The awe-struck reactions of pilots to a mistake can not reflect badly on US...so why resist it being shown?
Britian won't show 'friendly fire' video

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 1 minute ago

OXFORD, England - A British coroner reluctantly agreed Friday to a U.S. request not to show in open court a cockpit video capturing the horrified reaction of two American pilots in
Iraq after they fired on British troops.

But Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker made clear he was doing so only in the interest of speeding up the inquest into the death of Lance Cpl. Matty Hull, who was killed when his convoy was strafed by a U.S. warplane in southern Iraq on March 28, 2003. Four others were wounded in the attack,

"If it were not for potential delay and distress this would cause the family, I would not be willing to be bound by an agreement between the U.S. and the U.K. on the use of evidence I consider crucial," Walker said.

Walker said that, despite his own reservations, lawyers' representing Hull's family did not object to U.S. demands that the inquest only play video behind closed doors. It will be shown to the coroner, select witnesses and lawyers representing the family and Britain's Defense Ministry.

The
Pentagon previously had said the video was classified and could not be shown, but changed its position last week after a copy of the video was leaked to a British newspaper and broadcast.

The lawyer representing Hull's family called the American conditions "unprecedented and wholly artificial," but said she accepted because a private screening would move the investigation forward.

"It's not just to avoid delay," Geraldine McCool said after the hearing. "We want to get on to the video."

The family was eager to examine the two-hour long tape in its entirety, and McCool said the previously unseen footage might provide new insight into the incident.

A widely circulated excerpt from the tape, shot from the gun camera of A-10 jet, captures the pilots' horror as they realize they had hit coalition forces. "I'm going to be sick," one says, before adding, "We're in jail, dude."

Walker also asked to be supplied with additional evidence during the hearing, including the pilots' training records and an uncensored version of the U.S. military's investigation into the incident.

"The time has come where I should be entitled to see all the evidence," he said. "I just want to know, and I'm sure the family want to know, why this happened, in as much detail as possible."

McCool appealed to the United States to hand over the evidence quickly.

"If (the Americans) don't cooperate, they will give the impression there is something they wish to conceal," she said. "That's an unhelpful impression to give allies."

The inquest is due to resume on March 12.

What if "God" sparked abortion loss?
Portugal church says mutation sparked abortion loss

Fri Feb 16, 1:55 PM ET

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's Catholic church blamed "cultural mutation" on Friday for the large number of people who voted to legalize abortion in a referendum and urged doctors to refuse to carry out the operation if asked.

Portugal held a referendum on abortion on Sunday in which 59.3 percent voted to lift an abortion ban and 40.8 percent voted against. Even though less than half the electorate voted, making the referendum non-binding, Prime Minister Jose Socrates said he would legalize abortion in parliament.

The Catholic church led the campaign to maintain the ban, which liberals say has no place in modern Europe, where only Poland, Ireland and Malta still prohibit abortions.

"The favorable result for the 'yes' is a sign of accentuated cultural mutation by the Portuguese people, which we have to confront with realism," the national conference of bishops said in its first statement since the referendum.

It said this was caused by "the globalization of ways of thinking and opinions by the media" and urged doctors and nurses to refuse to operate if women want abortions.

"We appeal to doctors and health professionals not to hesitate in turning to the statute of 'conscientious objector' that the law guarantees," the statement said.

Portugal is 90 percent Catholic.

It said all those Catholics who had turned against the church's doctrine in the referendum should examine the "demands of loyalty to the church they belong to and the true fundamentals of their doctrine."

The ruling Socialists, who had argued the current abortion ban leads to thousands of clandestine abortions every year, said the new law allowing abortions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy should go through parliament by July.

I wouldn't drive a Chrysler if you bought it for me and paid me, but....
GM in preliminary talks to buy Chrysler: source

By Megan Davies and Kevin Krolicki Fri Feb 16, 2:14 PM ET

NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) is in preliminary talks to buy Chrysler, the struggling U.S. arm of DaimlerChrysler AG (DCXGn.DE) (NYSE:DCX - news), a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.

