigger landslides and flooding, and strong winds could create tidal surges "similar to a tsunami" along the eastern coast.

After the storm changed course, officials began moving back tens of thousands of people who had been evacuated from coastal areas that might have been in the path of the storm.

Taiwan issued a storm warning and began moving people out of villages in the southern county of Kaohsiung, local official Lin Chun-chieh said. Flash floods from the last typhoon to hit the Kaohsiung area killed about 700 people in August.

The earlier storm to hit the Philippines, Ketsana, went on to hit other Southeast Asian countries, killing 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos.

It was part of more than a week of destruction in the Asia-Pacific region that has claimed more than 1,500 lives so far: an earthquake Wednesday in Indonesia; a tsunami Tuesday in the Samoan islands; and Typhoon Ketsana across Southeast Asia.

Another typhoon, Melor, was churning in the Philippine Sea, 1,600 miles to the east, threatening the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Most businesses there were shut this morning, and residents of the island of Saipan who don't live in concrete homes moved to typhoon shelters, said Charles Reyes, Northern Marianas Gov. Benigno Fitial's press secretary.

Typhoon Ketsana Rips Through Vietnam, Killing at Least 23

2009-10-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

Typhoon Ketsana continued her destructive path Tuesday, raging through central Vietnam. Rivers swelled to record highs, causing street flooding as fierce winds tore through towns. The storm has killed at least 23 in Vietnam and forced the evacuation of more than 170,000 from six central provinces. Ketsana began her course in the Philippines as a weaker tropical storm on Saturday, killing more than 200 people. The storm dumped 16 inches of rain in just 12 hours -- equivalent to the average rainfall for an entire month, and caused the worst flooding in 40 years.

Ketsana hit near the capital of Manila with devastating effects. Many who returned to the Philippines today found there was little left. As people bury their dead, dozens are still missing.

"I did not know what happened. We were on top of a roof but we got separated," said Gingery Comprendio, a mother of five. "The next day when I came back to our house, I saw my eldest already dead and my aunt saw my other child buried in the mud." Three of Comprendio's children perished and two are still missing, along with her husband.

Nearly half a million people have been displaced and more than 300,000 are living in shelters. Philippine officials have scrambled to organize relief efforts, facing harsh criticism for the government's slow response. Extra police were ordered to control looting in communities abandoned by residents who left in search of food, water and shelter.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration said it was doing all it could and appealed to the international community for help. The president opened part of the presidential palace as a shelter and said her administration would donate two months' salary to those in need.

The U.S. donated $100,000 and sent 20 soldiers who were already in the region for counterterrorism training. The United Nations Children's Fund and the World Food Program have also offered aid.

U.S. Threatens Iran With Sanctions Over Nuclear Program, Though Effectiveness in Doubt

2009-10-03T07:05:00.000-07:00

Early referendum returns in Ireland suggest Yes vote to Lisbon Treaty

2009-10-03T07:03:00.000-07:00

DUBLIN, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The EU's Lisbon Treaty looks set to be passed by a decisive majority in Ireland, as tallies from around the country indicate a massive swing to the "Yes" side.

Although there are no official results yet, tallies everywhere are showing a big increase in support for the Treaty, RTE Radio reported.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin said: "I'm delighted for the country. It looks like a convincing win for the 'Yes' side ... It's good for Ireland," he said.

According to electoral officials, the number of "Yes" votes have exceeded "No" in 41 of Ireland's 43 constituencies.

Tallies from Dublin South West indicate a clear "Yes" vote with60 percent of boxes open. The constituency had the highest "No" vote during the referendum in 2008 when the Irish overwhelmingly rejected the treaty.

All boxes are opened in Kerry North and tallies are indicating a 60:40 margin in favor of the "Yes" side with turnout more than 50 percent.

Indications from other constituencies appear to be the same -- the "Yes" vote is reported to be up everywhere and, so far, only Donegal North East has voted "No."

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said: "It is an important victory for Ireland and for all of Europe."

Bildt, whose country holds the EU presidency, said that it was just a matter of time until the union "finally can push the button for the better European cooperation that the Lisbon Treaty will give us."

Count staff started opening ballot boxes at 9 a.m. local time (0800 GMT), and the sorting of votes is continuing.

As the ballot papers are being sorted, a clear picture is starting to emerge from tallies -- showing a decisive swing to the "Yes" side, but a final official result is expected at around 5 p.m. (1600 GMT).

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen is expected to make a statement after the people's verdict becomes known.

"The people's decision is sovereign and, of course, that will be the case but I'm hopeful that we'll have a good outcome," he said.

During the previous referendum in June 2008, Irish voters rejected the treaty with 53.4 percent voting No and 46.6 percent "Yes" due to their concerns over Ireland's military neutrality, its opposition to abortion, and national rights on taxation.

In June, the EU took a major step forward, agreeing to provide legally binding guarantees to Ireland to overcome voters' misgivings.

The Lisbon Treaty, signed by EU heads of state and government in December 2007 in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, replaced a failed EU constitution, which was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005.

The charter must be ratified by all 27 EU member states and Ireland is the only EU member state to hold a referendum. So far, 26 countries have approved the document through parliamentary vote, but Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Czech President Vaclav Klaus have yet to sign it.

Indonesia earthquake: 3,000 still trapped

2009-10-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

Rescue teams from around the world poured into the worst-hit area around the regional capital of Padang as chances of finding survivors grew slimmer.

Block after block of toppled hotels, hospitals, office buildings and schools had yet to be searched and dozens of unclaimed corpses were laid out in the scorching sun at Dr. M. Djamil General Hospital, Padang's biggest, which was damaged in the quake.Wednesday's 7.6 magnitude temblor devastated a stretch of more than 60 miles along the western coast of Sumatra island, prompting a massive international aid operation in a country where earthquakes have taken a huge human toll in recent years.

More than 20,000 houses and buildings were destroyed and 2,400 people hospitalised across seven districts, said Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the national disaster agency.

Fuel was being rationed amid a power outage, water and food were in short supply and villagers dug out the dead with their bare hands, witnesses and aid agencies said.

Contrasting that grim picture of grief and destruction, at least one survivor was pulled from the rubble on Friday. Virgo, a 19-year-old English student, was found alive under the rubble of her college in Padang, the Foreign Language School of Prayoga.

"Her dead friends were beneath and above her. Fortunately, she was able to withstand the stench for 40 hours," said Dubel Mereyenes, the doctor who treated her. "She has a severely injured leg, but we will try to avoid amputation."

Another survivor was a teacher at the same school, Suci Ravika Wulan Sari, who was extracted from the debris almost exactly 48 hours after the college crumbled in the 5.16 pm quake, killing dozens of students.

Elsewhere in the city, at the site of the former Ambacang Hotel where as many as 200 were feared trapped, rescue workers detected signs of life under a hill of tangled steel, concrete slabs and broken bricks of the five-story structure, said Gagah Prakosa, a spokesman of the rescue team.

As the scale of the destruction became clearer, Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in the capital, Jakarta, that the recovery operation would cost at least $400 million (£250 million) because the "impact of this disaster has worsened."

Military and commercial planes shuttled in tons of emergency supplies, although rural areas remained cut off from help due to landslides that reportedly crushed several villages and killed nearly 300 people.

Cuba: Close, But No Cigar for U.S. Tourists

2009-10-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

The country famed for vintage architecture, rum, cigars and '50s cars has a new spin.Cuba and its tourism industry are ramping up with hip hotels, Chinese-made tour buses and restaurants serving trendy international dishes, partly in anticipation of an influx of Americans and their greenbacks.

At the rooftop pool of Havana's Hotel Saratoga, where rates run $200 and up and two-story suites have humidors and marble bathrooms, young Brits order mojitos. On the street below, near crumbling apartment buildings of Old Havana, a boy peers through the hotel restaurant's window and stretches a hand toward patrons nibbling delicacies unavailable to the average rice-and-beans-eating Cuban, miming hunger.

In the 50th anniversary year of the revolution that brought Fidel Castro into power, tourism is the No. 1 moneymaker, while locals might subsist on $20 a month and omnipresent food rationing.

U.S. citizens can't legally travel to Cuba because of a 1962 U.S.-imposed trade embargo with the Communist island 90 miles south of Key West.But the regime favors U.S. tourism, and stateside hotel and cruise execs are quietly scoping out the scene.

Illicit Americans walk the cobbled streets of Old Havana, photograph pastel-colored Spanish Colonial buildings and historic churches, buff up their salsa, puff on mellow cigars and lie on the largest Caribbean island's white-sand beaches.

They slip in via Canada, Mexico and other Caribbean countries, and immigration officers keep them out of trouble back home by not stamping U.S. passports with the taboo "Cuba" imprint.

About 41,000 of last year's 2.3 million visitors were from the USA, including legal Cuban Americans, Cuban officials say. Cuba welcomes U.S. tourists, attracted despite the chance of fines or surrender of passports if caught when re-entering the USA.

Visitors are drawn by Cuba's "unique flavor, sensualism, beautiful people," says Christopher P. Baker, author of Cuba guides, including Moon Cuba.

"In Cuba, everyone is happy, even if they've got nothing," says Havana-bound Liuber Leiva, 33, of Miami, in gold earring and baggy shorts, at the Miami airport. He shows how to get bags shrink-wrapped to thwart theft and negotiate daunting lines of Cuban Americans with stacks of gift-loaded suitcases. They now can visit without restriction.

Africans With Albinism Hunted: Limbs Sold on Tanzania's Black Market

2009-10-02T17:28:00.000-07:00

Mariamu Stanford, a soft-spoken, 28-year-old single mother from rural Tanzania, has earned a grim distinction: She's one of only two people with albinism -- a group that has faced discrimination in East Africa -- to survive a brutal attack by those wanting to sell the limbs of albinos on the black market. In her first interview with American journalists, Stanford greeted ABC News visitors with a shy smile, wearing a short-sleeve blouse that revealed the scars of her ordeal.

Last October, men armed with machetes entered her hut and began cutting at her arms in a gruesome attempt to amputate them, Stanford told ABC News.

"In the middle of the night, a group of men stormed in and said, 'We are going to cut your arm off, and if you scream we'll cut the other arm off,'" she said. "And then they started to chop my right arm off. And because I was screaming, they also started to do the same with the other."

Watch the full story on "20/20" TONIGHT at 10 p.m. ET

After her attackers fled, it took six full hours for Stanford to get medical treatment. Five months pregnant at the time, she lost both arms and her unborn child. A devout Christian and member of her church choir, Stanford was caught up in a grisly trade inspired by a renegade set of witch doctors; they claim potions made of the blood, skin or bones of an albino can make people wealthy and bring good luck.

We spoke just outside the two-room mud-floor building, where she lives with her parents, four young siblings and her son, a toddler. Her artificial limbs, donated by a well-wisher, lay discarded because they were painful and cumbersome.

Despite Tanzania's reputation as a tourist mecca known for safaris and visits to Mount Kilimanjaro, people with albinism are being hunted down like animals. Since 2007, 54 Tanzanian albinos, including children, have been murdered by gangs of men who hack off arms, legs or genitals. Observers said even more cases of attacks have gone unreported.

Tanzania is arguably the worst place in the world to be born with albinism -- a hereditary genetic condition caused by two recessive genes resulting in little or no pigment production in the hair, skin or eyes. The country has one of the largest populations of albinos in the world -- an estimated 170,000 -- and they are being targeted

Guinea soldiers shoot dead 'dozens' of protesters

2009-09-30T06:12:00.000-07:00

Opposition parties had organised the protest in the capital's main football stadium, which drew some 50,000 people. Demonstrators chanted "We want true democracy."

But soldiers from the presidential guard entered the stadium and fired into the crowd, reportedly using tear gas, live ammunition and baton charges against the demonstrators.The number killed in the attack remains unclear, but witnesses reported seeing dozens of bodies.

A doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that 58 people had been brought to a Conakry morgue on Monday.

"We have counted 52 bodies and six more have just come in," said the doctor at the Donka university medical centre.

But a member of the Red Cross told AFP that military commanders had issued instructions for all bodies to be taken to the Alpha Yaya Diallo military camp, rather than to morgues.

Elsewhere, at Ignace Deen hospital, a medical source told AFP that an army truck had come by to pick up "dozens of bodies" to be taken to "an unknown destination".

Tensions have risen amid rumours that military leader Capt Moussa "Dadis" Camara may run in presidential elections scheduled for Jan 31.

Capt Camara came to power in a coup last December, hours after longtime dictator Lansana Conte died. He initially said he would not run in the election, but has recently said he has the right to run if he chooses.

Australia begins vaccinations

2009-09-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

Australia's campaign will start with those most at risk in the pandemic, including health care workers, pregnant women and the chronically ill.

The federal government has ordered 21 million doses of the vaccine developed by Melbourne-based CSL Ltd.

A total of 5.5 million doses have been delivered across the country, enough to vaccinate 30 per cent of the population, Health Minister Nicola Roxon said. Two million doses each month will be made available until January.

Ms Roxon dismissed concerns about the vaccine's safety but said some people could have minor side effects, including mild nausea.

'I am very satisfied ... this vaccine is strong and effective,' Ms Roxon said. 'It is far safer to get this than it is to get swine flu.'

The first injections will be given to those most at risk from swine flu, including the chronically ill, the obese and indigenous people in remote communities, said Robert Booy, head of clinical research at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.

As of Wednesday, 180 Australians had died from swine flu. More than 4,700 people have been hospitalised.

Children under 10 cannot yet be vaccinated, but pediatric trials of the vaccine continue. -- AP

Israel, Hamas in mutual gestures on prisoners

2009-09-30T06:08:00.000-07:00

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel will free 20 Palestinian women from jail as early as Friday in exchange for a videotape from Hamas proving an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip since 2006 is alive, officials on both sides said on Wednesday.

Egyptian and German mediators are continuing to work on a final deal to swap the soldier, Gilad Shalit, for hundreds of Hamas prisoners. The negotiations are part of international efforts to ease Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

"It is important for the entire world to know that Gilad Shalit is alive and well and that Hamas is responsible for his well-being and his fate," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Shalit, now 23, was spirited into the Gaza Strip by Islamist militants who tunnelled into Israel three years ago in a raid in which two Israeli soldiers and two of the attackers were killed.

An Israeli official said the handover of the 20 women and the tape should take place on Friday, at the end of a two-day period when Israeli citizens can appeal in court against their release, an Israeli official said.

He added that a German mediator had already seen the video and believed it genuinely showed Shalit during recent weeks -- and certainly after Israel's offensive in Gaza in December and January in which some 1,400 Palestinians were reported killed.

The video lasts about a minute, said a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the Hamas allies that took part in the raid in which Shalit was captured.

Aid - a new model?

2009-09-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

Alem Abebe is a 14-year-old girl who left home three years ago and made her way to the capital. She now earns 50 US cents a day working at the Abebech Gobena project in one of the city’s slums. It’s not enough to send money home, but enough to survive — and to pay for night school.

But by the World Bank definition, Abebe and other women working at the project are still extremely poor: they earn much less than the daily income of $1.25 or roughly one euro that’s now used to measure poverty.

But the whole point isn’t to hand out money for free: but to help women who would be on the street get a job, an education - and a future.

It’s a departure from previous aid models, which saw large sums handed over by the West to African countries, a system that some say hasn’t really helped the world’s poorest continent.

“The model that’s coming up or that I’m proposing is essentially a model where Africa and Africans become equal partners with the rest of the world, not one where there’s a donor and a recipient where Africans are viewed as secondary citizens,” Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian author, told Reuters Africa Journal.

“This is really an environment where Africans are getting something, they’re getting paid for doing something, for being entrepreneurs, for generating something, for building products, for establishing infrastructure. It’s not the aid model where you get money for nothing,” said Moyo, whose book Dead Aid argues that Western generosity often doesn’t actually help in the long run.

Today the global financial crisis means that Western countries are trying to save their own economies and are no longer prepared to spend so much on aid. So is direct aid still a solution. Or are small projects that generate employment better at fighting poverty?

Explainer: Samoa tsunami

2009-09-30T06:03:00.000-07:00

Analysis: Iran plant could defer Israel strike

2009-09-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

JERUSALEM -- It may seem counterintuitive, but the news that Iran has a second, clandestine uranium enrichment plant, and has just test-fired long-range missiles, could actually put off any plans for a quick Israeli strike.

To be sure, Israel still sees an Iran with nuclear weapons as its greatest threat and has not taken a military assault off the table. Its defense minister, Ehud Barak, said as much in London on Tuesday.

Neutralizing the threat remains Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top priority. And the spectacle of upgraded missiles flying across Israel's TV screens only feeds its resolve to keep Iran at bay.

Yet the latest developments are likely to push world powers to impose the tough sanctions that Israel has been seeking. Giving Israel's position a higher profile on the world stage may also make it less inclined to act unilaterally.

For years, Israel has warned that Iran was not being honest about the size and nature of its nuclear program, which Tehran claims is designed to produce energy. Israel has portrayed last week's disclosure of the second facility, hidden in the arid mountains near the holy city of Qom, as confirmation of its suspicions.

"If there ever was a thought of (Israel) going with a military option, it's been put off," said Ephraim Kam, the deputy director of Tel Aviv University's Institute of National Security Studies. "Iran was caught lying again, it's clearly moving toward becoming a nuclear power.

"Now the Americans are better able to try to persuade the Europeans, and even the Russians, to go for tougher sanctions," he said.

Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born analyst working in Israel, agreed.

"It's likely that Israel will now be included more in the decision-making process," he said. "The more Israel sees itself as part of the process of dealing with the Iranian nuclear question, the less likely it is that it will take part in a unilateral action."
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In a meeting with British Defense Minister Bob Ainsworth, Israel's Barak said the existence of the second plant should trigger harsh sanctions, according to a statement from his office which added that Israel "is not removing any option from the table."

The reference to "options" is seen as a signal that an Israeli military strike remains a possibility.

Iran's nuclear chief, Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, said Tuesday that his country built the newly revealed facility inside a mountain and next to a military site to protect it from attack. He didn't identify the potential attackers.

German voters face poll conundrum

2009-09-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

The cobbled stone cellars, built in 1177 by Cistercian monks, are cool and dark, lined, now as then, with 1,000-litre barrels made from dark-brown German oak. Closed off from the sun for centuries, these silent, arching caverns form the heart of the Mönchhof (monks' house) riesling winery in the village of Ürzig, purchased from Napoleon by the Eymael family in 1804. They have carefully nurtured it ever since.