The talks, described by the source as exploratory, were first reported on Friday by the trade journal Automotive News.

GM and Chrysler parent DaimlerChrysler declined to comment.

Shares of DaimlerChrysler rose in reaction to reports of the talks. GM shares slipped at first but then moved higher.

Automotive News, citing unnamed sources in Germany and the United States, said the companies were engaged in high-level talks about GM buying Chrysler Group, which sells Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles, in its entirety.

The source who spoke to Reuters said it was questionable whether GM would want Chrysler's finance business, having sold its own finance arm, GMAC, last year.

Speculation surrounding a possible sale or spinoff of Chrysler has built since DaimlerChrysler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said earlier this week that all options were open for its struggling North American unit.

DaimlerChrysler shares were up 4.1 percent to $73.11 in afternoon trading on the
New York Stock Exchange. Shares in GM, the world's largest automaker, were up 14 cents at $36.58.

Analysts questioned whether GM would benefit from an outright merger with Chrysler, since both automakers are struggling with excess production capacity, sliding sales and a heavy exposure to trucks and sport utility vehicles.

The GM talks with Chrysler come four months after GM broke off talks with Renault SA (RENA.PA) and Nissan Motor Co. (7201.T) after concluding that it would not have gained as much as the other two automakers from a proposed alliance.

GM and DaimlerChrysler have an ongoing joint venture with BMW to develop a hybrid system that will be used in an upcoming version of the Dodge Durango SUV.

David Feinman, a fund manager who specializes in distressed debt with Havens Advisors, said he doubted that GM would complete a deal to buy Chrysler.

Feinman, who does not own GM debt, said both GM and Chrysler have too many overlapping models, and any merger would have to result in even deeper cuts to jobs and output.

"If they do merge, there would have to be massive streamlining and there would be hundreds of thousands of more jobs lost," he said.

Feinman added, "The only one to benefit would be Daimler because they would get rid of Chrysler."

David Healy, an automotive analyst with Burnham Financial Group, was also skeptical.

"My own feeling is that a full merger wouldn't make any sense," said Healy. "They're bitter competitors, they have the same costs, and they have a similar footprint in the U.S. and Canada.

"That said," Healy continued, "I think there's room for cooperation on joint ventures where, for example, one company lacks a model or a diesel engine -- why do it twice rather than once as a joint venture?"

Burnham owns GM shares. The firm does not have investment banking relationships with GM.

CHRYSLER RESTRUCTURING

Chrysler announced a restructuring plan this week that will cut 13,000 jobs, close an assembly plant in Delaware, and reduce production shifts at other facilities.

The Detroit-based automaker merged with Daimler in 1998, but that combination of the Mercedes luxury brand with the mass-market Chrysler has failed to deliver on its growth targets.

Chrysler, which lost over $1.4 billion in 2006 after running up a costly inventory of unsold vehicles, is aiming to return to profitability in 2008 on the strength of new models and a lower cost base.

A GM spokesman said on Friday the company has ongoing discussions with other automakers.

"We often have discussions with automakers routinely. We don't comment on speculation regarding discussions," GM spokesman Tony Cervone said.

DaimlerChrysler, the world's fifth-largest automaker by global sales, also declined comment. "We have said everything there is to say on this subject," a spokesman said.

Republicans far more than others seem to intentionally set up traps for opponants, then deny it.
House Republicans defend Bush in oil royalty error

By Tom Doggett 1 hour, 12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Republicans on Friday sought to deflect blame off the Bush administration for not acting earlier to fix faulty oil drilling contracts that could cost the government billions in lost royalty fees, saying former President
Bill Clinton's administration was at fault for issuing the leases.

The dispute centers around drilling contracts the Interior Department gave oil companies in 1998 and 1999 to search for crude in the Gulf of Mexico. The contracts accidentally omitted language that would have ended a waiver of royalties for the companies if the price of oil exceeded about $38 a barrel, as it has in the current market.