But standing outside the cellar entrance, in front of rows of grape-heavy vines that rise vertiginously above him from the green-yellow banks of the Mosel, the estate's current owner, Robert Eymael, was more concerned with the future than the past. "Germans are not ready for change. They don't like change in general. It's the opposite of Obama," he said. "Germans want an easy life softened with plenty of fabric conditioner and six weeks' holiday a year. The result will be the same as we have now."

Eymael was referring to tomorrow's federal elections that pit Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) against the Social Democrats (SPD), led by the foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. For the last four years, the two parties have been uneasy partners in a "grand coalition". Now they are fighting for primacy, each hoping to form a government with the support of smaller parties such as the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), the Greens, or even the much-ostracised Left party.

Dishonest politicians

Final pre-election polls suggest Merkel might just win enough votes to form a centre-right government with the FDP – but another uncomfortable CDU-SPD stitch-up is equally possible. Eymael hopes the outcome will generate the decisive leadership Germany needs at a time of economic crisis.

"We cannot afford to continue in this way. The public debt is growing fast, but the politicians are not honest with us. The truth will come out after the election, but not before," he said. German voters were not being offered clear choices - but neither did they want to face up to the challenges threatening their largely comfortable existence.

Change is a key issue in the conservative, tradition-bound Mosel valley, home to 5,000 vineyards in Germany's leading wine-producing state of Rhineland-Palatinate - as it is for the country as a whole. Growers say low-end barrel prices have fallen to almost unsustainable levels, while export demand for higher quality riesling in the UK and US has dropped. Their concerns are reflected nationally. The recession, a changing social order, environmental worries such as future nuclear energy policy, and a shifting perspective on Afghanistan and other international issues are all straining the politics-as-usual approach.

"This is probably the most important election of my lifetime," said Tom Drieseberg, of the Wegeler winery, producer of the world-famous Bernkasteler Doctor Riesling, which retails at £45 a bottle. "Public spending is expanding and the real reallocation of funds is not up-down or vice-versa, it's not from rich to poor. It's from the people to the government. The next generations will have to pay the price. I am privileged to have been brought up in this system. I am 58. I have never known war, I have never been hungry. But we have to change the way we do things in this country."

Drieseberg said he hoped the free-market FDP would win outright, but added: "Anything would be better than continuing with two big, self-satisfied parties happily spending the money of our children and grand-children."

Beneath the sparkling chandeliers, coats of arms and high ceilings of Kloster Machern, near the studiously picturesque medieval village of Bernkastel, Matthias Knebel has joined a wine-tasting organised by the local growers' association. The participants hold their glasses to the light, swirl the wine around, sniff, then slurp delicately, making a burbling, bubbling noise with their tongues. Then they spit the precious liquid into a pot and try another bottle.

"I don't understand why people say there is no choice between the parties. I don't think they are paying attention," Knebel said. "The private sector produces 80% of tax revenue. The government has to make it easier for companies to create new business and jobs. But the SPD's main idea is to increase the minimum wage. This is not affordable for me. In fact it's ridiculous."

Knebel said that like Germany as a whole, the Mosel valley was changing despite itself. Its economy was built around family businesses but some young people did not want to stay, preferring to study or earn higher wages in the cities. The population was ageing, there were fewer children, there was no new industry.

"I would be frightened about what would happen if there was no viticulture and tourism. There would be no jobs, the valley would die," Knebel said. But he believed the wineries' long-term prospects were favourable as long as they concentrated on high quality and built on the good name they had established since the bad old days of the 1970s when cheap, sweet German white wine sent a whole generation of tipplers heading for Spain, Chile and Australia.

Although the Rhine-Palatinate is an SPD-controlled state, posters portraying a smiling Merkel predominate in the Mosel villages. "Wir haben die Kraft" (we have the power), they say. And according to Knut Aufermann, a sound artist living in Ürzig, holding on to power is all the chancellor is interested in. To voters afraid of change, Merkel was the perfect candidate, he said.

"Merkel stands for no change at all. She does not say anything," Aufermann said. "There is fear everywhere about economic security, people are afraid of falling through the cracks and losing their status. It's outrageous what happened with the banks, but no one is asking, 'who allowed this to happen?' Maybe there are a few protests in Berlin or Hamburg, but in most of the country they keep quiet. I call it the ostrich strategy."

Political apathy, or a disinclination to rock the boat, is undermining a campaign, backed by Aufermann, to stop the building of a huge motorway bridge across the Mosel valley – a plan that crudely symbolises the challenges facing the area. Known as the Hochmoselübergang (the high Mosel flyover), the bridge will be about 150 metres high and more than a mile long, and will dwarf the picture-book villages and Gothic church spires below it. It will be visible for miles around.

Aufermann said the bridge and its link roads would be an ecological catastrophe, disrupting water supplies to some of the Mosel's best-known vineyards and causing air and noise pollution. Its main purpose, he added, was to serve the Ryanair hub at Frankfurt-Hahn regional airport and satisfy the grandiose ambitions of local bureaucrats, but there was insufficient traffic to justify it.

Knife in the heart

Rudolf Trossen, the valley's only bio- dynamic winegrower and producer of the noted Schieferblume (slate flower) riesling, said the bridge was "a knife in the heart of the Mosel". But at present, the €260m plan is going ahead, thanks in part to the indifference or collusion of local and national politicians.

Pouring out generous samples of his various concoctions at a comfortable restaurant off a quiet 13th century square in Bernkastel, Erni Loosen of the long-established Dr Loosen winery summed up the national mood on election eve: most people knew things had to change, but didn't really want them to. If they could, they preferred to avoid the issues.

"I'm 100% certain it will be another CDU-SPD coalition – 100% certain," Loosen said. "The reason is simple. We know nothing will happen if it stays the same." So why not have another glass?

Iran to test fire missile capable of hitting Israel

2009-09-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

Iran announced plans today to test-fire a long-range missile capable of hitting Israel as it adopted a defiant stance over its nuclear capability.

It also fired several short-range missiles using a multiple rocket launching system for the first time during military exercises by the regime's Revolutionary Guards.

General Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said that Iran would test medium-range Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 missiles on tonight and long-range Shahab-3 missiles on Monday, during drills set to last several days.

It is thought the Shahab-3 now has a range of up to 1,200 miles. General Salami said that Fateh, Tondar and Zelzal missiles were test-fired today. All are short-range, surface-to-surface missiles.

The official English-language Press TV showed pictures of at least two missiles being fired simultaneously and said they were from Sunday’s drill in a central Iran desert. In the clip, men could be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar" as the missiles were launched.

“We are going to respond to any military action in a crushing manner and it doesn’t make any difference which country or regime has launched the aggression,” General Salami said.

Iran has had the solid-fuel Fateh missile, with a range of 120 miles, for several years. It also has the solid-fuel, Chinese-made CSS 8, also called the Tondar 69, which has a range of about 93 miles.

The multiple launcher used for the first time today is designed for the Zelzal missile, which has a range of up to 185 miles.

The tests came two days after the US and its allies disclosed that Iran had been secretly developing a previously unknown underground uranium enrichment facility and warned the country it must open the nuclear site to international inspection or face harsher international sanctions.

The newly revealed nuclear site in mountains near the holy city of Qom is believed to be inside a heavily guarded, underground facility belonging to the Revolutionary Guard.

After the strong condemnations from the US and its allies, Iran said yesterday that it would allow UN nuclear inspectors to examine the site.

Philippine flood death toll rises

2009-09-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

The Philippines government says 240 people are now know to have died in flooding caused by Tropical Storm Ketsana, the AFP news agency reports.

The country has appealed for foreign aid to deal with the disaster, which has displaced more than 450,000 people.

Some 374,890 people are living in makeshift shelters, three times more than previously reported.

Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the situation could become worse if aid supplies run out.

The latest death toll is a sharp rise from the previously announced figure of 190 dead.

In a statement reported by AFP, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said the rise came after more than 90 deaths were recorded in Manila.

Earlier, Mr Teodoro appealed for humanitarian assistance from the international community.

"We are trying our level best to provide basic necessities, but the potential for a more serious situation is there," he said, in a nationally televised address.

"We cannot wait for that to happen." Many people have been left with nothing but what they are wearing

Mr Teodoro said troops, police and volunteers had so far been able to rescue more than 7,900 people.

Rescue workers are continuing to pull bodies from the mud and swollen rivers.

But the BBC's Alistair Leithead in Manila says the rescue operation is now focussing on getting supplies to those who have been displaced.

"We are waiting for more aid to arrive," said Armando Endaya, a community leader sheltering in a gymnasium in Manila with 3,000 other people.

"We are trying to mobilise our own relief operations here. But we need more help," he told AFP.

Overwhelmed

On Sunday, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said the storm was "an extreme event that has strained our response capabilities to the limit". But she said it was "not breaking" the country.

However, rescue workers are reported to be overwhelmed by the scale of floods.

The head of the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council, Anthony Golez, said resources were being spread too thinly.

"We are concentrating on massive relief operations. The system is overwhelmed, local government units are overwhelmed," Mr Golez told reporters.

"We were used to helping one city, one or two provinces but now, they are following one after another. Our assets and people are spread too thinly."

One doctor in Manila told the BBC that he had been working 24-hour shifts in a hospital flooded with water since Saturday.

The authorities were now focusing on providing food, medicine and other necessities to those in emergency shelters, he added. Telephone and power services in some parts of Manila remain cut.

Ketsana, with winds of up to 100km/h (62mph), hit the Philippines early on Saturday, crossing the main northern Luzon island before heading out toward the South China Sea.

Over the weekend, the government declared a "state of calamity" in Manila and the 25 storm-hit provinces, including many that have not experienced widespread flooding before, allowing access to emergency funds.

Officials say more than 40cm (16in) of rain fell on Manila within 12 hours on Saturday, exceeding the 39cm average for the whole month of September.

Beleaguered Honduras curtails freedoms

2009-09-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

Reporting from Tegucigalpa, Honduras - The de facto government of Honduras suspended constitutional guarantees indefinitely late Sunday, outlawing public gatherings and making it easier for the army to make arrests.

The measure, announced on a nationwide simultaneous television and radio broadcast, came on the eve of a potentially enormous march by ousted President Manuel Zelaya's supporters. From his refuge at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, Zelaya called on people to take to the streets today to mark the three-month anniversary of his ouster.

The army took Zelaya from his home June 28 and put him on a flight to Costa Rica, after courts accused him of violating the constitution by trying to make it possible to serve a second term. He sneaked back into the country last week and holed up at the embassy. With universal international backing, he is fighting to reclaim his office.

Earlier Sunday, Honduras expelled diplomats from the Organization of American States, which has been attempting to mediate the crisis, and gave Brazil 10 days to turn over Zelaya or face unspecified retaliation.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his government would not be cowed by ultimatums from "coup plotters."

Acting Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez said OAS officials had failed to give advance notice of their arrival. He suggested that if Brazil doesn't recognize the de facto government, the embassy should remove its flag and shield and revert to a private office -- which presumably would eliminate the diplomatic status that protects Zelaya from arrest.

Zelaya and his followers are living in conditions that a visiting doctor described as deteriorating. Several in the embassy are ill with flu-like symptoms, the doctor told The Times.

Honduras' acting rulers have said that if they can, they will arrest Zelaya, a timber magnate who gradually turned to the left and alienated the nation's elite. The rulers have accused him of inciting violence from within the embassy.

Sunday's announcement went beyond the curfews that acting President Roberto Micheletti had imposed. The new measures make it easier for authorities to shut down radio or television stations deemed to be favoring Zelaya.

On Sunday evening, Channel 36, a pro-Zelaya television station, abruptly disappeared from the air.

Renderos is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City contributed to this report.

The G20 must lay the foundations for bold action on climate change in Copenhagan

2009-09-28T01:41:00.000-07:00

If necessity is the mother of invention, we should be looking forward to a breathtakingly innovative agreement on climate change in Copenhagen in December. Such an agreement would not only outline how we should curb greenhouse gas emissions, but also how we could realistically adapt to climate change, and help countries cope with its negative effects.

The increasing threat to life and livelihood posed by climate change is already palpable and the need for effective action agreed in Copenhagen is increasingly urgent. Yet the lack of progress in ongoing climate negotiations raises concern as to whether world governments will be able to reach meaningful agreement in December.

For those living on the frontline - the most vulnerable communities living in risk-prone parts of the world - every day wasted could mean a step closer to food or water insecurity; communities having to move to secure adequate and safe services; or even whole regions emptying as they become unable to sustain life.

Changes in the Arctic are accelerating global climate change. Scientists warn that if the Himalayan glaciers disappear, the impact would be felt by more than one billion people across Asia. What will African farmers do when floods wash away their crops as is happening these days in West Africa?

This might sound overdramatic. However, climate change is already increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme natural hazard events, especially floods, storms and droughts. Weather-related events are affecting or displacing more people every year. During the last decade on average 140 million people annually were affected by floods and storms, or two percent of the global population. All the scientific evidence suggests that these trends will continue and accelerate.

Of course the climate change issue is complex, and cannot be neatly separated from other factors such as population growth, urbanization and environmental decline – all of which are increasing risks to vulnerable communities. But those working in the humanitarian field – whether aid workers on the ground, high level advocates or those providing funds – understand all too well that climate change is now a major factor in the rising numbers of people affected by disasters and therefore in the increasing demand for lifesaving aid. Disasters driven by climate change cost lives here and now and they also have lasting effects that take us back to square one in the fight against poverty.

We are not helpless – far from it. Many of the humanitarian consequences of climate change can be averted or reduced. For example, cyclone preparedness programmes in Bangladesh and Mozambique have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and can be expanded to address the increased risk of heavy storms and floods.

Public hygiene campaigns which have improved health in many villages and cities can be upgraded to address climate change related risks like the spread of dengue and malaria. Upgraded care for the elderly during heat waves, planting trees against landslides and storm surges, fine-tuned water saving systems against droughts. There are a multitude of small and big solutions in our hands. We are committed to bringing these solutions to the places where adaptation programmes are needed.

But the humanitarian system will need an overhaul to adapt to this new reality. Better balance must be achieved between the imperative to respond to acute humanitarian need and far greater investment in disaster risk reduction and preparedness measures in risk-prone countries. At the global level, we need to improve our risk-management systems to anticipate and respond better to future climate impacts. We also need to explore more innovative ways of sharing risk, perhaps through insurance schemes, to better protect people in the future.

Time is short. There is a unique opportunity to put in place a comprehensive global approach for climate change mitigation and adaptation. World leaders meeting at the UN in New York and at the G20 in Pittsburgh this month should help to lay the basis for an agreement. Let’s hope so, as the interests of many vulnerable populations depend on a strong agreement signed by all Governments in Copenhagen. The agreement may not tie down every detail, but it needs to be in place to ensure that all the fine words we have heard are followed up by meaningful action.

Action trumps character in NBC’s ‘Trauma’

2009-09-28T01:34:00.000-07:00

You don’t need to be an Obama tour groupie to know we’re a country preoccupied with health care. Even if you’re a scripted-only TV addict, afloat in a DVR-fueled bubble, you can’t miss it. This season, the already long list of medical shows that includes “House,’’ “Grey’s Anatomy,’’ “Nurse Jackie,’’ “Private Practice,’’ and “HawthoRNe’’ will take on three new dramas: NBC’s “Mercy,’’ CBS’s forthcoming “Three Rivers,’’ and NBC’s “Trauma.’’

TRAUMA Starring: Anastasia Griffith,

Derek Luke, Cliff Curtis

On: NBC, Channel 7

Time: Tonight, 9-10

These MDTV series provide us with a range of emotional specifics related to the health care debate, with story lines involving hospital politics, insurance shortcomings, and patients’ experiences. They illustrate how chronic illness (read: tomorrow’s preexisting conditions) can sneak up on even the healthiest of people, and, particularly in the case of “Trauma,’’ they show how medical disaster can ruin your life in one fell swoop. “Trauma,’’ which premieres tonight at 9 on Channel 7, follows a group of EMTs coptering over San Francisco and charging up and down the hilly streets to save the victims of car crashes, stray bullets, and, in tonight’s first scenes, electrocution.

One thing I’ll say in favor of “Trauma’’: It explodes helicopters and oil trucks (“That tank is gonna blow!’’) like nobody’s business. This is action-packed television that, in the course of an hour, delivers a few accidents that rival those found on the big screen. “ER’’ occasionally used to give us a hint of the calamities that occurred outside the hospital; ‘Trauma’’ gives us a nonstop blow-by-blow. Overseen by the producing team behind “Friday Night Lights,’’ the show is as frenzied and hysterical as “FNL’’ is character-driven.

Oh - about that whole character thing. “Trauma’’ may impress with its pyrotechnics, especially if you’re watching it on HDTV, but the personal dramas may not be original and engaging enough to keep you watching for more than an episode or two. The familiar team of EMTs are all traumatized by an accident that killed a number of their colleagues, and each one grieves in his or her own way. There’s the adulterer, Cameron (Derek Luke), finding escape from pain in the arms of other women; there’s the tough medic, Nancy (Anastasia Griffith) who’s afraid to let people in after her boyfriend died. And there’s Reuben (Cliff Curtis), who miraculously survived the accident and now feels immortal and guilty.

This is all boilerplate melodrama, and I can’t imagine the writers twisting it into any new shapes. For a show that’s about life’s unexpected crises, “Trauma’’ is way too predictable.

Iran Tests Short-Range Missiles Before Nuclear Talks

2009-09-28T01:31:00.000-07:00

By MARC CHAMPION in Brussels, JAY SOLOMON in Washington and CHIP CUMMINS in Dubai

Iran said it tested short-range missiles in a defiant gesture ahead of talks on its nuclear program, as diplomats noted Tehran is on the defensive over a hidden facility -- but the threat of international sanctions remains uncertain.

The missile exercise, which Iran labeled "Great Prophet 4," came on the heels of last week's revelation of what had been a secret uranium-enrichment plant near Qom, in north-central Iran.Diplomats familiar with preparations for talks in Geneva Thursday say the Qom facility has transformed the outlook for the talks. It has given negotiators from the U.S. and its allies greater leverage to persuade Tehran to accept a so-called freeze-for-freeze proposal that it previously rejected, the diplomats said. Under that proposal Tehran would temporarily halt expansion of its nuclear-fuel program in exchange for no new United Nations sanctions, while a new round of wide-ranging talks begins.

A week ago, diplomats had been downbeat about prospects for the talks, after Russia had said it would block any meaningful new sanctions. That appeared to give Iran little incentive to agree to freeze its nuclear expansion. But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reopened the door to sanctions after the Qom facility's existence was revealed.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday that Iran was now in a "very bad spot" internationally. Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," he said there was an "opportunity for severe additional sanctions." On CBS's "Face the Nation," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she doubts Iran will be able to a peaceful nature for its program. "We are going to put them to the test on October 1st," she said.

But the stance of key players Russia and China remained murky over the weekend. Each holds a Security Council veto over sanctions.

U.S. officials rejoiced at the strong Russian rhetoric from Mr. Medvedev last week. But some Western diplomats noted the Kremlin has shifted its rhetorical tone in the past as well. "Russia's position fluctuates within a band, going in cycles," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a government-sponsored journal. "Now the pendulum has shifted toward more pressure. ... If it gets to discussion of actual sanctions, there will be all kinds of differences" with the U.S. and other Western powers.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, widely viewed as more powerful than Mr. Medvedev -- and more skeptical of U.S. intentions -- hasn't said a word on about Qom. That, according to diplomats, is unusual on a major foreign-policy issue. And even Mr. Medvedev used gentler language last week than his Western counterparts.

China's reaction has been muted thus far. In a statement, the foreign ministry reiterated its stance that nonproliferation should be achieved "peacefully through negotiations." But there also are signs that China's leaders could be willing to take a tougher stance. "We have to keep it clear, commitment to nuclear nonproliferation is China's bottom line," said Yin Gang, a scholar at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the government-affiliated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. With Iran flouting previous United Nations efforts, patience is running thin, he said, and Iran shouldn't count on China's unconditional support if diplomacy fails. If "a military attack cannot be avoided, I don't think China has the power to stop such [a] military attack," said Mr. Yin. Though China and Iran are old friends, "it doesn't mean that Iran could expect that when it comes to the nuclear issues, [China's] interests are bound together with Iran's," he added.

Still, China is the world's second-biggest oil consumer after the U.S., and the Persian Gulf country is one of Beijing's biggest suppliers, making its agreement to significant energy-related sanctions problematic. Chinese imports of Iranian crude grew to 13 million metric tons in the first half of the year, about 15% of China's total, and up 22% from a year earlier, according to government data. With its growing middle class, China already depends on imports for half of its oil needs and that ratio will increase.

U.S. officials said Sunday the question of Tehran quickly allowing U.N. inspectors into the facility at Qom is now high on Thursday's agenda. Iran notified the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, of the Qom site on Monday, and has said it will allow inspectors in, though it hasn't said when.

Other Western diplomats involved in the process were more cautious. The freeze-for-freeze proposal remains Thursday's major goal, a diplomat familiar with the preparations said, adding that the meeting is likely to be just the start of a "phased process."

Sunday's missile launch -- which Iran said would be followed by tests of medium- and long-range missiles by Monday -- followed a familiar pattern. In July 2008, under pressure to accept the previous freeze-for-freeze proposal, Iran also announced a missile test, called "Great Prophet 3."

Iran state television said Monday the Revolutionary Guard fired one of the longest-range missiles in its arsenal in a third round of tests meant to demonstrate the country's preparedness for an attack.

English-language Press TV said the Guard successfully tested the Shahab-3 missile, which is capable of carrying a warhead. It has a range of up to 1,200 miles, capable of striking Israel and U.S. Mideast bases and parts of Europe.

State television said Iran test-fired Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 missiles overnight, following tests of short-range missiles early Sunday. The Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 have ranges of about 185 miles and 435 miles respectively.

Toll from Pakistan blasts rises to 27

2009-09-28T01:18:00.000-07:00

The death toll from two suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan rose to 27 on Sunday, a day after the blasts shattered hopes that the militants were a spent force following the killing of their leader last month.

A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck into a police station in the town of Bannu, the gateway to the North Waziristan militant region on the Afghan border, early on Saturday.

Hours later, another attacker blew up a car in the centre of Peshawar, the main city in the northwest.

Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for both blasts and vowed more.

Authorities initially said 16 people had been killed in all, but the toll rose to 27 on Sunday with the discovery of more bodies in the debris of the Bannu police station and the death of some wounded, police said.

Pakistani forces made significant gains against the militants in an offensive launched in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, in late April.

The offensive helped allay international fears about the stability of the nuclear-armed U.S. ally after militants made advances towards the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistani officials said the Taliban were in disarray and racked by infighting after the killing of their chief, Baitullah Mehsud, in a missile strike by a pilotless U.S. aircraft in early August.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the back of the Pakistani Taliban had been broken but the Saturday blasts appeared to have dispelled such optimism.

“Anybody who thought that the Taliban were close to defeat or on the run had better think again,” the News newspaper said in an editorial.

It is not just Pakistani Taliban factions that the government has to contend with but also Afghan Taliban factions operating out of its lawless northwest and creating havoc across the border in Afghanistan.

General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in an assessment leaked to the media last week the Afghan insurgency was supported from Pakistan and Afghanistan needed Pakistani action.

Security analyst Mahmood Shah, a retired brigadier and former security chief in the ethnic Pashtun lands along the Afghan border, said the militants had demonstrated they can strike back.

“They were in disarray but it appears they've organised themselves and they're in a position to strike back,” he said.

Mr. Shah said al Qaeda could have organised the latest attacks, hoping to keep the security forces on the back foot and buy time for their Pakistani Taliban allies.

The attacks are also likely to increase calls for the army to go into the Pakistani Taliban's South Waziristan stronghold on the Afghan border where thousands of militants are based.

The government in May ordered the military to go on the offensive in South Waziristan. Since then, regular air strikes have been launched but no ground assault has been carried out.

A senior army commander said in August it would take months to prepare for a ground offensive in South Waziristan, partly because the army lacked equipment including helicopters and night-vision equipment.

The English-language Dawn newspaper said the country faced a long battle. “We have no choice but to take the war against the rebels to its logical conclusion,” it said in an editorial.

US columnist William Safire dies

2009-09-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

Safire also worked as speechwriter and aide to President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal that ultimately drove him from office in 1974.

For the last 30 years of his life, he was best known for his famous New York Times magazine column "On Language".

Safire is survived by his wife and two children.

Born in New York in 1929, Safire worked as a journalist and in public relations before serving as a special assistant to President Nixon during the 1970s.

The former college dropout set up what became known as the "kitchen debate" meeting between Nixon and the former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

He oversaw Nixon's visit to China and the gathering storm of the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency in disgrace.

William Safire joined The New York Times as a Washington-based columnist in 1973 and won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary five years later.

He published numerous books on writing and language. His most recent, How Not to Write: The Essential Misrules of Grammar, was published in 2005.

Japan 'opposes yen intervention'

2009-09-28T01:13:00.000-07:00

Hirohisa Fujii said currency intervention was not necessary as long as the yen moved gradually, and added other countries would not support it.

Mr Fujii also said a strong yen had merits - which is unusual, considering Japan is such a large exporter.

The yen is up 6.7% against the dollar since June. A stronger yen makes Japanese exports less competitive.

Japan has in the past intervened in the currency markets to weaken the yen when the government thought its rise was threatening growth in the world's second-largest economy.

But the authorities have not intervened since 2005.

New direction

"We can't conduct intervention because the current foreign exchange markets won't move without a joint intervention," Mr Fujii said.

"I can't think other countries will conduct joint intervention even though the yen rises slightly."

Japan's parliament has confirmed Yukio Hatoyama as prime minister, handing power to his untested Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and ending more than 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

Mr Hatoyama will appoint key members of his cabinet over the next few days.

His comments about a strong yen reflect the DPJ view that a strong yen can be in the country's interest, and are a marked departure from the former ruling party's long-standing view.

Philippine storm leaves 106 dead and missing

2009-09-28T01:09:00.000-07:00

Many Filipino villagers managed to save only the clothes on their backs but began to rebuild Sunday as the flood waters receded from a tropical storm that set off the worst flooding in the Philippine capital in 42 years and left about 80 dead.

Army troops, police and civilian volunteers plucked dead bodies from muddy flood waters and rescued drenched survivors from rooftops after Tropical Storm Ketsana tore through the northern Philippines a day earlier, leaving at least 106 people dead and missing.

Some residents began to clean up as the flood waters receded. Still, many parts of the capital remained flooded. A brief period of sunshine showed the extent of the devastation in many neighbourhoods — destroyed houses, overturned vehicles, and roads covered in debris and mud.

Ketsana dumped more than a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours, causing the government to declare a “state of calamity” in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces. The declaration allowed officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue.

The rains swamped entire towns and set off landslides that have left at least 83 people dead and 23 others missing, Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said. Garbage-choked drains and waterways, along with high tide, compounded the flooding, officials said.

Governor Joselito Mendoza of Bulacan province, north of the capital, said it was tragic that “people drowned in their own houses” as the storm raged.

Meteorologists say the Philippines' location in the northwestern Pacific puts it right in the pathway of the world's No. 1 typhoon generator. Doomed by geography and hobbled by poverty, the Philippines has long tried to minimize the damage caused by the 20 or so typhoons that hit the sprawling archipelago every year. Despite a combination of preparation and mitigation measures, high death tolls and destruction persist.

“We're back to zero,” said Ronald Manlangit, a resident of Marikina city, a suburb of the capital, Manila. Floodwaters engulfed the ground floor of his home and drowned his TV set and other prized belongings. Still, he expressed relief that he managed to move his children to the second floor.

“Suddenly, all of our belongings were floating,” the 30-year-old said. “If the water rose farther, all of us in the neighbourhood would have been killed.”

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo toured the devastated areas and prodded villagers to move on. She said the storm and the flooding were “an extreme event” that “strained our response capabilities to the limit but ultimately did not break us.”

TV footage shot from a military helicopter showed drenched survivors still marooned on top of half-submerged passenger buses and rooftops in suburban Manila Sunday. Some dangerously clung to high-voltage power lines while others plodded through waist-high waters.

In Marikina, a rescuer gingerly lifted the mud-covered body of a child from a boat. An Associated Press photographer saw rescuers carry away four other bodies, including that of a woman found in a church in a flooded neighbourhood.

Authorities deployed rescue teams on boats to save survivors.

More than 330,000 people were affected by storm, including some 59,000 people who were brought to about 100 schools, churches and other evacuation shelters, officials said. Troops, police and volunteers have so far been able to rescue more than 5,100 people, Teodoro said.

The 16.7 inches of rain that swamped metropolitan Manila in just 12 hours on Saturday exceeded the 15.4-inch average for all of September, chief government weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said. He said the rainfall also broke the previous record of 13.2 inches, which fell in a 24-hour period in June 1967.

Ketsana, which packed winds of 85 kilometres per hour with gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour, hit land early Saturday then roared across the main northern Luzon island toward the South China Sea.

It's the 15th of about 20 typhoons and storms that forecasters expect will lash the country this year.

Britain's Brown vows to lead Labour into elections

2009-09-28T01:03:00.000-07:00

BRIGHTON, England -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted he won't quit his post as his governing Labour Party met Sunday for its annual convention before a national election the party is expected to lose.

Brown's party trails far behind the main opposition Conservative Party in opinion polls, and has suffered heavy defeats in recent local council and European elections.

Brown himself has weathered sharp criticism of his leadership, not just from opposition politicians but also from within his own ranks. His clumsy handling of anger over Scotland's decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, and an embarrassing admission that his government would need to cut public spending - despite earlier denials - have fueled new doubts about Brown's prospects of leading Labour into the election.

Some critics, including ex-interior minister Charles Clarke, also have claimed that Brown is in poor health and should step aside to make way for a more popular leader.

"I do not roll over," Brown told BBC television. "Leadership is fighting for what you believe in."

Brown, who will address the five-day conference in seaside Brighton on Tuesday, must by law call an election before June 2010, and his Labour Party will be seeking a fourth consecutive term in office. Labour won the three previous elections with Tony Blair as party leader. The next vote is expected in April or May.
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The 58-year-old Brown, who was awarded a world statesman of the year honor in New York last week, hopes that by the time Britons vote, he will have earned similar praise at home for his handling of the economic crisis.

"Leadership is about the strength to take the tough decisions, but sometimes when you take the tough decisions, it takes time for people to see the benefit," Brown told the BBC.

The latest opinion polls give the Conservatives a lead of more than 15 percentage points over Labour, and suggest the public no longer trusts Brown - a former Treasury chief - to lead the country's economic recovery.

"The worst case scenario is a really bad defeat. We have got to start fighting to win, instead of keeping our heads down heading for defeat," said Welsh Secretary Peter Hain as delegates were gathering for the Brighton conference.

Unlike Labour's rise to office in 1997 - when Blair promised sweeping social reforms - Britain's next election will be fought amid deep pessimism.

The three main political parties acknowledge the government must cut spending and limit services to reduce mounting debts. Lawmakers are also battling to rebuild public trust following a damaging scandal over legislators' excessive expense claims.

Johnson takes 4th win at 2nd Chase race at Dover

2009-09-27T17:49:00.000-07:00

DOVER, Del. — Jimmie Johnson dominated again in winning a crucial Chase race.

It's become about as routine this time of year on the sports calendar as the start of the NFL season or the baseball playoff stretch drive. If he keeps driving like this, NASCAR can expect another regular fixture in November: Johnson hoisting the series trophy and celebrating a championship.

Johnson thumped the competition in the second Chase for the championship race, sweeping the season races at Dover International Speedway to accelerate his bid for an unprecedented fourth straight Sprint Cup title.

"I'm pretty sure that dude is Superman," runner-up Mark Martin said.

He was pretty super on the concrete in the No. 48 Chevrolet. If three championships weren't enough to intimidate the rest of the Chase field, the way he won on Sunday should send another message: He's just really getting going on a fourth.

"As far as sending a message, I hope it does," Johnson said. "I hope people are worried."

Johnson cut Martin's points lead with the victory — his fourth of the year and 44th overall — in the second of 10 races in the Chase for the championship.

"I've seen that dude up close and I see why he's so successful," said Martin, Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate. "He works harder at it than anybody else, I think, on the circuit."

No winner of the second Dover race has ever gone on to win the Cup championship. If any driver can reverse that trend, it's Johnson. Much as he did in May, Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet was out in front for the majority of the 400-mile race.

"I certainly hope that our performance today scares some people and affects them in a way that benefits us," Johnson said.

Chase drivers took nine of the first 11 spots. Martin followed last week's win at New Hampshire with a second-place finish. Juan Pablo Montoya was fourth and Kurt Busch fifth.

Matt Kenseth was the highest non-Chase driver at third.

Martin holds a 10-point lead over Johnson heading into next week at Kansas Speedway.

"This team is really on a roll right now," Martin said.

Other Chase driver results saw Jeff Gordon finish sixth, Kasey Kahne was eighth, Tony Stewart ninth and Ryan Newman 10th. Carl Edwards was 11th, Greg Biffle 13th, Brian Vickers 18th and Denny Hamlin 22nd.

"It's just two races," Martin said. "I still say that there's 12 in and 12 can win. It might be a challenge for a couple of the ones toward the end of the back."

Johnson, who tire-tested in August at Dover, won from the pole. He led 298 laps when he won at Dover in May and added another 271 on the 1-mile concrete track Sunday. Johnson won for the fifth time at Dover.

"That's right boys, maximum points! Thank you!" Johnson said over the radio.

Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus also won their 15th Chase race. No one is better down the stretch and it's the main reason why the No. 48 team is going for its record fourth straight title.

"Our team is pretty easily motivated," Knaus said.

Easy to see why. Cale Yarborough is the only other driver to win three straight championships and Johnson can move past him with more winning performances like this one over the final eight races.

Johnson was so far in front, he had no idea Joe Gibbs Racing driver Joey Logano was involved in an early accident that saw his No. 20 barrel-roll eight times down the concrete and result in the race being red-flagged. It looked scary, but the teenage Logano walked away and was fine.

"It just goes to show how safe these cars are," Logano said.

Johnson, who won for the first time since July at Indianapolis, crushed Kenseth and the rest of the contenders off the double-file restarts and was never seriously challenged.

He's in great position, but he's still not in first. Even with the 10 bonus points for winning, Martin still holds a slim lead.

The 50-year-old Martin is the sentimental favorite for his first Cup championship and he's in no rush to yield his spot atop the standings. His 1-2 finish in the first two Chase races proved he'll be a major factor in the No. 5.

"I'm happy with the result," Martin said. "We just missed it a little bit."

It's way too early in the Chase to rule out any driver as a contender for the championship, but the Hendrick powerhouse sure looks like it fields the teams to beat.

"They're strong everywhere," Hamlin said. "There's no weakness to their race team at all."

There not be a detectable weakness, but Biffle griped again that Johnson and Montoya had an unfair advantage because they were picked for the tire test. Biffle wanted all 10 Chase drivers to have a shot at testing, or none of them.

"Look at the guys that didn't tire test. We ran terrible," Biffle said. "It was a completely different tire (from May). It had us off our game right when we unloaded off the truck."

Johnson's tip to the rest of the field? Bring on the complaints.

"I hope people are talking about the fact that we tire tested and it's wrong," Johnson said. "All these people can get wound up about stuff that really doesn't matter. We'll keep our heads down, keep our blinders on and we'll go to work."

Ontario delays fall flu shots over H1N1 threat

2009-09-27T17:47:00.000-07:00

Ontario has become the first province to delay seasonal influenza vaccines to most residents because of the threat posed by swine flu.

The decision, announced Thursday, comes as public health officials across the country are reconsidering their immunization plans in light of unpublished Canadian studies that suggest earlier seasonal flu shots raise the risk of contracting the pandemic H1N1 flu virus.

“Is it typical that we adjust our programs?” said Arlene King, Ontario's chief medical officer of health. “No, it isn't typical, but we are not dealing with a typical flu season this year.”

Ontario's program is based on a calculation that swine flu will sicken more people than seasonal influenza this fall and winter. Despite hopes for a pan-Canadian vaccination strategy, the province's approach is different than those in other provinces.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick are planning to widely offer seasonal flu shots next month, before swine flu vaccines, expected in November, become available.