The royalty relief was provided at a time when oil prices were very low, and incentives were needed to make it more profitable for companies to drill in the expensive deeper Gulf waters. Companies normally pay royalties based on 12.5 to 16.7 percent of the value of the oil they find on federal leases.

The department's inspector general, Earl Devaney, said the oil price threshold was left out due to a bureaucratic mistake. Nonetheless, the error already has cost the government $1 billion in lost royalties and the total loss could reach $10 billion over the life of the leases.

At a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on Friday looking into the issue, Republicans put the blame on the former Clinton administration for writing the faulty drilling contracts in 1998 and 1999.

"This is not a Bush-cronyism deal" with oil companies, said Republican Rep. Steve Pearce (news, bio, voting record).

Democrats on the panel acknowledged the contracts were signed during Clinton's last term. But they faulted Bush administration officials at the Interior Department for not correcting the contracts when the error was brought to their attention several years later.

"What we want to know is what this administration is going to do to fix this mistake," said Democratic Rep. Ed Markey.

The Interior Department has reached new lease terms with half a dozen oil companies to begin paying royalties on their oil discoveries going forward, but not any past royalties.

About 40 oil companies have yet to sign new contracts.

Markey criticized the department for not supporting legislation that would require oil companies with the disputed leases to negotiate new terms and pay back royalties.

Devaney, the Interior Department's inspector general, said there was plenty of blame to go around.

"I would say mistakes were made in both administrations," he said.

"Although we found massive finger-pointing and blame enough to go around, we did not find a 'smoking gun' or any evidence that the omission of price thresholds was deliberate," Devaney said.

According to these guys, God is a Pig!
Conservative Anglican leaders snub liberal U.S. bishop

By Katie Nguyen Fri Feb 16, 1:48 PM ET

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Seven conservative Anglican archbishops refused to take communion with the head of the U.S. branch of the church on Friday, in protest at her pro-gay stance in a row pushing the Church toward schism.

"This deliberate action is a poignant reminder of the brokenness of the Anglican Communion," said a statement posted on the Web site of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, led by Archbishop Peter Akinola.

"We are unable to take the Holy Table with the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church because to do so would be a violation of the traditional Anglican teaching," it said.

The archbishops behind the move to snub U.S. presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at this week's Anglican meeting in Tanzania came from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Their action highlights the disarray in the Anglican union of 38 self-governing churches as traditionalists in poorer countries -- where congregations are growing -- challenge the declining churches in the rich West.

The group said its boycott of holy communion with Jefferts Schori was to "declare that our relationship is either broken or impaired," in a sign the divisive issue of homosexuality may yet force a formal split among the world's 77 million Anglicans.

Jefferts Schori, the first female leader of the small but powerful U.S. Episcopal Church, has shown no sign of bowing to pressure from conservatives to denounce the consecration of openly gay bishop Gene Robinson in 2003.

An aide said she would continue to listen carefully to the concerns of her fellow primates despite the slight against her.

Jefferts Schori's refusal to back down has infuriated conservatives including Akinola, who heads the second largest province after the Church of England with 17.5 million members and is one of the fiercest Anglican critics of gay rights.

He has called homosexuality "an aberration unknown even in animal relationships," a view prevalent in Africa where gay relations are often taboo, or, as in the case of Tanzania, punishable with a jail sentence.

African Anglicans have criticized liberal trends, fearing they will lose followers to Islam and more conservative Christian denominations.

COVENANT

It is the second time senior Anglicans have sidelined the leader of the liberal U.S. church in recent years. Several primates refused to take communion alongside Frank Griswold, Jefferts Schori's predecessor at their last meeting in 2005.

The snub came a day after Anglican primates cloistered in an Indian Ocean beachfront hotel were presented with a report that said the U.S. church had made steps to address criticism for backing the Robinson elevation and same sex unions.

The assessment angered conservatives who say it was too soft on the Episcopal Church, which has become increasingly isolated in the long-simmering row.