“We are going to try to do it very fast and then focus on H1N1,” said John Tuckwell, an Alberta Health spokesman.

In New Brunswick, the seasonal flu vaccine is already being sent to doctors and should arrive in the next week. Once supplies run out, no more will be produced as the focus shifts to preventing swine flu.

“We want to avoid having both vaccines circulating at the same time in total confusion at the level of the public,” said Dr. Paul Van Buynder, New Brunswick's deputy chief medical officer of health.

Other provinces, including British Columbia and Quebec, have not yet decided how to roll out their vaccination campaigns.

“We have all the scenarios on the table,” said Karine White, a spokeswoman for the Quebec Health Ministry. “Right now, it seems like H1N1 is the major flu virus.”

The provinces' plans come amid signs that the flu season has started several weeks before a swine flu vaccine is ready. Hundreds of students in B.C. were absent from school this week, either because they are sick or their parents want to protect them from falling ill. The H1N1 virus has been confirmed in students in two Vancouver schools and one on Vancouver Island, and test results from a fourth school are expected as early as Friday.

Ontario's plan involves three waves of vaccinations. Seasonal flu shots will be offered starting next month to people aged 65 and older and to residents of long-term-care homes, who have largely been spared by swine flu. Once available, H1N1 vaccines will be provided to at-risk groups, including young children, pregnant women and people with chronic health problems, followed by the general population. Finally, seasonal flu shots will be offered to all Ontarians in December or January.

The approach is borne out of several considerations, including the epidemiology of the H1N1 virus and the unpublished research from B.C., Ontario and Quebec that appears to suggest that people who received a flu shot last year are about twice as likely to contract swine flu. The studies are undergoing fast-tracked peer review. Researchers in the United States, Britain and Australia have not found the same link.

In addition, immunity to both seasonal and swine influenza will require up to three separate vaccinations. Ongoing clinical trials are determining whether H1N1 immunity can be achieved in one or two doses.

Allison McGeer, an infectious diseases expert at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, said Ontario's compromise makes sense.

“It's a reasonable balance,” she said. “[But] it has some obvious logistical challenges.”

With reports from Caroline Alphonso in Toronto, Katherine O'Neill in Edmonton, Patrick White in Winnipeg, Oliver Moore in Halifax and The Canadian Press

Polanski lives through dazzling highs, dire lows

2009-09-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES -- Roman Polanski has lived through a striking collection of bizarre, triumphant and tragic events, his calamity rivaling some of the darkest horrors he has depicted on screen.

Here's a look at the highlights of the filmmaker's history of accomplishment and affliction.

A CHILDHOOD OF HORROR:

Polanski is born to Polish-Jewish parents in Paris on Aug. 18, 1933, the family moving back to Poland when he is 3. He escapes Krakow's Jewish ghetto after the Nazi invasion, surviving off the kindness of strangers who help hide him in the countryside during World War II. His mother dies at Auschwitz, though his father survives the Mauthausen death camp. Six decades later, his survival is echoed in his film "The Pianist," based on the real-life story of musician Wladyslaw Szpilman, another Polish Holocaust survivor. "Obviously, the whole film is about survival," Polanski says via satellite at a Los Angeles gathering of 2002's Directors Guild of America nominees. "For me, it was the preponderant theme of my childhood and youth."

AUTEUR IN THE MAKING:

Settling on a career in the arts, Polanski studies at the Lodz Film School and lands some small acting roles, including a part in fellow Polish director Andrzej Wajda's 1955 World War II drama "A Generation." (Nearly 50 years later, Polanski reunites in front of Wajda's camera to co-star in his countryman's 2002 film, the 19th century farce "The Vengeance." Polanski calls it a "great pleasure to meet Andrzej on the film set after all those years.") Polanski breaks in as a director on short films before making his feature debut with the 1963 psychological thriller "Knife in the Water," which is nominated for an Academy Award as best foreign-language film. He then leaves Poland for England, where he makes three more acclaimed films, "Repulsion," "Cul-de-Sac" and "The Fearless Vampire Killers."
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HOLLYWOOD TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY:

In the late 1960s, Polanski moves to Hollywood, making an immediate impact with 1968's creepy sensation "Rosemary's Baby," starring Mia Farrow as a woman whose pregnancy is awash in horror and satanic doings. The film wins the supporting-actress Oscar for Ruth Gordon and earns Polanski a screenplay nomination. Hollywood success gives way to personal horror a year later when Polanski's pregnant wife, "Fearless Vampire Killers" and "Valley of the Dolls" co-star Sharon Tate, is murdered in the killing spree by followers of cult figure Charles Manson. Going back to Great Britain for his next film, Polanski is preoccupied with bloody and tragic themes as he shoots an acclaimed, very violent adaptation of Shakespeare's "MacBeth." Polanski lightens up with the X-rated Italian sex romp "What?" before returning to Hollywood for another seesaw of achievement and adversity.

EXCELLENCE TO EXILE:

In 1974, Polanski teams with Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston for one of cinema's great detective stories, "Chinatown," both an homage and a down-and-dirty reinvention of classic film noir. The film picks up 11 Oscar nominations, including best picture and director for Polanski, though it wins only one award, for screenwriter Robert Towne. The film catapults Polanski to the forefront of Hollywood filmmakers, but he squanders much of his professional goodwill with an odd followup, directing and starring as a paranoid nutcase in the moody French thriller "The Tenant." The film turns off critics and audiences, though it later achieves status as a cult favorite. In 1977, Polanski is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl he photographed during a modeling session at Nicholson's home in Los Angeles. In a deal with prosecutors, Polanski pleads guilty to one of six charges against him, unlawful sexual intercourse, and is sent to prison for 42 days of psychological evaluation. Faced with the prospect of further prison time, Polanski flees the country in 1978, living as an exile in France.

PROFESSIONAL WILDERNESS:

A year later, Polanski does an about-face from his often-explicit subject matter and mounts an epic, lavish costume drama starring Nastassia Kinski in the title role of "Tess," an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel. The film picks up six Oscar nominations, including best picture and Polanski's second directing honor. But Polanski's film career grows fitful as financing becomes harder to secure. He remains busy with theater and opera productions throughout Europe, finally returning to the screen after a seven-year absence with the 1986 commercial dud "Pirates." The buccaneer comedy starring Walter Matthau helps give pirates a reputation as box-office poison until future Polanski star Johnny Depp salvages the genre with his "Pirates of the Caribbean" blockbusters. Polanski continues to land major stars for his films, among them Harrison Ford on 1988's "Frantic" and Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley on 1994's "Death and the Maiden." In 1989, Polanski marries "Frantic" co-star Emmanuelle Seigner, with whom he has two children. Twenty years after charges were filed against him, the woman he's accused of raping goes public for the first time. A married mother of three, Samantha Geimer says she wishes Polanski could reach a deal with the courts and end his years as a fugitive. Though Polanski has called Geimer a sophisticated teen who willingly had sex with him, she says he coaxed her with drugs and champagne. Geimer says she would not call it rape but that the sex was not consensual. "The word `rape' for me always brings to mind for me a level of ... violence that wasn't there," she says.

COMING FULL CIRCLE:

After working with Depp on 1999's thriller "The Ninth Gate," Polanski revisits his childhood trauma with the Holocaust drama "The Pianist," starring Adrien Brody as musician Szpilman. Based on Szpilman's memoir, it is the first film Polanski shoots in Poland since his feature debut 30 years earlier. The exciting thing about discovering Szpilman's story "is that it wasn't TOO personal - it was something I know about, remember very well, something that could help me recreate the events without talking about myself," Polanski says at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, where "The Pianist" picks up the top award. Come Oscar night the following year, "The Pianist" is up for best picture and six other awards, winning Brody the best-actor honor, Ronald Harwood a screenplay trophy and Polanski the directing prize. While Harwood calls Polanski a "great director and a wonderful colleague" and many in the Oscar crowd give the absent filmmaker a standing ovation, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney says the filmmaker remains a "convicted felon and a fugitive," adding that, "You don't get a pass for longevity."

WANTED AND DESIRED:

Polanski follows "The Pianist" with the 2005 Charles Dickens adaptation "Oliver Twist" and the recently completed thriller "The Ghost." In 2008, the Emmy-winning documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" debuts at the Sundance Film Festival, reigniting the debate over the case against Polanski. The documentary uncovers new information about actions by the late Judge Laurence J. Rittenband, suggesting he inappropriately consulted with a prosecutor not assigned to the case. Armed with those revelations, Polanski's attorneys early this year seek to have the case dismissed. Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza in Los Angeles says there was "substantial misconduct" in the handling of the original cast but dismisses Polanski's bid to throw out the case because the director fails to show up in court to press his motion. The judge says he might reconsider if Polanski returns to the United States. With his arrest in Switzerland, where he traveled to receive an honorary award at the Zurich Film Festival, Polanski faces possible extradition that may put him in front of the judge to ask face to face that the case be dropped.

German poll shows tiny center-right majority

2009-09-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

BERLIN -- A poll published Wednesday indicated that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's preferred center-right coalition has a razor-thin majority going into this weekend's general elections.

Merkel is hoping to end her "grand coalition" with the center-left Social Democrats and instead form a new government with the pro-business Free Democrats after Sunday's vote.

The Forsa agency's poll, conducted Sept. 15-21, reinforced expectations of a close race, with 35 percent of those surveyed showing support for Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union and its Bavaria-only sister, the Christian Social Union. That was down two percentage points from a survey conducted Sept. 14.

The survey showed support for the Free Democrats up one point at 13 percent - which would give the potential center-right alliance a total of 48 percent, compared with 47 percent for their rivals combined.

Support for the Social Democrats of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was up two points to 26 percent. The opposition Greens and Left Party were unchanged at 11 and 10 percent, respectively.

Steinmeier, Merkel's challenger for the top job, has focused his campaign on preventing a center-right government. Though considered unlikely to become chancellor himself, he benefited from a confident performance in a Sept. 13 television debate with Merkel.

Merkel has pledged tax relief to help spur economic growth and wants to halt a plan to shut down Germany's 17 nuclear power plants by 2021.

If her party and allies are unable to secure a center-right majority, a repeat of the "grand coalition" looks likely.

Forsa chief Manfred Guellner told Stern magazine, for which his agency conducted the poll, that he doesn't expect voters to switch between right and left at this stage.
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"The race will be tight again," he said, but added that the center-right may be helped by a quirk of the electoral system that gives Germans two votes: one for a directly elected constituency representative and one for a party list. The system allows for parliamentary seats to be added if a party wins more direct seats than it would under the proportional party distribution.

Germany's highest court has ordered the system to be changed by 2011, and the Social Democrats have questioned how legitimate a government that depended on them would be.

Merkel has vowed to form a coalition with the Free Democrats even if the center-right has only a one-seat majority.

Germany's biggest industrial union, IG Metall, urged people to vote against the center-right, which it argued could be bad for workers' rights.

"We want to prevent a coalition that is hostile to employees on Sunday - every vote is needed for that," deputy union leader Detlef Wetzel said.

Forsa's findings were largely in line with those of three polls released Friday by other agencies. One indicated the center-right parties were level with their rivals; the other two gave them a lead of up to three percentage points.

Forsa surveyed 2,503 people and gave a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

U.K. Premier's Former Rival Plans Labour Strategy

2009-09-27T17:38:00.000-07:00

Peter Mandelson has rebounded from political exile twice in the past 12 years to claim a powerful place among the elite of Britain's ruling Labour Party. Now, Lord Mandelson is taking on what may be an even more daunting turnaround mission: saving the political life of his onetime rival, Prime Minister Gordon Brown.Lord Mandelson, the head of the U.K. government's business ministry, has emerged in recent months as Mr. Brown's top political operative -- a role that will thrust him into the spotlight this week as the Labour Party holds its annual conference in Brighton, England, the last such party gathering before a general election that must be called by June.

It's a daunting challenge: The opposition Conservative Party is ahead in opinion polls by as much as 17 percentage points; the economy is in recession; the country is mired in record debt; and Mr. Brown's party is troubled by internal strife.

Yet despite the economic problems that have befallen the U.K., and the world, Lord Mandelson plans to place the economy at the heart of the campaign -- and claim that moves made by Mr. Brown and his government averted greater disaster and stabilized the financial sector. "The battleground in the election will be fought on the economy," he said in an interview. This week in Brighton, the party will "bark back and fight back."

He acknowledges that Labour is the underdog in the coming election, though he complains that much of the U.K. media have tried to "decide the outcome of the next general election over the head of the British people by assuming that the result is a foregone conclusion." Few in Britain know more about political resurrection than Lord Mandelson. Once dubbed "The Prince of Darkness" -- a moniker hung on him by satirical magazine Private Eye but soon adopted by others -- he has repeatedly returned to power after being written off by the political intelligentsia.

"There hasn't been a British political comeback like Mandelson since Winston Churchill," says Rodney Barker, professor of government at the London School of Economics. Churchill made major mistakes as a minister during World War I, changed parties twice and spent a period in the political wilderness before bouncing back to head the government during World War II.

Alongside former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Mr. Brown, Lord Mandelson is credited with transforming Labour from an unelectable party rooted in doctrines of state intervention into the free-market-friendly "New Labour" that has enjoyed over a decade of power.

It wasn't a smooth ride. In the early 1990s, Lord Mandelson allied himself with Mr. Blair, opening a high-profile feud with Mr. Brown. A year after Labour came to power in 1997, Lord Mandelson was forced to resign as a government minister after taking an interest-free housing loan from fellow Labour member Geoffrey Robinson, whose business dealings were subject to an inquiry by Lord Mandelson's then-department.

Within 10 months, he was a minister again. Two years after that, in 2001, he resigned once more after making phone calls on behalf of an Indian businessman requesting U.K. citizenship. Independent inquiries cleared him of wrongdoing, but the scandals tarnished his political reputation, and fresh controversies over Lord Mandelson's connections with rich businessmen continue to plague him.

Nonetheless, Lord Mandelson has bounced back yet again. At the height of the financial crisis and internal party strife last October, Mr. Brown surprised everyone -- including Lord Mandelson -- by asking his onetime rival to leave his post as the European Union's top trade official and head the U.K.'s business department. A Cabinet minister who declined to be named said it took no time for Lord Mandelson to display "an astonishing ability to reassert his authority" at the Cabinet table.

Last June, a rising government minister named James Purnell embarrassed Mr. Brown by calling for the prime minister to resign, just as polls closed in U.K. local elections. The move appeared to top off a rebellion from a group of Labour ministers that, momentarily, looked like it might topple Mr. Brown. Within minutes, Lord Mandelson launched a furious round of intraparty lobbying that helped stave off further defections and tamp the uprising.

Lord Mandelson was rewarded with two new designations, first secretary of state and lord president of the council, and an expanded business ministry. The British press, meanwhile, awarded him a new title: deputy prime minister.

Now, Lord Mandelson is at the heart of all strategy, and one of the most regular visitors to Downing Street, people familiar with the matter say. Even some on Labour's left have warmed to Lord Mandelson, a man they had seen as pushing what they saw as the party's rightward drift and obsession with "spin."

"When he came back, you could see how rattled the Tories were, and I thought, 'they must dislike him even more than me,'" said Ronnie Campbell, a veteran left-wing Labour member of Parliament who called Lord Mandelson an effective politician who will help Labour fight for the election.

Still, his plan to sell off part of the state-owned Royal Mail was widely attacked by the left of his own party and has been postponed. He also faces a resurgent Conservative Party led by media-savvy David Cameron.

Lord Mandelson says Labour needs to hone its campaigning skills. "As the election draws nearer we have to rebalance our focus and energy and devote more time and effort to getting our arguments across and challenging our political opponents," he said, a message he will deliver in his conference speech Monday.

Labour will talk up its "successes" in rescuing Britain's battered banks and "preventing recession turning into depression" and will contrast what it believes will be indiscriminate budget cuts from the Conservatives against targeted cuts that preserve front line public services, he says.

Mr. Brown and Lord Mandelson's problem, in part, is that it may be difficult to engage in this debate without acknowledging that the policies they made helped lead to it, some analysts say.

"In the absence of a more compelling vision, voters will conclude that Labour has run out of ideas. Even many Labour sympathizers have come to that conclusion," said David Clark, a former senior adviser to the Labour government. "And that even the Prince of Darkness has so far failed to address."

West demands access to Iran's secret underground nuclear site

2009-09-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

The West warned Iran today that it will face fresh sanctions by December unless it can persuade the world of a “profound change” in its nuclear stance after the existence of its secret underground uranium enrichment plant was uncovered.

President Obama, flanked by Gordon Brown and President Sarkozy of France at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, called the hidden facility a direct challenge to international nuclear non-proliferation rules and demanded that Iran act immediately by agreeing to full international inspections of its nuclear facilities.

Mr Brown accused Iran of “serial deception” and insisted that Britain was “at one” with the US and France in its willingness to implement new and tougher sanctions.

Mr Sarkozy said: “If, between now and December, there is not a profound political change on the part of the Iranian leadership, sanctions must be imposed for the sake of peace and stability." Mr Obama, determined to pre-empt the accusations of double standards to which Tehran often resorts, said: “Iran has a right to peaceful nuclear power that meets the energy needs of its people. But the size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful programme.”

Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday that it has been building the secret site – its second nuclear facility – inside a mountain near the holy Shia city of Qum.

Although the CIA and National Security Agency have been tracking its construction for several years, Mr Obama decided it was time to put maximum pressure on Tehran by revealing its existence.

Reports from Washington indicate that Iran had learnt of the West’s move and declared the site formally to the IAEA.

The dramatic development transforms next week’s talks on Iran’s nuclear programme in Geneva from another chapter in a failed negotiation process into a critical test of President Ahmadinejad’s resolve.

Mr Obama made nuclear disarmament a central theme of his speech in Prague in April, and put non-proliferation at the top of the agenda for the UN Security Council meeting he chaired this week in New York. In doing so he cleared the way for today’s move.

“All nations have a right to peaceful nuclear energy,” he said, adding that those with nuclear weapons “must move towards disarmament".

Iran wrote a brief, cryptic letter to the IAEA saying that it had a “pilot plant” under construction, whose existence it had not revealed. Iran’s first officially declared facility is at Natanz in southern Iran.

An IAEA spokesman, said: “I can confirm that on September 21 Iran informed the IAEA in a letter that a new pilot fuel-enrichment plant is under construction in the country. The letter stated that the enrichment level would be up to 5 per cent.”

Uranium enriched to around 5 per cent can be used as nuclear fuel, but has to be enriched to around 90 per cent to be effective in a nuclear weapon. The United States, Britain and other Western countries believe that Iran has been attempting, at its plant at Natanz, to achieve a higher enrichment of uranium, although the plant has been subject to IAEA inspections.

Iran has enough low-enriched uranium but has yet to develop the higher grade for a weapon.

The IAEA spokesman said: “Iran assured the agency in the letter that further complementary information will be provided in an appropriate and due time. In response, the IAEA has requested Iran to provide specific information and access to the facility as soon as possible. This will allow the agency to assess safeguards verification requirements for the facility.”

He said the IAEA was told by Tehran that no nuclear material had been introduced into the facility.

The revelation of the second plant further complicates the chances of any meaningful progress at the scheduled talks on October 1 between Iran and six world powers, the first in more than a year.

The five permanent United Nations Security Council members and Germany will be pressing Iran to scale back on its enrichment activities. But Tehran has declared that it will not bargain on enrichment.

Philippines rescue workers step up search for storm survivors

2009-09-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

Rescuers in the northern Philippines today increased their efforts to rescue people left stranded after a tropical storm brought the area's worst flooding in more than four decades.

The government declared a "state of calamity" in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces after tropical storm Ketsana brought more than a month of rain in 12 hours yesterday.

The decision allowed officials to utilise emergency funds for relief and rescue, the defence secretary, Gilbert Teodoro, said.

Army troops, police and civilian volunteers have so far rescued more than 4,000 people since Ketsana brought landslides and flooding, killing at least 51 people and leaving 21 others missing, Teodoro said.

Ketsana swamped towns and closed Manila's airport for several hours.

Military chief General Victor Ibrado, accompanied by journalists, flew over several suburban Manila towns and saw many people waiting to be rescued on the roofs of their houses.

Mary Coloma, a housewife, told the DZBB radio station: "My son is sick and alone. He has no food and he may be waiting on the roof of his house. Please get somebody to save him."

Many neighbourhoods have been devastated, with houses destroyed, vans and cars overturned and streets left awash with debris and mud.

"The flooding was so grave it inundated many communities for the first time," Loel Malonzo, a provincial disaster response official, said in Rizal province, where more than 40 people drowned or were killed by landslides.

"People were trapped in their houses. Some who tried to escape were swept away by the flood," Malonzo told the Associated Press.

The 42cm of rain that hit metropolitan Manila in 12 hours exceeded the 39.2cm average for September, Cruz said, adding that the rainfall broke the previous record, of 33.4cm in a 24-hour period, recorded in June 1967.

The ABS-CBN television channel showed video footage of more than a dozen people on the roofs of damaged houses being swept away by the Marikina river.

The buildings were smashed against the pillars of a bridge, and it was unclear whether the people were rescued.

The Philippine president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, had to take an elevated commuter train to the disaster council office to chair a meeting because roads were clogged by vehicles stuck in floodwater.

Discovering Iran's secret nuclear plant has wiped off Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's smile

2009-09-27T03:36:00.000-07:00

Until the Obama administration dropped the bombshell that it knew what the Iranian regime was up to, Mr Ahmadinejad had been enjoying himself, provoking mass walkouts from the United Nations General Assembly in New York after his claims the Holocaust was a myth.

He had even managed to persuade some of the more gullible delegates that Iran would take a constructive approach to this week's scheduled talks over the future of its nuclear programme, which are due to take place in New York on Thursday.Holding court at his hotel, Mr Ahmadinejad said he was looking forward to "free and open" discussions during this week's meeting with six world powers on Iran's nuclear programme.

But by Friday, Mr Ahmadinejad's composure looked shaken when he appeared at a news conference shortly after President Barack Obama had disclosed that Iran had been developing a second uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom without bothering to inform the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency what it was up to.

Given Iran's previous track record of concealing vital details of its nuclear programme from the UN, the disclosure that Iran had been forced to admit it had embarked on another undeclared nuclear site has severely damaged Mr Ahmadinejad's credibility at a crucial moment in the international stand-off over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The origins of the current crisis date to the disclosures seven years ago that Iran had built an industrial scale, underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz that could ultimately provide Tehran with the capability to build an atomic bomb. Despite intense diplomatic efforts by the EU3 – Britain, France and Germany – to get Iran to freeze its enrichment activities, Mr Ahmadinejad has managed to string out the negotiations while at the same time maintaining the pace of Iran's nuclear programme. Many experts now believe Iran will have enough fissile material to build a warhead within a year.

To judge by his relaxed demeanour last week, Mr Ahmadinejad was confident that he would be able to lure the Obama administration into the same diplomatic trap. Since coming to power last January, Mr Obama has gone out of his way to extend the hand of friendship to Tehran.

Mr Obama is so keen to make a break with the hostility that has characterised US-Iranian relations for the past 30 years that he has agreed to participate in direct negotiations with Iran for the first time since the 1979 revolution.

But if Mr Ahmadinejad thought that, when the talks finally begin on Thursday, he could once more indulge in the politics of procrastination that have served the development of Iran's nuclear programme so well, he has received a rude wake-up call.

Far from being seduced by Mr Ahmadinejad's hints that Tehran is interested in forging better relations with the West, Mr Obama has shown that he is rapidly losing patience with Iran's grandstanding.

Apart from disclosing details of the Qom project, Mr Obama made it clear during his UN address that he wants to make nuclear proliferation a key component of his foreign policy. If the US and other Western powers, such as Britain, are prepared to make concessions on their stockpiles of nuclear weapons, then why not Iran?

But rather than appearing as an honest broker with whom Washington can do business, Mr Ahmadinejad, in his various US television interviews, came across as shifty and disingenuous. Interviewed by the veteran CNN presenter Larry King, Mr Ahmadinejad provided a strong hint as to how Iran intends to approach Thursday's talks when he launched a personal attack on Mr Obama. He claimed that the US president's accusations regarding Iran's nuclear programme were "baseless", and a violation of his commitment to work for a peaceful resolution of the conflict with Iran. But it is Mr Ahmadinejad who is likely to find himself under sustained pressure when Iran gives its response to an offer from six world powers – the EU3, plus America, China and Russia – to end the international stand-off. With David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, refusing to rule out military action against Iran, and Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, making noises that Moscow is prepared to support a new round of sanctions against Tehran, international opposition to Iran's nuclear programme is undoubtedly hardening. Mr Ahmadinejad might try to play down the impact sanctions are having on Iran, but with unemployment at more than 30 per cent and inflation in double figures, further sanctions would increase the government's woes.

Public disquiet with Mr Ahmadinejad's economic performance was the driving force behind the pro-reform protests that brought the country to a standstill last summer. Mr Ahmadinejad can expect more of the same unless he can demonstrate he is serious about making peace with the West.

Con Coughlin is the author of Khomeini's Ghost, published by Macmillan

40 dead after storm triggers flooding in Philippines

2009-09-27T03:33:00.000-07:00

MANILA, Philippines -- More than a month's worth of rain fell in just 12 hours as Tropical Storm Ketsana slammed ashore in the Philippines, killing at least 40 people and stranding thousands on rooftops in the capital's worst flooding in more than 42 years.

The government declared a "state of calamity" in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces on Saturday, said Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who heads the National Disaster Coordinating Council. That allows officials to withdraw emergency money for relief and rescue.

A landslide and flash flooding in nearby Rizal province killed 35 people, said provincial government spokesman Tony Mateo. Most of the fatalities in Rizal drowned, said Loel Malonzo, chairman of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council.

Three people were also reported killed in Manila's southern suburb of Muntinglupa and two others in Quezon city, said Anthony Golez, deputy presidential spokesman and acting head of the Office of Civil Defence.

Mateo said that 27 people were missing.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had to take an elevated commuter train to the disaster council office to preside over a meeting because roads were clogged by vehicles stuck in the floodwaters.

The mayor of Cainta, also in Rizal, who was stranded atop a dump truck on a road that was neck-deep in water, told ABS-CBN television by phone that many residents climbed onto roofs to escape.

"The whole town is almost 100 per cent underwater," Mayor Mon Ilagan said.

About 16.7 inches (42.4 centimetres) of rain fell on metropolitan Manila in just 12 hours on Saturday, exceeding the 15.4-inch (39.2-centimetre) average for September, said chief government weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz. The rainfall on Saturday also broke the previous record of 13.2 inches (33.4 centimetres), which fell during a 24-hour period in June 1967, he said.

"However good your drainage system is, it will be overwhelmed by that amount of rainfall," he told The Associated Press.

He said poor maintenance of drains and waterways clogged with garbage compounded the problem.

ABS-CBN television showed a dramatic video of more than a dozen people perched on roofs of damaged houses being swept away by the suburban Marikina River. They smashed against the pillars of a bridge and were separated from each other in the rampaging river. It was unclear whether they were rescued.

Cruz said seasonal monsoon rains were intensified by Ketsana, which packed winds of 53 mph (85 kph) with gusts of up to 63 mph (100 kph) when it hit land early Saturday. By the evening, the storm maintained its strength as it moved over the coast of western Zambales province and headed west toward the South China Sea.

Manila airport operations chief Octavio Lina said the runway had been flooded, delaying international flights for hours. Floodwaters also caused some electrical outages.

Hundreds of vehicles were stalled in flooded streets around the capital, and nearly 2,000 passengers were stranded in ports in several provinces south of Manila after the coast guard suspended ferry operations.

Defiant Iran insists there’s no secret as inspectors invited to Qom nuclear site

2009-09-27T03:31:00.000-07:00

The Islamic regime responded to international condemnation that it clandestinely built a facility in mountain tunnels near the holy city of Qom by saying that international monitors would be allowed to visit the site.

The gesture by the country's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi seemed designed to head off calls for new economic sanctions as world powers prepare to meet Iranian negotiators for talks in Geneva this week on its disputed nuclear programme. But he offered no timetable for the visit, leaving open the possibility that Iran might remove incriminating evidence from the installation, which is on military land, before the nuclear inspectors visit.

President Barack Obama and David Miliband, the foreign secretary, raised the spectre of fresh sanctions after the US, UK and France disclosed the existence of the plant which could produce material for an atomic bomb or nuclear energy.

Mr Salehi said that Iran was constructing the facility as a "precautionary measure" in case of a military strike against its exisiting uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. That location had also been built in secret but was uncovered in 2002.

As the fall-out from the revelations intensified, The Sunday Telegraph has learned that Western intelligence is focussing on five other suspected clandestine sites that officials believe could be part of a hidden nuclear fuel cycle.

"For the secret uranium enrichment plant at Qom to be put into action, there would also have to be a source of converted uranium to provide the feedstuff," said a Western intelligence official.

The existing conversion plant at Isfahan, which supplies Natanz, is under monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It would be extremely risky and difficult for the Iranians to seek to divert supplies from Isfahan when Qom became operational.

"So it is clear that Iran must also be working on a clandestine conversion facility," the official said. "It would make no sense to have one without the other. It was the same thinking that resulted in us identifying the Qom site after Natanz was uncovered."

In a series of interviews in New York after his trip to the United Nations, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted Iran had not needed to inform the world atomic agency about Qom as it was more than six months from coming on line. He repeated that the nuclear programme was for civilian energy purposes.

But in more threatening rhetoric, Mohammad Mohammedi-Golpayegani, who heads the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini, declared: "The new plant, God willing, will soon become operational and will make the enemies blind."

In his weekly presidential address, Mr Obama said the discovery of a secret nuclear plant showed a "disturbing pattern" of evasion by Tehran which "added urgency" to its talks this week with the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

Russia has also signalled a greater willingness to go along with sanctions but China remained the major obstacle, saying it favoured a "dual track" approach of pressure and talks.

Mr Miliband underscored what was at stake in Geneva. "The Oct 1 meeting was always going to be important, it is now doubly so," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "The world will be watching to see whether Iran is serious about engaging with the international community.

"If they want to be treated like a responsible member of that community, they need to behave like one. We have made it very clear that this is not a question of whether Iran has the same rights as other members of the international community, but whether it accepts its responsibilities."

Before Friday's announcement by President Barack Obama, flanked by Gordon Brown, the prime minister, and President Nicolas Sarokozy, at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, three days of behind-the-scenes drama and diplomacy played out at the UN.

More than 100 world leaders had gathered for the annual General Assembly when US officials learned that Iran had written a short and cryptic letter to IAEA revealing a previously undeclared small "pilot" nuclear facility.

US intelligence had learned about the underground site in 2006. And working with their British and French counterparts, they compiled a detailed picture of what was being built there, with information from a Iranian nuclear scientist's smugggled laptop, defectors and satellite imagery.

Iran, they learned, was constructing a plant that could house 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium - material that can be used for civilian energy purposes or for atomic warheads.

On Monday, Tehran wrote to the IAEA with partial and misleading information about the Qom facility after learning that the West knew of its existence. So Mr Obama's team decided to go public with what it knew, to outflank Iran.

Over a two-day period, US, British and French officials briefed their Russian, Chinese, Israeli and UN counterparts. Mr Obama personally told President Dmitry Medvedev during one-to-one talks, after which the Russian leader emerged sounding tougher on sanctions.

This was followed by harsh words on Iran from Mr Brown and Mr Sarkozy at a meeting on nuclear disarmament on Thursday, and then the showpiece announcement on Friday morning in Pittsburgh.

"It was always an option to go public on this at some stage soon," a senior Western official told The Sunday Telegraph. "We wanted to see if they would come even half-clean about this. But when they wrote to the IAEA to announce a small so-called pilot project, we decided to go for it. They were clearly completely taken by surprise."

He dismissed Iranian suggestions that the site could have a non-military use. "The killer argument is the size and scale of this facility. It is much to big to be a pilot and much too small to be of any civilian use," he said.

Alleged secret sites for another stage of the bomb-making process - weaponisation - were identified by an Iranian opposition group last week. The National Council of Resistance of Iran, which the regime calls a terrorist organisation, said it has identified two sites in and near Tehran where scientists are developing detonators for nuclear weapons.

Israel greeted the Qom revelations as a vindication of its insistence that Iran is developing a nuclear bomb, but also a sign that time is running out to act..

"It's almost certain that there are other clandestine sites so we really don't know what stockpiles they already have," Dore Gold, a former advisor to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and [a former] ambassador to the UN, told The Sunday Telegraph.

"But we do know that the timeline is very tight and Iran may be much further down the road to the bomb than some people thing," said Mr Gold, author of the newly-published The Rise of Nuclear Iran. "This really is five minutes to midnight."

Avigdor Lieberman, the foreign minister, demanded harsh new sanctions, saying: "Without wasting time, we must work towards the overthrow of the mad regime in Tehran."

But despite the hawkishness of Mr Netanyahu's government, the disclosure appeared to reduce the likelihood of an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear installations.

"This is going to push back any possibility of a unilateral strike," said Meir Javedanfar, a prominent Iranian-Israeli analyst and author of a book of Iran under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Israel will be far more integrated into the negotiations. The more Israel is included, the less likely the Israeli leadership is to act unilaterally."

Obama Aides: White House Unlikely to Close Gitmo By January Deadline

2009-09-27T03:00:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON -- President Obama is unlikely to close the much-maligned detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in time to meet the self-imposed deadline of January, as his administration runs into daunting legal and logistical hurdles in moving the more than 220 detainees still being held there.

The difficulties in completing the lengthy review of detainee files and resolving other thorny questions mean the president's promised January deadline may slip, senior administration officials acknowledged for the first time Friday to FOX News.

The White House hopes to regain momentum -- Obama's aides have stepped up their work toward closure and the president remains as committed to closing the facility as he was when, as one of his first acts in office, he pledged to shut it down, officials told FOX News.

The White House in recent months has also shuffled its staffing for who will oversee the closure of the facility. White House Counsel Greg Craig has been replaced by senior advisers Pete Rouse, Tom Donilon and John Brennan.

But legislative difficulties and legal snares have made it inevitable that the facility will remain open for some inmates after the deadline passes.

The U.S. military prison in Cuba was created by former President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as a landing spot for suspected Al Qaeda, Taliban and foreign fighters captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere. But it has since become a lightning rod of anti-U.S. criticism around the globe. There are approximately 225 detainees still being held at the prison.

Obama promised soon after taking office -- and many times since -- that he would close the prison, arguing that doing so would be a crucial step in restoring America's image in the world and creating a more effective anti-terror approach.

But eight months after Obama's initial pledge -- and with only four months to go before the January deadline -- a number of difficult issues remain unresolved. They include establishing a new set of rules for military trials, finding a location for a new prison to house detainees and finding host countries for those who can be released.

This has prompted top Republicans in Congress to demand that the prison stay open for the time being, saying it is too dangerous to rush the closure. Even Democrats defied the president, saying they needed more information about Obama's plan before supporting it. For the moment, Congress is denying Obama funds to shut down Guantanamo.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Saturday Congress won't reverse its stance.

"Americans and a bipartisan majority in Congress will continue to reject any effort to close Guantanamo until there is a plan that keeps Americans as safe or safer than keeping detainees in the secure detention center," he said in a written statement.

After Obama's promise, administration officials and lawyers began to review the files on each detainee. At issue: which prisoners can be tried, and whether to do so in military or civilian courts; which can be released to other nations; and -- the hardest question -- which prisoners are too dangerous or their cases too compromised that they must be held indefinitely.

A major complaint surfaced immediately -- that the Bush administration had not established a consolidated repository of intelligence and evidence on each prisoner. It took longer than expected to build such a database, the officials said, because information was scattered throughout agencies and inconsistent.

Those files have now been completed, and prosecutors have also concluded their initial review of the detainees and recommended to the Justice Department an unspecified number who appear eligible for prosecution, the officials told the AP. The Justice Department and the Pentagon will now work together to determine which prisoners should be tried in military courts and which in civilian ones, the officials said. They would not provide a number recommended for prosecution since it could change.

The decision on which prisoners will be prosecuted had been expected by Nov. 16, and the officials said they are on track to meet -- or beat -- that goal. Navy Capt. John F. Murphy, the chief military prosecutor, had said previously that about 65 cases are viable for prosecution.