Most archbishops in Africa, home to more than half the world's Anglicans, say ordaining gay clergy flouts Biblical commands. But, liberals argue the Anglican church in its 450 years of history has traditionally embraced diverse views.

Global reactions to pro-gay US Anglican Bishop.
U.S. pro-gay bishop attends Anglican meeting

By Katie Nguyen Wed Feb 14, 9:47 AM ET

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - The Anglican Church's spiritual leader on Wednesday defended the presence of a pro-gay U.S. bishop at a summit to prevent schism over homosexuality, despite pressure from conservatives to have her banned.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who admits he fears losing control over the row dividing the world's 77 million Anglicans, has insisted Katharine Jefferts Schori meet her critics face to face.

But he also appeased traditionalists, who have threatened to refuse to sit at the same table as the Episcopalians' first female leader, by inviting conservative U.S. church leaders to the private meeting that opened in Tanzania on Wednesday.

"Her presence is absolute. There's no question about her presence -- that's actually what the archbishop said," Jim Rosenthal, director of communications of the Anglican Communion, told reporters.

"She's here because she's the elected primate of the American church and there's no expectation she's not going to be here for the rest of the time," he added.

Williams has been fighting for years to avert schism in the loose global union of 38 churches whose festering division over homosexual priests and same-sex marriages reached near revolt by the burgeoning Global South with the appointment of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003.

The Tanzania meeting promises to be the most fractious meeting yet between the small but powerful liberal U.S. church and conservatives in developing countries, where archbishops have wielded more power since the Anglican Communion's center of gravity shifted south.

The Global South group of African, Asian and Latin American countries may this week recommend to Williams that the U.S. church appoint a moderator to rival Jefferts Schori.

The issue may come up for discussion when three American bishops -- a hard-line conservative, a moderate conservative and a liberal -- meet the Anglican primates on Thursday to express their different views on topics including sexuality.

In a sign of the malaise within the Anglican Communion, at least 45 parishes have left the Episcopal Church, where congregations are dwindling, and aligned themselves with African dioceses.

Most archbishops in Africa, home to more than half the world's Anglicans, denounce homosexuality as sinful and regard the ordination of gay clergy as a violation of centuries old Anglican teaching.

They have called on the U.S. church to repent its ways and some may skip communion with Jefferts Schori at a special Eucharist in Zanzibar on Sunday.

Liberals argue the Anglican Church in its 450 years of history has traditionally embraced diverse views.

From Socially Relevant comedy writer in the seventies, to The US Senate?
Comedian Al Franken makes Minnesota Senate bid

2 hours, 8 minutes ago

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Comedian and political commentator Al Franken said on Wednesday he will seek the Democratic nomination to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record).

The 55-year-old Harvard graduate, in an announcement posted on his Web site, said, "I'm not a typical politician (but) nothing means more to me than making government work better for the working families of this state."

Franken gained national fame as a performer and Emmy-winning writer on the NBC comedy show "Saturday Night Live" and also is a best-selling author.

He likely will face several other would-be candidates for the Democratic nomination.

Franken's announcement coincided with his last day as an on-air commentator for Air America, a radio network he helped launch in 2004 as a voice for the political left. He said his contact with the people of Minnesota, where he grew up and still lives, show "they're sick of politics as usual and they're sick of the usual politicians."

God makes doing the right thing a struggle so when we finally do it, we become it!
Portugal votes on legalizing abortion

By Axel Bugge Sun Feb 11, 5:58 AM ET

LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese voters were deciding on Sunday whether to legalize abortion in a referendum which could bring the overwhelmingly Catholic country closer into line with most other European states.


Opinion polls showed a majority of voters support making abortion legal in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. But rain swept the country as voting began, raising the possibility of a low turnout which could make the ballot invalid.

"The 'Yes' is surely going to win, I have no doubts about that," said Rui Oliveira Costa, a pollster from Eurosondagem.