In the meantime, Obama has kept pending several war-crimes trials that were already in progress when he took office. The administration has asked judges to suspend all proceedings to give it time to complete its review of cases.

Also, Obama has adopted some changes to the military tribunals, but wants Congress to enact more to address criticism that the courts favor the prosecution and will not withstand constitutional challenges. That legislation is moving forward on Capitol Hill, but is not complete.

The government also must decide where inside the U.S. to move the detainees, and that highly fraught choice still has not been made, the officials said. A maximum security prison in Standish, Mich., and the military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas are under consideration as possible locations. Whatever facility is chosen, the Pentagon will have to make improvements necessary to safely house the prisoners.

The officials noted that the U.S. prison system already holds 216 people convicted as international terrorists.

Another hurdle in the effort to close the prison is the problem of finding countries willing to take in those detainees deemed eligible for release. The administration so far has transferred 14 prisoners to other countries, the officials said.

The administration will not "voluntarily release" any detainee inside the United States, the officials said. But this does not address what might happen if any of the detainees who are tried are found innocent -- a subject of considerable angst about Obama's plans, both in Congress and among the public. However, the U.S. could -- and likely would -- seek to transfer those people to other countries in that case, as none is a U.S. citizen.

Calif. GOP convention to focus on gov. candidates

2009-09-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- California Republicans gathering this weekend for their state convention do so against a familiar backdrop: the picture of a party in decline and struggling to find its way in an increasingly diverse state.

How the party will address its predicament will play out all weekend in a desert resort near Palm Springs.

Insiders will try to craft more effective voter registration campaigns and a strategy to draw more women and minorities. But the main attraction will be the three candidates seeking to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he is termed out of office after next year.

Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former congressman Tom Campbell do not wear the social conservative label, putting them at odds with many GOP die-hards. Instead, they are expected to focus on the area where they can find common ground with this weekend's delegates - state fiscal policy.

With California mired in a perpetual cycle of budget deficits, the candidates are expected to position themselves as the most responsible stewards of taxpayer money.

Whitman, a billionaire, officially launched her gubernatorial campaign this week, promising to slash an additional $15 billion in state spending and fire 40,000 state workers, although she declined to detail how she would do that. She also sought to curry favor with the party by giving it $250,000 from her personal fortune for voter-registration efforts.

The donation became tinged with a sense of irony when, later in the week, The Sacramento Bee reported that Whitman had not been registered to vote before 2002 and that there was no evidence she had ever registered as a Republican before 2007. The embarrassing revelations prompted Whitman to apologize and take "responsibility for my mistake."

Poizner, meanwhile, released a plan to cut taxes then appeared on a conservative Los Angeles talk radio show, where he signed a pledge saying he would never raise taxes. The pledge has been promoted to lawmakers nationwide by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform in Washington, D.C.

Campbell released a plan he said would provide health insurance coverage to another 2 million Californians without any additional cost to taxpayers. He also has released his own detailed budget proposal, including a temporary 32-cent-a-gallon gas tax to help shore up the state budget during the recession.

Until this week, the soft-spoken Campbell has largely avoided taking part in the sharp exchanges between the campaigns of Whitman and Poizner, but he joined Poizner this week in blasting Whitman for her lack of specifics when she announced her plans to reduce state government.

In his speech to the convention Friday night, Campbell took a swipe at Whitman, without naming her. He challenged voters to question those who claim they will pay for government programs by eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse," as Whitman said she will do.

"We should never accept that phrase as a substitute for actual numbers," he said.

In a dig to Poizner, he added, "The second candidate has not identified a single dollar of specific cuts. Not one dime!"

He also challenged his fellow Republicans to do some soul-searching about the party's future. Republican registration in California has slipped to 31 percent of voters, compared to nearly 45 percent for Democrats, and its lawmakers are in the minority in both houses of the Legislature.

The GOP also has had difficulty attracting the 20 percent of California voters registered as independents.

Campbell called on Republicans to carefully consider which of the candidates has the best chance against a likely Democratic nominee with years of government service. He noted his five terms in Congress, his years teaching economic policy at several universities, and his short tenure as Schwarzenegger's budget director.

"More than any other candidate running for this office, with the exception of Jerry Brown, who actually was governor, I can say that I know what it takes to pass a balanced budget in government," her said.

Brown, the current attorney general, has hinted that he may seek the Democratic nomination in 2010, but has yet to announce a run.

Campbell and Poizner have sought to contrast their deeper knowledge of complex policy issues with Whitman's lack of experience in government. Whitman, a political novice, has demonstrated her fundraising prowess and poured $19 million of her own money into her campaign.

Schwarzenegger also focused on economics when he addressed the crowd Friday night, praising Republican leaders for holding the line on tax increases during this year's budget stalemates, even when they were at odds with him.

"I want you to know that I was not at all offended by you getting this message out," Schwarzenegger said. "I am a public servant. I serve you; you elected me."

He said GOP opposition to spending helped the state trim an additional $15.5 billion in the budget he signed in July. He also joked that he is used to being under fire, particularly in political disagreements with his wife, Maria Shriver, a Democrat. He joked that she has made him sleep in the garage for months.

Schwarzenegger has often been at odds with his own party, particularly over tax increases, government spending and his promotion of initiatives to curb global warming. His speech was crafted to play to the partisan crowd by promoting a Vietnam veterans bill he signed earlier in the day and promising to investigate ACORN.

The activist community service group has come under fire in recent weeks after its employees were caught on a hidden camera telling people how to lie to get government assistance.

"I will investigate. I will follow this. I will follow through, and I will have answers for you. I promise you that," he said.

Earlier, Schwarzenegger asked the state attorney general to investigate ACORN's activities. The group receives federal money, but officials with the governor's Department of Finance told The Associated Press earlier this week that they were not aware of it receiving any direct state aid.

Whitman and Poizner will appear separately on Saturday.

U.S. Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, whose name has been floated as a possible presidential candidate in 2012, and Fred Barnes, the executive editor of the Weekly Standard, also will address the convention.

Bigger role for Asia, LatAm

2009-09-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

PITTSBURGH - THE Group of 20 approved a greater voice for Asian and Latin American countries in a historic shift that recognises the rising influence of both regions.The leaders of the world's 20 largest economies were attending a two-day meeting dedicated to fostering a healthy global recovery, and European leaders were expected to secure a priority of their own: limits on bankers' bonuses.

But the economic developments were overshadowed Friday by the disclosure of a secret Iranian nuclear facility. President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown appeared together to demand that Iran fully disclose its nuclear ambitions and threatened new sanctions.

The decision to raise the profile of the G-20 represents a major change and underscores how the world's balance of power has shifted in the last 40 years.

The leaders decided the G-20 will serve as the board of directors on global economic cooperation, a function that for more than three decades had been performed by a smaller club: the US, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and later Russia. The G-20 includes such developing economies as China, Brazil and India.

The G-8 will, however, continue to meet on matters of common importance such as national security, the White House said late Thursday.

The Pittsburgh meeting marked the third G-20 leaders summit in less than a year as the countries continued to grapple with a debilitating downturn that has resulted in millions of unemployed around the world, the loss of trillions of dollars in wealth and massive amounts of government stimulus spending designed to jump-start economic growth.

The leaders trickled into Pittsburgh throughout Thursday - most of them in from New York, where they attended the opening of the UN General Assembly. Later, they gathered with their spouses for a welcoming reception at a botanical reserve, before parting for separate banquets Thursday night. -- AP

More tax cases vs wealthy, U.S. banks

2009-09-26T17:49:00.000-07:00

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. government is stepping up prosecutions of wealthy individuals dodging taxes through off-shore accounts, with new cases expected to be made public "every couple of weeks," a top government attorney said on Saturday.

U.S. officials have been sifting through about 250 client names obtained through a February settlement of a criminal probe against Swiss banking giant UBS AG, alleging the bank illegally helped U.S. taxpayers hide funds offshore.

That effort, along with an amnesty program encouraging tax evaders to turn themselves in, is speeding prosecutions, one of the top U.S. lawyers working on the cases at the U.S. Justice Department said.

"You can expect a few every couple of weeks," Kevin Downing, a senior attorney in the tax division of the Department of Justice told an American Bar Association tax conference.

On the sidelines of the conference, Downing also told Reuters that U.S. banks that helped U.S. clients hide money off-shore are a target.

"The folks in the United States that we get information on are obviously the easiest ones for us to pursue," he said.

"So anybody in the U.S. ... the U.S. banks helping U.S. clients set these offshore accounts up, we are doing the same thing," in going after them, he said.

In August, UBS AG agreed to disclose the names of 4,450 American holders of secret accounts at the bank, ending a related lawsuit that has begun to show cracks in Switzerland's prized banking secrecy.

"The UBS case has been a great success for the government," Downing said. "It is not an anomaly. It is the beginning of what is now a resource-intensive," process of going after other banks and countries.

The government has secured six guilty pleas so far in its effort, including one on Friday, where a New Jersey man pleaded guilty for failing to report about $6.1 million he had held in a UBS AG Swiss bank account.

On a parallel track to the UBS case, the government last Monday extended a temporary amnesty program by three weeks to October 15, to encourage wealthy Americans with undeclared assets abroad to come forward.

Those taking part in the amnesty program pay reduced penalties and generally avoid criminal prosecution.

Downing also said the government has "made a lot of headway" in dealing with foreign banks, Downing said. "Let your clients know if they think it's just UBS they are mistaken," he told the group of tax lawyers.

"NOT ABOUT UBS" OR IS IT?

The UBS case and its ramifications dominated many discussions and spiced up what would arguably be a dry conference on taxation.

One moderator began his presentation, noting "this is not going to be about UBS," though often the subject crept back in.

Another government lawyer working on the cases said the publicity of the UBS cases has engaged juries.

"In today's environment when we are seeing criminal tax cases and prosecutions on the front pages of the newspapers almost daily ... the message is getting out," Jeff Neiman, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida where much of the UBS cases are playing out, said.

Juries are paying attention and becoming more sympathetic, he said, "especially in these tough economic times."

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UN talks fail to set climate target

2009-09-26T17:46:00.001-07:00

Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that Beijing would pledge to cut "carbon intensity", or the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each dollar of economic output, over the decade to 2020.

His promise is a landmark because China has previously rejected rich nations' demands for measurable curbs on its emissions, arguing that economic development must come first while millions of its citizens still live in poverty.

But the leader of the world's biggest emitter dashed hopes that he would unveil a hard target to kickstart stalled climate talks due to be reconvened in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December aimed at negotiating a broader climate pact to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

Room to manoeuvre

Hu said only that carbon intensity would come down "by a notable margin by 2020 from the 2005 levels", which still leaves Beijing and other major emitters room to manoeuvre before the talks.

Rich nations are likely to come under further pressure at the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh later this week to commit to dramatic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Incidences of heat waves and droughts are on the increase and there has been an acceleration in the melting of glaciers and the recession of the Greenland ice sheet, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said earlier this week.

Tim Flannery, the chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council and professor at Sydney's Macquarie University, told Al Jazeera that there are "a large number of people who are disappointed" with the lack of substantive progress at Tuesday's climate summit.

"This day really should have been a day of triumph for climate diplomacy ... we would have hoped for great progress, but on the surface at least, I think, it appears that progress has been quite limited," he said from New York.

Commenting on China's pledge, he said "it is a positive step but a 'notable margin' is not something you can measure".

Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate change and one of the most vocal critics of China's emissions policy, said he "didn't hear new initiatives so much" in Hu's speech.

"It depends on what the number is and he didn't indicate the extent to which those reductions would be made," he said.

New target pledged

But Xie Zhenhua, China's most senior environment official, later said China would soon unveil a target, based on projections that by 2020 it will double its use of renewable energy and dramatically cut energy use per dollar of GDP.

"After further study and discussion, we should be able to announce a target soon," he said in New York.

Flannery said Hu and Barack Obama, the US president, both "offered rhetoric, they offered promise, but not substantial, documented, commitment and that's what we need at this stage". While stressing that "we have a long way to go yet", Flannery said the UN climate summit "has been significant".

"One of the great things that's happened at this meeting I think, is the creation of a peer group of world leaders who have experienced that dialogue between each other in a frank and direct way and that, we hope, will pay off in Copenhagen."

Al Gore, the Nobel peace laureate and climate campaigner, praised China for "impressive leadership" and said Hu's goals pointed to more action.

"They are very important and we've had ... indications that in the event there is dramatic progress in this negotiation, that China will be prepared to do even more," he said.

However, Hu made clear that China had high expectations from the rest of the world, repeating a long-standing call for more support in moving away from dirty growth.

Backed by India and other developing nations, China argues that rich nations emit more per person and enjoyed an emissions-intensive industrialisation, so they have no right to demand others do differently - unless they are willing to pay for it.

"Developed countries should take up their responsibility and provide new, additional, adequate and predictable financial support to developing countries," Hu said.

Obama, in his address, urged the world to address climate change now or suffer an "irreversible catastrophe".

"Our generation's response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it - boldly, swiftly, and together - we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe... The time we have to reverse this tide is running out," he said in his first speech at the UN.

'Morally inexcusable'

Echoing Obama's words, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said failure to reach a new treaty this year on fighting global warming would be "morally inexcusable".

He called on presidents, prime ministers and other leaders "to accelerate the pace of negotiations and to strengthen the ambition of what is on offer" for a deal at Copenhagen in December.

"Failure to reach broad agreement in Copenhagen would be morally inexcusable, economically short-sighted and politically unwise," Ban said.

"The science demands it. The world economy needs it."

Smaller island nations again warned that their livelihoods would vanish if the world's major polluters could not reach a deal that stopped global temperatures from rising.

Mohamed Nasheed, president of the small Indian Ocean country of Maldives that fears being submerged by rising sea levels, said: "Once the rhetoric has settled and the delegates have drifted away, the sympathy fades, the indignation cools and the world carries on as before.

"A few months later, we come back and repeat the charade."

Dozens dead as storm slams Philippines

2009-09-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

More than a month’s worth of rain fell in just 12 hours as Tropical Storm Ketsana slammed ashore in the Philippines, killing at least 40 people and stranding thousands on rooftops in the capital’s worst flooding in more than 42 years.

The government declared a “state of calamity” in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces on Saturday, said Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who heads the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council. That allows officials to withdraw emergency money for relief and rescue.

A landslide and flash flooding in nearby Rizal province killed 35 people, said provincial government spokesman Tony Mateo. Most of the fatalities in Rizal drowned, said Loel Malonzo, chairman of the Provincial Disaster Co-ordinating Council. Three people were also reported killed in Manila’s southern suburb of Muntinglupa and two others in Quezon city, said Anthony Golez, deputy presidential spokesman and acting head of the Office of Civil Defence.

Mr. Mateo said that 27 people were missing.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had to take an elevated commuter train to the disaster council office to preside over a meeting because roads were clogged by vehicles stuck in the floodwaters.

The mayor of Cainta, also in Rizal, who was stranded atop a dump truck on a road that was neck-deep in water, told ABS-CBN television by phone that many residents climbed onto roofs to escape.

“The whole town is almost 100 per cent underwater,” Mayor Mon Ilagan said.

More than 42 centimetres of rain fell on metropolitan Manila in just 12 hours on Saturday, exceeding the 39.2-centimetre average for September, said chief government weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz. The rainfall on Saturday also broke the previous record of 33.4 centimetres, which fell during a 24-hour period in June 1967, he said.

“However good your drainage system is, it will be overwhelmed by that amount of rainfall,” he told The Associated Press.

He said poor maintenance of drains and waterways clogged with garbage compounded the problem.

ABS-CBN television showed a dramatic video of more than a dozen people perched on roofs of damaged houses being swept away by the suburban Marikina River. They smashed against the pillars of a bridge and were separated from each other in the rampaging river. It was unclear whether they were rescued.

Mr. Cruz said seasonal monsoon rains were intensified by Ketsana, which packed winds of 85 km/h with gusts of up to 100 km/h when it hit land early Saturday. By the evening, the storm maintained its strength as it moved over the coast of western Zambales province and headed west toward the South China Sea.

Manila airport operations chief Octavio Lina said the runway had been flooded, delaying international flights for hours. Floodwaters also caused some electrical outages.

Hundreds of vehicles were stalled in flooded streets around the capital, and nearly 2,000 passengers were stranded in ports in several provinces south of Manila after the coast guard suspended ferry operations.

Family, friends say last farewell to slain Yale grad student Annie Le at Calif. funeral

2009-09-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

In a somber funeral service attended by more than 600 people, Annie Le's relatives broke down as they remembered the Yale graduate student as a bubbly young woman whose dream in life was to heal the sick.

Tears flowed inside the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in El Dorado Hills, Calif., as Le's brother Christopher translated a heart-tugging poem read in Vietnamese by her mother, Vivian Van Le.

"Farewell, my child," the brother continued, choking back tears. "You are here lying in the cold coffin, leaving behind the wailing of loved ones. I sing you lullabies by your side so sweet like I did when you were a baby, wishing you a peaceful sleep."

The mom's poem continued: "They're now sung through my crying sobs to wish you an eternal, blessed sleep. ...You left life at too young of an age - all your dreams and hopes gone with you to your resting place."

Among the sea of mourners for the slain woman was Le's fiance Jonathan Widawsky, symbolically wearing a wedding ring.

In the roughly 90-minute service, Le, 24, was honored with prayers in English and a rousing rendition of "Amazing Grace" sung in Vietnamese.

Though she lived a life full of accomplishments - high school valedictorian, top Yale graduate student - relatives said it was Lee's boundless spirit that made her so special.

Her brother, Dan Nguyen, described his delight doing the simplest of things with his sister: watching cartoons and playing with stuffed animals.

"It was the silly girl she always was that made us all love her," Nguyen said. "It was through these little things, not her academic achievements, that made the most impression on us. Only now do I realize how important Annie was to me."

Le's murder and the weeklong hunt for her killer riveted the nation.

The pharmacology student vanished on Sept. 8 after she was spotted at her Yale research lab. Five days later, on what was supposed to be Le's wedding day, her body was found stuffed behind a basement wall in the lab building. She had been strangled.

Lab tech Raymond Clark 3rd, 24, was charged with killing Le in what authorities described as a case of "workplace violence."

As dozens of black-clad mourners poured into the church Saturday, Msgr. James Kidder described the service as a chance for Le's family to "come to reconciliation with what humanly is irreconcilable - not only the fact that Annie died but the way she died.

"There is a rare person that you will meet, not often, a person who is naturally good, whose tendencies are for the good," Kidder added. "She's one of those rare ones."

In his sermon, Kidder noted that Le, despite her brief life, touched countless lives.

"The worth of Annie's life was not its length," Kidder said. "It was the intensity of love, the intensity of passion, the intensity of care."

After the service, her wooden casket was taken to the nearby Green Valley Mortuary for a private burial service.

Before Le's brutal slaying, she was researching enzymes as part of her work that had implications for treating cancer, diabetes, and muscular dystrophy.

In her 2003 high school yearbook, Le wrote that her dream in life was to become a laboratory pathologist.

"I've got to go to school for about 12 years first, get my MD and be certified as a surgeon," Le wrote. "I just hope that all that hard work is going to pay off, and I'm really going to enjoy my job."

Inside the Zazi Takedown

2009-09-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

"The ticking bomb" is a cliché in movies about cops and spies and terrorists, but sometimes in real life, with real terrorists, it's the real deal. And that's what the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City Police Department saw themselves up against in the case of Najibullah Zazi, the 24-year-old Afghan immigrant indicted Thursday for “conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.” Did the cops make mistakes? Some. Did Zazi find out the Feds were on to him sooner than they wanted him to know? Yes. Did the bomb go off? No. Or not yet, anyway.

To understand the case, which may have been the most dangerous Al Qaeda-related plot to take place in the United States since 9/11, it helps to understand how fast everything played out, and how little time the Feds and the New York cops thought they had to begin with. And while there are many old feuds between the Feds and the cops about turf and priorities, with a historical reluctance to share information, that wasn't the problem this time. President Barack Obama was coming to town—and so was this Afghan immigrant believed to have been given explosives training by Qaeda-related groups in Pakistan. The clock really was ticking.

Knowledgeable law-enforcement officials who declined to be named talking about an extremely sensitive investigation tell me that David Cohen, the head of the NYPD Intelligence Division, made it clear he wanted Zazi off the streets sooner rather than later. Cohen spent more than 30 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and headed its clandestine services. He's all in favor of postponing arrests, or never making them at all, if that helps gather intelligence to prevent terrorist attacks. But not in this case. "I don't need to f--k around for two more weeks and learn one more fact," he is supposed to have told senior officials in New York and Washington. "Sometimes the search for intelligence can get you killed."

This, according to these same officials, is what the countdown looked like:

It is Wednesday, Sept. 9, two days before the anniversary of 9/11 and just five days before Obama is scheduled to make a major speech on Wall Street, only a few hundred yards from Ground Zero. A week after that, the U.N. General Assembly will be in full session, with some 150 heads of state gridlocking Manhattan. And now the FBI tells the NYPD it's concerned about the activities of this guy, Najibullah Zazi, whom agents have been watching for months in Colorado. The Feds have good reason to believe he's been trained in bombmaking in Pakistan. They say they know he's been stockpiling the same kind of chemical components—hydrogen peroxide and acetone—used to concoct the explosives used in the horrific London subway bombings in 2005. Over the past few days surveillance suggests he's not only been cooking them up, he's allegedly been calling friends to make sure he gets the mixture just right. The New York City connection? He was brought up in Queens in a neighborhood long known to be full of Taliban supporters. And at this moment he is in a rental car headed east. The FBI is watching him. The bureau normally works with more than 100 NYPD detectives in the Joint Terrorism Task Force, but on this one it wants Cohen's Intelligence Division working the case, too.

A couple of years ago, that kind of cooperation didn't exist. After Police Commissioner Ray Kelly reorganized the force in the wake of 9/11 and brought in Cohen, the Intelligence Division had an extremely rocky relationship with the FBI field office. Cohen's detectives focus on preventing new attacks, not pulling together cases for prosecution after the fact, which is what FBI agents traditionally have been tasked to do. The NYPD intelligence unit works undercover and gathers human intelligence in New York City, in the wider United States, and even overseas. FBI agents, used to believing they have a monopoly on that kind of work, wanted to keep it, and the infighting was legendary.

Despite all that, FBI Director Robert Mueller—who has tried to shift the FBI law-enforcement culture from after-the-fact prosecution toward more aggressive measures to prevent terrorism—has developed a good working relationship with Kelly. And since Joseph Demarest took over as the head of the FBI field office in New York late last year, according to law-enforcement officials, cooperation on the ground has improved dramatically. One of those officials says that the FBI has worked closely with the NYPD intel detectives on more than two dozen important cases in the past several months.

Iran and United States on collision course over nuclear plant

2009-09-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

The US and Iran raised the stakes yesterday ahead of this week's nuclear showdown in Geneva, with threats of global strife if no resolution is found.

The sharpened rhetoric followed Friday's revelation that Iran had been building a secret uranium enrichment plant under a mountain near Qom, and it points towards a new wave of sanctions that go far beyond the targeted financial measures imposed on Iran so far.

Speaking at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Barack Obama declared: "Iran is on notice that when we meet with them on 1 October they are going to have to come clean, and they will have to make a choice." The alternative to sticking to international rules on Iran's nuclear development, he said, would be "a path that is going to lead to confrontation".

At the meeting the US will demand access to the plant within the next few days and to all other sites within three months. It will tell Tehran to open all notebooks and computers to inspection and answer questions about its suspected efforts to build a nuclear weapon.

But the Iranian government showed no signs yesterday of being prepared to compromise. Instead, the chief of staff to the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, appeared to relish the prospect of confrontation. "This new plant, God willing, will soon become operational and will make the enemies blind," said Mohammad Mohammadi-Golpayegani, according to the semi-official news agency, Fars. He described the newly revealed enrichment plant as a sign that Iran was at the "summit of power".

The remarks reflected the degree to which the Tehran regime has made the nuclear programme a matter of pride and national identity. It insists that the programme, the existence of which was revealed in 2002, is for generating electricity and medical research and is entirely within Iran's sovereign rights.

Iran's nuclear chief said yesterday the UN nuclear agency would be allowed to inspect the facility at Qom. But Ali Akbar Salehi did not specify when inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could visit the site.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, dodged a question at the UN over whether Iran had succeeded in enriching enough uranium to make a bomb, but said nuclear weapons "are against humanity – they are inhumane". Anyone who pursued such goals, Ahmadinejad added, was "retarded politically".

Raising tensions further, Iranian media reported yesterday that revolutionary guards would hold missile defence exercises. Western officials say the Qom site is on a revolutionary guard missile base.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, is due to fly to Geneva for Thursday's meeting with senior diplomats of the six nations that handle talks on the Iranian nuclear programme – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. The US will be taking a full role in the talks for the first time, reversing the stand-off policy pursued by the Bush administration.

A deal under which Iran would suspend uranium enrichment in return for a package of economic assistance and help with the construction of a civilian power industry has been on offer for more than a year and has so far been flatly rejected by Iran. Hopes of a breakthrough in Geneva are at a low ebb.

"When we find that diplomacy does not work, we will be in a much stronger position to, for example, apply sanctions that have bite," Obama said. "That's not the preferred course of action. I would love nothing more than to see Iran choose the responsible path."

The president did not rule out a military option, but added: "I will also re-emphasise that my preferred course of action is to resolve this in a diplomatic fashion."

Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, echoed that view. "No sane person looks at the military question of engagement with Iran with anything other than real concern," he said. "That's why we always say we are 100% committed to the diplomatic track."

Robert Gates, the American defence secretary, went further. "The reality is that there is no military option that does anything more than buy time," he said, adding that Iran could have nuclear weapons within one to three years.

Western officials believe that the revelation of the Qom enrichment plant has solidified international support for sanctions. The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, restated his conviction that sanctions could become inevitable. The US has suggested taking action against international companies that sell petrol to Iran. However, European states are sceptical. They point out that the experience of Iraq demonstrated the ease with which petrol can be smuggled across land borders. The regime might also use such sanctions as a pretext for cutting petrol subsidies, blaming the west.

Other options under consideration are an embargo on investment in Iran's oil and gas sector, an end to loan guarantees to all companies investing in Iran, a ban on Iranian businesses trading in euros, and a prohibition on foreign companies insuring Iranian shipping.

World leaders relaunch G20 as top economic forum

2009-09-26T04:54:00.000-07:00

G20 leaders will today agree plans to reshape the world economy and give more say to developing nations such as China, India and Brazil when they conclude their summit in Pittsburgh.

The reforms will secure a seat at the top table of global economic policy for emerging nations, with world leaders agreeing that the G20 should become a board of directors on global economic co-operation, shifting the decades-old global balance of power away from Europe.

The G20 group, which includes Argentina, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, will replace the G7, which for more than three decades has dominated the world financial stage. The deal was thrashed out by Barack Obama, who is hosting his first major summit as US president.

The agreement, to be officially announced today at the conclusion of the Pittsburgh summit, will see the world's richest nations pledge to retain emergency economic supports until recovery is secured and work together to tackle climate change. They will agree to tighten banking regulation in an effort to avoid a repeat of the last two years' global economic turmoil. Governments across the world have pumped an estimated $5tn into their economies to deal with the greatest shock to the system since the 1930s.

"Today, leaders endorsed the G20 as the premier forum for their international economic co-operation," said a White House statement after a summit dinner last night. "This decision brings to the table the countries needed to build a stronger, more balanced global economy, reform the financial system and lift the lives of the poorest."

Divisions remain over the questions of bankers' pay. France and Germany are holding out for tougher restrictions on the highly paid executives blamed for bringing down the world financial system.

The US treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, said there had been progress on pay and that G20 countries had reached a consensus on the "basic outline" of a proposal to limit bankers' compensation by the end of this year. He said it would involve setting separate standards in each of the countries and would be overseen by the Financial Stability Board, an international group of central bankers and regulators.

His comments came shortly after the European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, again pressed for the limits.

"Europeans are horrified by banks, some reliant on taxpayers' money, once again paying exorbitant bonuses," Barroso said. "It is important we take action."

Geithner offered the prospect of greater voting rights in the International Monetary Fund for Asian countries over the reservations of European nations, who would lose influence. Given the rise of China's economic power "it's the right thing" and Europe recognised this, Geithner said.

Neither the G7, which was created in the 1970s as the oil crisis struck western economies, nor the G8, which includes Russia, will be disbanded. The latter will instead focus on issues such as national security, while diplomats say the G7 will deal with geopolitical issues.

The new role for the G20 as the premier forum for international economic co-operation will begin with two summits next year, in Canada and South Korea, then annual summits.

Iran defiant amid new nuclear plant row

2009-09-26T04:52:00.000-07:00

This facility, buried in a mountain outside the city of Qom, is designed to enrich uranium and could be used to produce the essential material for a nuclear weapon. Iran chose to admit its existence shortly before President Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France made a joint appearance at the start of the G20 summit in PittsburgThe three leaders chose to maximise the pressure on Mr Ahmadinejad’s regime. “Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow,” said Mr Obama, adding that Iran was “endangering the global non-proliferation regime and threatening the stability and security of the region and the world”.

“The level of deception by the Iranian government and the scale of what we believe is the breach of international commitments will shock and anger the entire international community,” said Mr Brown. He added there was “no choice but to draw a line in the sand”.

The secret facility, which Western intelligence agencies discovered some months ago, is due to become operational next year. The plant is large enough to hold 3,000 centrifuges, the machines used to enrich uranium. A clandestine facility of this kind, beyond the reach of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, would be enough to produce sufficient weapons-grade uranium for one nuclear bomb in about a year.

Mr Obama pointed out that the “size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful programme”. Privately, Western officials pointed out the plant is too small to produce enriched uranium for a civil nuclear power station - but just large enough to make enough weapons-grade material for a bomb every year.

A US official said the facility was located 120 miles south-west of Tehran, in a network of underground tunnels found beneath a military base once used as a missile test site by the Revolutionary Guards.

Mr Obama said Iran “must come clean” about its nuclear ambitions at the meeting next week in Geneva. “I won’t speculate on what course of action we will take, we are going to give Oct 1 a chance,” he said, repeating his position that the use of force against Iran would not be ruled out.

Iran’s chief negotiator will meet an American official along with representatives of Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia in Geneva. Unless this meeting yields real progress, America and her allies are likely to table a new resolution before the Security Council imposing more economic sanctions on Iran.

Mr Sarkozy set a deadline of December for Iran to show a change of heart or incur more sanctions. He said Iran must “put everything on the table” at the meeting on Oct 1. “What has been revealed today is exceptional,” said Mr Sarkozy. “We can’t let the Iranian leaders gain time while the motors are running.”

American officials said that Mr Obama had shared the intelligence about the nuclear facility’s existence with President Hu Jintao of China and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia on the margins of the General Assembly in New York. Iran then learned of the discovery of its plant and chose to come clean in a letter to Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA.

A spokesman for Mr Medvedev said that he was “alarmed” by the development. Earlier, Russia’s leader had publicly softened his country’s once implacable opposition to imposing more sanctions on Iran.

America and her allies united to demand that Iran allow IAEA inspectors to visit the new facility. Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said that Beijing supported this request.

The enrichment plant was uncovered by British, French and American intelligence agencies. One source credited MI6 with “a very big part” in establishing exactly what was going on beneath the mountain north-east of Qom.

The source stressed how the existence of the plant undermined Iran’s constant claim that its nuclear programme is solely for electricity generation. This formerly clandestine facility is of the right size to produce weapons-grade uranium for a bomb.

Iran has previously been caught with designs on how to build nuclear warheads and the existence of its declared enrichment facility in Natanz only emerged in 2002. Gordon Brown said this occasion marked the “third time they have been caught red handed not telling the truth”.

EU drug agency: License 2 swine flu vaccines

2009-09-26T04:47:00.000-07:00

LONDON -- The European Union's drug regulator recommended Friday that two swine flu vaccines be licensed in the 27-nation bloc to ensure their availability before the start of the normal flu season.

The European Medicines Agency called for the vaccines made by Novartis AG and GlaxoSmithKline PLC to be granted a marketing authorization. The agency issues advice on whether to license for medicines across Europe, and their decisions are generally accepted by the European Commission and individual countries.

The decision to recommend the vaccines be licensed was made earlier than usual, because tests for both vaccines are ongoing. But authorities wanted to ensure the vaccines would be available before the usual flu season, when a spike in swine flu is expected.

Despite early data showing that one dose of both swine flu vaccines might work in most adults, the European Medicines Agency is recommending a two-dose regimen. Authorities expect further data from ongoing studies and said these recommendations might be updated later.

Other swine flu vaccines are being made by Sanofi-Aventis SA and Baxter International, but have not yet been approved by European authorities.

Novartis' Focetria and GlaxoSmithKline's Pandemrix vaccines both use adjuvants, chemical compounds used to boost the immune system and stretch the vaccine's active ingredient. The adjuvant used by Novartis has been used in flu vaccines since 1997 in more than 45 million doses, while GlaxoSmithKline's adjuvant has only been tested in clinical trials involving several thousand people.
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The European Medicines Agency also said pregnant women and children older than six months should get two doses. There is limited information on how safe vaccines with adjuvants are in both these groups, thought to be particularly vulnerable in a pandemic. Some countries, such as Canada, are buying vaccines without adjuvants for pregnant women.

Novartis said it had already begun shipping the first batches of swine flu vaccine to countries across Europe. It also expects its swine flu vaccine for the U.S., which does not contain an adjuvant, to be shipped to the U.S. by early October.

Glaxo had not yet begun shipping its vaccine. Dozens of countries worldwide have placed orders with the company for 291 million doses. Glaxo shares were up 0.2 percent in late-morning trading on the London stock exchange.

Many European countries, including Britain, Denmark, France, Spain and Italy, have planned massive swine flu immunization campaigns for the fall.

In a news conference Thursday, the World Health Organization predicted drug makers could produce 3 billion pandemic doses a year. Most of that will go to rich countries who have pre-ordered the vaccine, though nine countries have offered to donate 10 percent of their supplies for the developing world.

This week, China became the first country to begin using the swine flu vaccine: about 44,000 people have so far been vaccinated. WHO said they had received reports of 14 side effects possibly linked to the Chinese-made vaccine, including headaches and dizziness.

WHO officials said any rare and potentially dangerous side effects would likely not be spotted until millions of people start getting swine flu shots.

Review: 'Surrogates' is a robotic retread

2009-09-26T04:45:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK -- "Surrogates" is itself a surrogate, a kind of stand-in for many of the sci-fi movies of the recent past: In it, you'll recognize the ideas of "Blade Runner," "Minority Report" and even "WALL-E."

The Bruce Willis action flick opens with two murders - the first in years in a quasi-present day Boston. Technology has advanced enough so that nearly everyone has a surrogate - or "surry" for short. While reclining at home and plugged into a machine, people control a robotic version of themselves that safely maneuvers through the world in all of its slings and arrows.

The surrogates are a fantasy version of one's self - cosmetically perfect, thinner, younger and sometimes of the opposite sex. (This means, most importantly, that we have a blond Bruce Willis on our hands.)

Yes, like James Bond, John McClane has gotten the Ken doll treatment. For an aging action star, the pseudo Willis is almost a pun, a wink at moviegoers' need for stars that never age.

Willis is an FBI agent named Greer who, along with his partner (Radha Mitchell), is trying to solve the murders which, though committed on surrogates, also "liquefied" the brains of their human operators.

The police, too, have surrogates. When Greer - himself, not his doppelganger - rolls out of his bedroom after a long night as himself, the attractive surrogate of his wife (Rosamund Pike) sighs at the sight of her bald and wrinkly husband.

The surrogates are a clear metaphor for the virtual reality that's already upon us. It's a subject popular in Hollywood these days, given the recent Gerard Butler film "Gamer" and James Cameron's upcoming "Avatar."

Having a robotic stand-in has some obvious perks: Sexuality is less inhibited. If you fall, you don't scrape your elbows. And if your helicopter crashes, you don't die.

But this crime-less utopia is also a superficial wasteland, devoid of meaningfulness. As the investigation into the murders goes deeper, a plot to destroy the network becomes unfurled.

It has something to do with VSI, the company that created surrogates. (Its slogan: "Life ... only better.") One of the founders of VSI (James Cromwell) is having inventor's remorse. Some also choose to live in human-only areas; the leader of these renegades is played by a dreadlocked Ving Rhames.