But voting was slow on Sunday morning. If the turnout is lower than 50 percent, the vote will be invalidated, as was case in a similar referendum in 1998 when only 32 percent of the electorate turned out.

"Whether voter turnout will be above 50 percent depends on some factors, namely meteorology," Costa said.

Voting in the Iberian country of 10 million people was due to end at 1900 GMT.

Portugal is among a small group of European countries, including Ireland and Poland, which still ban abortions. It allows pregnancies to be terminated only in cases of rape, a deformed fetus or if the woman's health is at risk.

Women who are caught performing abortions can go to jail for up to three years although most trials have ended in suspended sentences or acquittals.

TRADITION OR CHANGE?

Traditional Catholics fear their values will be undermined if abortion becomes legal. Liberals, led by the urban young, hope Portugal will end an abortion ban which they see as antiquated.

The "Yes" campaign to legalize abortion has focused on an estimated 23,000 clandestine abortions every year, which Socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates has called "Portugal's most shameful wound."

Supporters say legalizing abortion would end back-street abortions and allow women proper treatment.

Catholic leaders have voiced concerns that a legalization of abortion could roll back other traditional values in Portugal, which is western Europe's poorest country.

Those campaigning against the referendum have said a vote in favor of lifting the ban will increase the number of abortions, raise state health costs and give momentum to easing other laws such as gay marriage.

Voters are answering the question: "Do you agree with the decriminalization of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, in the first 10 weeks, in a legally authorized health establishment?"

"O Virgin Mary, mother of God, do not allow these people that have always been faithful to forget you at this time," a Catholic priest prayed on Saturday before almost 1,000 people at a Mass in Lisbon's huge Jeronimo's monastery church.

But on the other side of town, along the narrow, bar-filled streets of Lisbon's trendy Bairro Alto neighborhood, Fernanda Ribeiro, 30, was confident. "I'm sure we will win," she said, drinking beer outside a bar.

Free Expression vrs fear of law suits and los of endowment moneys, etc.
Blackface, KKK costumes criticized

1 hour, 35 minutes ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A party that asked students to come dressed "politically incorrect" has prompted an investigation by Macalester College officials who learned one student was costumed as a Ku Klux Klan member and another wore blackface with a noose around his neck.

Students at the private school told administrators about the Jan. 16 party on campus.

"My initial reaction was shock," said Paul Maitland-McKinley, a member of the Black Liberation Affairs Committee, a student group. "I thought, this can't really happen on my campus."

A campus-wide discussion is planned for Tuesday.

"We hope we can start a deeper dialogue on ... why these types of activities hurt people and why they get the kind of response they do," said Jim Hoppe, the school's associate dean of students.

The student newspaper, The Mac Weekly, quoted senior David Nifoussi, who attended the party, as saying it was meant to be a satiric comment on "things that would be considered taboo in most situations" at the liberal school.

Macalester is the latest in a series of colleges to investigate student parties and incidents that have involved racial overtones.

Earlier this school year, Trinity College and Whitman College had parties where students showed up in racially offensive costumes or blackface. At Texas A&M University, students made a racist video that apparently was intended as satire, and a fraternity at Johns Hopkins University was suspended after a "Halloween in the Hood" party displayed a fake skeleton hanging from a noose.

The Macalester party was held a week before spring classes started and did not draw a large crowd, Hoppe said.

Macalester President Brian Rosenberg sent a statement to students, faculty and staff members condemning the offensive costumes and party theme.

"It is important to understand that the college condemns and will not tolerate activities of this type," he wrote. "It is deeply disappointing that Macalester students would be so insensitive and demonstrate such a lack of understanding of the college's values and mission."

___

On the Net:

Macalester: http://www.macalester.edu/

Mac Weekly: http://www.themacweekly.com/

(SUBS lead to correct that party was on campus sted off.)