"We're not meant to experience the world through a machine," Rhames' character announces. It's an ironic sentiment coming from a film projector beamed into a state-of-the-art movie theater.

"Surrogates," directed by Jonathan Mostow ("Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines"), is adapted from a graphic novel by Robert Venditti. If anyone hasn't noticed yet, graphic novels are - for better or worse - the new pulp fiction.

Like those hard-boiled novels of the `40s that Hollywood couldn't get enough of, graphic novels are fueling what once would have been called B-movies. At its best, that's what "Surrogates" is: a quality B-movie, pulpy and very much reflective of its times. The film isn't shy about its feelings about technology - it's time to unplug. It laments a culture that medicates pain away and has its head in virtual realms.

It's hard to miss the message or the nihilistic glee the film takes in seeing a world of robot surrogates suddenly collapse - a Second Life apocalypse that effectively forces society to unplug and step outside.

The Internet, though, is here to stay. Dreams of a computer-less society are as much fantasy as a blond Bruce Willis.

"Surrogates," a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing images, language, sexuality and a drug-related scene. Two stars out of four.

Latest Data Show Volatile Economy Took a Few Steps Back

2009-09-26T04:40:00.000-07:00

Orders for durable goods such as aircraft and electronics fell unexpectedly in August, while sales of new homes rose less than expected, renewing concerns about whether the economy can sustain a recovery with consumer spending held back by job losses, tight credit and falling home values.

Still, economists said the figures -- which follow weaker-than-expected data Thursday on existing home sales -- also reflect a volatile economy emerging from the worst recession since the 1930s. U.S. stock markets closed lower Friday, with the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index slipping 0.6 percent to 1044.38.

"No one said this would be a smooth recovery," Benjamin Reitzes, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients. "The data will likely continue to improve in fits and starts."

The Commerce Department said Friday that orders for durable goods dropped 2.4 percent in August, after rising a revised 4.8 percent in July. Economists had expected a 0.5 percent increase, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. It was the second drop in three months in orders for goods expected to last at least three years.

A category known as "non-defense capital goods, excluding aircraft," a gauge of business investment in machinery and other items, fell 0.4 percent, its second straight drop. It fell 1.3 percent in July. Some economists said they were concerned that the two straight declines show businesses aren't confident enough in the recovery to boost their investment in equipment.
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Orders for commercial aircraft and parts, an especially volatile category, sank 42.2 percent in August after nearly doubling in July. Excluding aircraft and other transportation goods, orders were flat in August -- below analysts' expectations of a 0.5 percent rise. Transportation goods orders dropped 9.3 percent.

Autos and auto parts orders posted a 0.4 percent gain in August, after rising 1.6 percent in July, according to the government data. The sector received a major boost last month from the Cash for Clunkers program, which gave consumers rebates of up to $4,500 for trading in older cars for newer, more fuel-efficient models. The program, which ended last month, boosted auto sales 30 percent in August.

Several other categories posted weak results. Orders for computers and electronic products dropped 0.7 percent, after rising for two straight months. Electrical equipment and appliance orders fell 0.5 percent, after jumping 4.2 percent in July.

The Commerce Department also said new U.S. home sales inched up 0.7 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 429,000 from a downwardly revised 426,000 in July. Economists had expected a pace of 440,000. Sales have risen 30 percent from the bottom in January, but are off about 70 percent from the peak of four years ago.

The report was the second disappointing sign this week for the housing market. The National Association of Realtors on Thursday said sales of previously occupied homes, which make up most of the market, dipped 2.7 percent last month.

Builders continue to make severe cuts in prices to attract buyers. The median sales price of $195,200 was 9.5 percent below July's $215,600. That was the largest monthly drop on records dating to 1963.

'National Parks': Camped Out, But Trailing Off

2009-09-26T04:35:00.000-07:00

Ken Burns's "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" was six years in the making and it is 12 hours long, camped out every night this week on PBS, beginning Sunday. It is beautiful and erudite and contains all the underlined importance and swelling emotion that a major Ken Burns moment requires of its viewers, but at least four cumulative hours of it are goshawfully boring. Just like camping with people who love it more than you do.

It's as if Uncle Ken has gotten out his slide projector and is going to show us everything from his trips to Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, stopping frequently to make the same poetic points over and over and over, which are:

The parks belong to all Americans. The parks are transcendent. It's not about how you and I visit the parks, it's about the permanence and awe that the parks visit upon our collective psyche. You should go to the parks soon and often; you own them, after all. (It's a $25-per-car entrance fee at Yellowstone these days, just the beginning of what a trip to a big national park will cost you, but nevertheless, you own it.) The parks make us better people. Their beauty is beyond words and pictures.

Which of course doesn't stop any of the historians, writers, rangers and environmentalists featured in the documentary from describing, and describing some more.

"One of the things I think we witness when we go to the parks is the immensity and the intimacy of time," historian William Cronon explains at a point early in the slog. "On the one hand, we experience the immensity of time, which is the creation itself, it is the universe unfolding before us, and yet it also time shared with the people we visit these places with, so it's the experience we remember when our parents took us for the first time to these [places], and we as parents passing them onto our children . . . the love of place, the love of nation, that the national parks are meant to stand for."

And so on. Refreshingly, in what seems like hour 97, Burns at last quotes a funnyman from long ago, Irvin S. Cobb, who said this about the Grand Canyon:

"Nearly everybody, on taking a first look at the Grand Canyon, comes right out and admits its wonders are absolutely indescribable, and then proceeds to write anywhere from 2,000 to 50,000 words giving the full details. . . . When the Creator made it, He failed to make a word to cover it."
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God is also not a documentarian, but Burns is now regarded by some as the next best thing. Employing the meticulous research and trademark pomposity we have come to expect after his explorations of jazz, war, baseball (upper-middle-class white guy subjects all the way). In "The National Parks," after seeing in Part 3 what I would swear is the same bank of clouds roiling over the same glacier in time-elapsed wonder that I saw in Parts 1 and 2, I got a familiar, stultifying dread: Uncle Ken's slide show never ends.

Still, what a trip! I would think that with the right high-def TV and Barcalounger, millions of Americans can watch "The National Parks" all week and then cross the actual 58 national parks (and 333 national monuments, forests, etc.) off their bucket lists. This is the all-access pass with unlimited lingering, with so much acoustic guitar in the background that the musicians' fingers must have been bloodied by the end. Not a single frame of Burns's stunning, soaring aerials and up-close nature shots features any of the drawbacks to actual park tourism: Here there is no gridlock on switchback roads, no crowds of foreign tourists, no $7 chicken tenders, no asphalt parking lots and ticket lines at visitor centers.

Yellowstone is one of the most wondrous places in the world, and while I am fully aware of its splendor (my mother insisted I be aware), I was unfortunately 12 when I first saw it. I was that kid you don't want in your station wagon. In 1980, we were just more of the millions of visitors to America's national parks, and we were stuck in traffic, and within a few hours I'd figured out that all the grocery-and-curio shops in Yellowstone stocked comic books and Rolling Stone magazines that were at least a month old, which I'd already read.

I was an avid indoorsman in a family of ambitious mountaineers, game hunters and even a forester. Eventually, as a grown-up, at places like White Sands National Monument and the Los Padres National Forest at Big Sur, I pitched my own tent and found my own sense of peace and solitude in our mutual wilderness. You can't not, and still think of yourself as American.

Burns's project, and the people featured in it, are too dogmatic, like those brown Park Service signs pointing you in the "right" direction. They come across with the same scoutmaster zeal of enforced, hearty reverence that -- depending on your worldview -- will either make your heart soar or your eyes roll. Burns is relentless, walking us through the 19th-century emergence of the idea of national parkland, which he locates with the arrival of the Mariposa Battalion of soldiers in the Yosemite valley in 1851. Ostensibly there to eradicate native populations, the battalion members stopped, looked around, and thought gawrsh, it's pretty here.

Air Force restarts $35B tanker competition

2009-09-26T04:33:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force on Friday launched its third attempt to award a $35 billion tanker contract to either Boeing Co. or Northrop Grumman Corp.

The Air Force said it will be "crystal clear" in its requirements for new tankers that refuel military planes in flight in order to avoid errors from previous selection processes. The service also now wants a plane that's war-ready on day one.

Los Angeles-based Northrop, and its partner Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. N.V., are offering a tanker based on the Airbus A330. Northrop said it will review the draft request for bids and provide comments to the Air Force soon.

Chicago-based Boeing said it will conduct a detailed review of the service's request to assess which plane it will offer - the 767-based tanker, the larger 777-based tanker, or perhaps both.

Both the companies and lawmakers have 60 days to comment on the Air Force's proposal before a final version is released.

The Air Force has failed twice to award a contract to replace its Eisenhower-era fleet of 179 tankers. The last award in early 2008 to the Northrop team was overturned on an appeal by Boeing after congressional investigators found the Air Force failed to evaluate both proposals on the same merits. That led Pentagon leaders to temporarily revoke the service's authority to award a contract.
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The 2004 award to Boeing was undone by an ethics scandal that resulted in prison terms for a former company executive and a former Air Force official.

Lawmakers already have started bickering over the exclusion of language that would have required the Air Force to consider the World Trade Organization's interim ruling earlier this month that European loans for Airbus were illegal subsidies. A separate ruling on a European Union counter-complaint against the U.S. is expected in about six months.

States like Washington, Kansas and others who stand to gain jobs if Boeing lands the award want the Air Force to consider the WTO ruling in its tanker selection. Northrop supporters in Alabama, where a new plant would be built in Mobile, disagree.

Some lawmakers also wanted the Air Force to ink deals with both companies, but the service still plans to make a single award next summer.

Pakistani Officials Cite Gains in Anti-Insurgency Effort

2009-09-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

Pakistan army says that its ongoing operations have severely dented the Taliban-led insurgency in the country's northwest. Military officials say the campaign is being gradually extended to what they consider the rebel stronghold - the border region of Waziristan. Senior army officials believe the advances against militants and close anti-terror coordination have helped improve the level of trust between Pakistan and the United States.
Military authorities in Pakistan believe that the gains the anti-insurgency campaign has made in the past few months, in and around the Swat valley, have weakened the Taliban militants and set the stage for ridding the country of them. They say the killing of nearly 2,000 militants, including key commanders, and arrest of some of the top Taliban leaders in the Swat offensive have helped bring down terrorist attacks in the country, in recent months.

Pakistan is under international pressure to launch a long-awaited ground offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region, that borders Afghanistan. American military commanders believe top al-Qaida leaders are hiding there and are using the territory for attacks on international troops on the Afghan side of the border.

The mountainous territory is considered a training ground for militants, under the leadership of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is an alliance of more than a dozen al-Qaida-linked groups. Fighters of the militant outfit are also believed to be involved in cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. However, the setbacks in Swat and the killing of the embattled groups' chief commander, Baitullah Mehsud, are believed to have dealt a major blows to the Taliban militants in Pakistan.

Army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas tells VOA the military is now concentrating on the South Waziristan tribal region, calling it "the center of gravity of terrorist forces" in the country. But General Abbas warns that the Mehsud terrorist network is still intact and a heightened ground offensive could annoy tribesman and provoke a widespread uprising.
"We can afford to fight the militants in the area, but we cannot afford an uprising by the tribes in the area because we are not fighting the tribes," he said. "Waziristan is a different ball game altogether, a different environment. The terrain is very different. The people and the fighters are different. There is a huge presence of foreigners in the area, the foreign militants. At present we have sealed the area. The area is under siege," continued Abbas. "As you know, in any military operations, the effects of siege appear after some time. Now, we see that there is a lack of will [among militants] to fight. There are reports of some shortage of provisions. We have been targeting their training centers, their arms and ammunition dumps, their hideouts their strongholds. So, therefore, we are looking for the right time [for a major offensive] and this time will come hopefully soon."

General Abbas says there is a complete understanding between the Pakistani military and the NATO military commanders on how to deal with the militants in the Waziristan region.

It is widely believed, in and outside Pakistan, that the country's prime intelligence agency created most of the militant groups, for the government's purposes. Until the Swat operation was launched, the common perception was that army establishment was reluctant to go after the militants because of the past ties with these outfits. But spokesman General Abbas says the skepticism is misplaced and ignores the major human losses Pakistani military has suffered since joining the U.S-led anti-terror war, eight years ago.

"How can somebody imagine that a military who has lost over 1,800 officers and men in these operations in these areas, fighting against these militants, would allow services intelligence organization to hobnob with certain assets or certain terrorist groups whom the military is fighting against and the army chief would allow this services intelligence to take these kind of initiatives," added Abbas. "It does not make sense. The military is fighting. There are constraints. There are problems and we are going against our people in our area. Many of them have been misguided. So, when you apply excessive force in your own area against your own people, there are constraints and over reliance or over use of force sometime bounces back [backfires]."

The general says that, until recently, the Pakistani military was being held responsible for the cross-border attacks in Afghanistan and the military's capabilities were being questioned. But he says those doubts resulted from a lack of understanding of Pakistan's constraints in operating in the tribal areas.

"So, now with more exchanges at various levels, with more talks and more sharing of information, I think the understanding has improved a lot," said Abbas. "So, therefore, I would say that successful military operation has created an environment of better trust, better understanding." General Abbas says the Pakistani military is determined to and is capable of defeating the insurgency. The spokesman says, although coordination and the level of trust between the Pakistani and U.S armies has considerable improved, Islamabad has yet to receive requisite tools from Washington to fight the anti-terror war.

"This is a very rugged terrain. It is a mountainous area, very treacherous. We require air mobility," he added. "We do require targeting through air like attack helicopters, which is very effective in mountainous terrain. We do require surveillance equipment, the night vision capabilities. All this would enhance the technical and the resource material capability of the military and that would allow us to be more efficient, more effective and that would save our own lives."

In their recent talks with American leaders, Pakistani officials have repeatedly urged Washington to give Islamabad the drone technology that the United States has used to take out several top al-Qaida and Taliban leaders in the country's tribal areas.

Ken Burns' 'National Parks' pays tribute to the men behind the idea

2009-09-26T00:47:00.000-07:00

For Californians, Ken Burns' gorgeous and exhaustive six-part documentary on the National Parks poses something of a dilemma. In the 12 hours it takes for "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" to unfold, an Angeleno could easily visit any of a half dozen national parks. Without traffic, you could conceivably get to Yosemite, where it all started, tour the valley floor and be back before narrator Peter Coyote stopped talking.

No doubt the various men behind the National Parks system, from mountain prophet John Muir to the touring-car-bound Franklin Delano Roosevelt would recommend you do just that. Indeed, the main goal of Burns and his co-creator Dayton Duncan appears to be launching people off their backsides and into the wilderness. In this they will most certainly succeed, possibly to the detriment of their own ratings.

Enlivened by astonishing camera work and a few dramatic adventures -- an early Yellowstone explorer becomes lost for more than a month, a tourist is later shot there during an Indian war, a young honeymoon couple vanishes from the Grand Canyon -- "The National Parks" is a slow and careful walk through a very specific branch of American history.

As much as one admires Burns' refusal to acknowledge the conventional wisdom that the American attention span has shrunk to a hair's breadth, there is no denying he could have picked up the pace a bit here. (Also, fiddle and banjo music should be banned from documentary usage for the next five years.)

The title is the first red flag. Yes, the "best idea" part comes from novelist and historian Wallace Stegner and one hates to argue with Stegner, but as historian Clay Jenkinson says within minutes of the film's opening, America's best idea is equal rights for every citizen. But "America's Second-Best Idea" doesn't have the same ring, does it?

So Burns and Duncan content themselves with hammering home the idea that the parks are living symbols of democracy. And if you don't believe them, well, here's a bunch more people who think so too.

Although descriptive chronicles of early visitors to Yosemite and Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon are fascinating to hear (and if you are an American actor who was not asked to give voice to one, consider yourself snubbed), the ongoing testimony to the beauty and importance of nature becomes more than a little repetitive and unnecessary. In this case, a picture really is worth a thousand words, and possibly two whole hours.

The history of the national park crisscrosses the history of America and is therefore a bittersweet narrative. America comes into being at the expense of its natives, from the Indian tribes forced out of their homelands, including Yosemite Valley, to the passenger pigeon hunted into extinction.

The real value of "National Parks" is not its reminder of how beautiful the Grand Canyon is but Burns' and Duncan's endless curiosity about how the parks shaped Americans as Americans shaped the parks.

Coming at a time when the role and size of the federal government is the subject of vitriolic debate, it's difficult not to see in the film a rousing vote of confidence for big government.

Here, the parks are presented not just as places of beauty and refuge but as the soul-saving antidote to the ruthless nature of capitalism and American ambition. Which is certainly true.

Yet, as we quickly discover, their existence is due almost entirely to the personal desires and relentless life's work of a handful of men, many of them major capitalists. Most of the parks owe at least some of their acreage to the checkbooks of wealthy men (making them monuments to noblesse oblige as much as anything else). Meanwhile, President Theodore Roosevelt, brandishing the new and vaguely worded Antiquities Act, created a slew of National Monuments, a process that didn't require Congressional approval.So like the U.S., the parks are more complicated than patriotic catch-phrases would have them.

It is the narrative of those extraordinary men that moves "The National Parks" forward. From the early days of nature-loving Transcendentalism to the modern Green movement, strong-minded individuals determined that preserving certain lands was best for the country and they spent their lives pursuing that goal.

Muir personally swayed presidents, early newspaper accounts brought thousands of people on difficult journeys to see Bridal Veil falls and the Yellowstone Valley, stories in Field and Stream brought about protective legislation, John D. Rockefeller gave us Jackson Hole and much of the Tetons.

So "The National Parks" does chronicle a loss: the ethos of rugged individualism, the influence of a single dedicated voice. Now it seems too easy for voices like Muir's or Park Service founder Stephen Mather's to be lost in the cacophony of information, opinion and invective. Burns stands with the zealous subjects of the film. Like Muir, he is unwilling to bend to public taste. Yes, here are those darn fiddles and the headshot interviews, here are the letters and journals read by Tom Hanks and John Lithgow, here are all those photographs and more information about the National Parks than you'll ever be able to retain.

But his message from one documentary to another remains the same: Pay attention, take notes, listen to the people who were there at the time, because despite what you may have been taught, history is a gorgeously complicated thing.