It's impossible to list all reasons this is funny here, but try to come up with three on your own...
Vietnamese voters at epicenter of O.C. political earthquake
With just 7 ballots separating them, Trung Nguyen and Janet Nguyen take nearly half of those cast for supervisor. They relied on ethnic loyalties and the absentee vote.
By Christian Berthelsen and Dave McKibben, Times Staff Writers
February 10, 2007


The two Republicans named Nguyen entered the race for a seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors as blips on the establishment's screen: He an obscure school board member, she a neophyte councilwoman.

Against them stood candidates anointed by the Republican and Democratic machines — as well as the wisdom that in immigrant-rich central Orange County, party loyalties won elections.

When the votes for the 1st District race were tallied this week, the Nguyens, who are not related, had easily eclipsed the two favorites by shrewdly courting ethnic loyalties and the absentee vote.

Between them, the two bitter rivals won nearly half of the 46,000 votes cast in the Tuesday special election, with Trung Nguyen defeating Janet Nguyen by just seven ballots. She has asked for a recount. But whoever prevails will be Orange County's first Vietnamese American supervisor, demonstrating the emergence of Vietnamese political power.

"There was a major political earthquake in central Orange County this week," said Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove), who became California's highest-ranking Vietnamese American official when he was elected to the Legislature two years ago.

The strong showing by two Vietnamese candidates is further indication that the stereotype of Orange County as an all-white, wealthy, image-conscious community is not accurate, said John J. Pitney Jr., a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College. He called the county "wonderfully pluralistic."

"It's not playing by the usual playbook, which is: Minorities tend to vote Democratic," he said. "This is not your father's Orange County."

Trung Nguyen, 49, a lawyer and member of the Garden Grove school board, and Janet Nguyen, 30, a first-term Garden Grove city councilwoman, campaigned as conservatives who promised to crack down on illegal immigration in a district where Latinos make up nearly a third of registered voters.

The split between Republicans and Democrats is nearly even in the district, which includes Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Westminster

"All candidates should know by now they can't win an election around here without the support of the Vietnamese community," said Lan Nguyen, president of the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Trustees and no relation to either candidate, who supported Trung Nguyen. He called the election a milestone for the county's Vietnamese community.

Political operatives and observers were surprised by the extent to which ethnic identity played a role in voters' decisions.

Janet Nguyen said the election showed that Vietnamese voters "understand the political philosophy that every vote counts," adding: "They are now entering American politics."

Vietnamese comprise just a quarter of the registered voters in the 1st District, but they cast roughly half the absentee ballots — in an election where about 75% of the votes were cast by absentees. Both Nguyen campaigns, correctly predicting an anemic election day turnout (22.4%), focused their efforts on reaching absentee voters.

Trung Nguyen operative Saulo Londono said the campaign contacted every absentee voter six to 10 times.

Orange County now has 10 elected Vietnamese American officeholders on city councils, school boards, a county water district and in the Assembly.

"Ethnic voting is a long-established pattern in American politics," Pitney said. "As the Vietnamese community has matured, it's logical they'd exercise their voting strength."

He said most Vietnamese vote Republican for reasons ranging from anti-communism to anti-abortion sentiment. "Just as Cubans are the most strongly Republican Latino community, the Vietnamese are the most strongly Republican Asian Community," Pitney said.

Tran is credited with spearheading the local Vietnamese political surge. In Tuesday's election, Tran threw his political machine behind Trung Nguyen. Tran said the Nguyens' strong showing will likely give rise to more, qualified Vietnamese candidates.

In this week's election, the Nguyens each took 24.1% of the vote. The union-backed Democratic favorite, Tom Umberg, a former assemblyman and Clinton administration official, finished third with 21.4%, while the anointed Republican, Santa Ana City Councilman Carlos Bustamante, was fourth with 16.5%.

Compared with the Nguyens, the other candidates paid little attention to absentee voters. Latino voters, considered natural constituents of Bustamante and Umberg, returned fewer than 4,000 absentee ballots, or 12% of the total absentees.


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Some blogs from around the Mideast

By The Associated Press Fri Feb 9, 2:23 PM ET

Some blogs in the Middle East:
ADVERTISEMENT

___

EGYPT:

• http://misrdigital.blogspirit.com Arabic-language blog by democracy activist Wael Abbas. Has been instrumental in bringing attention to police torture and sexual attacks on women, publishing videotaped accounts of both in recent months.

• http://karam903.blogspot.com Arabic blog by Abdel Kareem Nabil, on trial for allegedly insulting Islam and causing sectarian strife with Internet writings critical of Islamic institutions in Egypt.

• http://www.manalla.net Arabic and English political blog by husband and wife team, Alaa Abdel-Fattah and Manal Hassan. Abdel-Fattah held six weeks last year after being arrested during rally at Cairo court in support of other detained democracy activists.

___

SYRIA:

• http://saroujah.blogspot.com English blog by Sasa Kajam. Called
Syria News Wire, says it features "independent news from the streets of Syria and Lebanon."

___

SAUDI ARABIA:

• http://saudijeans.blogspot.com English blog by Ahmed al-Omran, pharmacy student who writes about politics, social issues and trends.

___

IRAN:

• http://hamedmottaghi.blogfa.com Farsi blog by Hamed Mottaghi, freelance journalist who lives in holy city of Qom and writes about human rights, culture and other social issues.

• http://www.kosoof.com Farsi photo blog that publishes pictures of Iranian dissidents with their families after release from prison.

(Both Iranian blogs were awarded Reporters Without Borders prize during 2006 Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards for taking strong stands on freedom of information.)

___

BAHRAIN:

• http://mahmood.tv English blog by Mahmood al-Yousif, Bahraini businessman who writes about politics, human rights and daily life on Persian Gulf island kingdom.

• http://www.mideastyouth.com; http://www.mefaith.com; http://www.inter-iman.com Run by Esra'a al-Shafei, first two are in English, third in Arabic. Focus on bringing together voices from across region, including
Israel and
Iran, to discuss politics, gender and religion.

...but Crapper had no comment!
Paris court tosses Duchamp urinal fine

Fri Feb 9, 7:28 AM ET

PARIS - A French appeals court ruled Friday that a 78-year-old Frenchman who attacked Marcel Duchamp's famed porcelain urinal with a hammer last year does not have to pay $260,000 in damages.

Pierre Pinoncelli chipped the work, valued at $3.6 million, during a January 2006 exhibition of the Dada movement at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

He also scrawled "Dada" on the urinal.

At the time Pinoncelli said his actions were not vandalism but a "wink" at the early 20th century art movement that had Duchamp's blessing. Duchamp, who died in 1968, emphasized the creative process and a role for the spectator.

The lower court that convicted Pinoncelli last year gave him a three-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay the Pompidou $18,600 for repairs and another $260,000 to cover the artwork's depreciation.

The appeals court upheld the suspended sentence and the smaller fine but said Pinoncelli did not have to pay the Pompidou for any loss of value to the "Fountain" because the museum doesn't own the work.

Pinoncelli urinated on "Fountain" during a 1993 exhibition in Nimes in southern France, and cut off his own finger as an expression of solidarity with Colombian-French politician Ingrid Betancourt, held hostage by leftist guerrillas in Colombia since 2002.

This is how the Pope/Church murders and blames their errors on the victims!
Catholic Church slams free Brazil Carnival condoms

Fri Feb 9, 3:09 PM ET

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Catholic bishops criticized on Friday Brazil's plan to hand out millions of free condoms in the world's largest Catholic country when its famously bacchanalian Carnival begins next week.

The health ministry will roll out a new marketing campaign for safe sex on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro and start giving away 35 million free condoms in the streets for Carnival, a festival celebrated by Catholics the world over before the strict period of Lent.

With 150 million Catholics, Brazil has a Carnival that is a five-day street party legendary for liberal amounts of dancing, drinking and sex.

"Is this going to help? I don't think so," Cardinal Geraldo Majella, president of Brazil's Catholic Bishops Council, told journalists in Brasilia on Friday.

After Carnival ends this year,
Pope Benedict will make his first visit to Brazil in May.

The free Carnival condoms are meant to help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases like
AIDS after Brazil slowed transmission rates by giving out condoms in past years.

But the church is against birth control and preaches abstinence from sex before marriage.

It has long questioned Brazil's safe-sex program, which has made condoms available for years in health centers and in some high schools. The
United Nations has praised the program as a model for other developing countries.

In January the government asked students to design a better vending machine to widen distribution. The students with the best idea will win $25,000 and test machines could hit schools in 2008.

"Rules need to be established. If this is the sex education they want ... on this we cannot agree," said Majella.

This year's Carnival slogan is tipped to be: "With condoms, the good feeling goes on after the party is over."

Clever, but most likely nearly accurate...
Top Russian aide likens Putin to FDR

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 8, 10:48 PM ET

MOSCOW -
Vladimir Putin has been likened to czars and Communist Party chiefs, but a top aide came up with an unusual comparison Thursday for the Russian president: Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Speaking at a conference marking 125 years since Roosevelt's birth, Vladislav Surkov, the deputy chief of staff seen as the Kremlin's main ideologue, drew a parallel between one of America's most famous Democrats and a Russian leader who has been accused by Washington of backtracking on democracy.

Surkov found echoes of the United States in Roosevelt's time in today's Russia, news agencies reported.

Likening Russia following the 1991 Soviet collapse to Depression-era America, Surkov suggested that Putin needs to use a firm hand to put the country on the road to recovery.

"Like Roosevelt in his time, today Putin must and should strengthen administrative control and use the potential of presidential power to the maximum degree for the sake of overcoming the crisis," RIA-Novosti quoted him as saying.

"In the 20th century, Roosevelt was our military ally, and in the 21st century he is our ideological ally," the agency quoted him as saying.

Putin and his supporters have often evoked — and sometimes exaggerated — the chaos and uncertainty of the 1990s when explaining their policies and touting their achievements. At the conference, called "Lessons of the New Deal for Modern Russia and the World," Surkov suggested that both Russians in that decade and Americans in the Depression struggled with a frighteningly dark vision of the future.

He said Roosevelt kept America "from catastrophic social upheaval," the report said.

Roosevelt, who was president from 1932 until his death in 1945, oversaw an economic recovery package that sought to lift America out of the Depression. One of the most enduring policies of his New Deal was
Social Security, but he also instituted work relief programs, imposed stricter controls on public utilities and levied heavier taxes on the wealthy.

This just in, python scarfs down gator, explodes...
Python Eats Gator, Explodes
By Denise Kalette
Associated Press
posted: 06 October 2005
10:21 am ET


MIAMI (AP) -- The alligator has some foreign competition at the top of the Everglades food chain, and the results of the struggle are horror-movie messy.

A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said.

The incident has heightened biologists' fears that the nonnative snakes could threaten a host of other animal species in the Everglades.

"It means nothing in the Everglades is safe from pythons, a top-down predator,'' said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor.

Over the years, many pythons have been abandoned in the Everglades by pet owners.

The gory evidence of the latest gator-python encounter -- the fourth documented in the past three years -- was discovered and photographed last week by a helicopter pilot and wildlife researcher.

The snake was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Mazzotti said the alligator may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it.

In previous incidents, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw.

"There had been some hope that alligators can control Burmese pythons,'' Mazzotti said. "This indicates to me it's going to be an even draw. Sometimes alligators are going to win and sometimes the python will win.''

It is unknown how many pythons are competing with the thousands of alligators in the Everglades, but at least 150 have been captured in the past two years, said Joe Wasilewski, a wildlife biologist and crocodile tracker.

Pythons could threaten many smaller species that conservationists are trying to protect, including other reptiles, otters, squirrels, woodstorks and sparrows, Mazzotti said.

Wasilewski said a 10- or 20-foot python also could pose a risk to an unwary human, especially a child. He added, however, "I don't think this is an imminent threat. This is not a `Be afraid, be very afraid' situation.'''