Japan's fisher folk don't seem to get what motivates Greenpeace! Greed darkens the souls of all who approach!
Japan turns down Greenpeace help on whaling ship

Sat Feb 17, 5:21 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has turned down an offer from Greenpeace to tow a whaling ship that caught fire off the Antarctic coast, recalling that activists of the conservation group had boarded the same vessel almost a decade ago.

The fire broke out the Nisshin Maru, the 8,000 ton flagship of the Japan whaling fleet, on Thursday, sparking fears that it could spill oil or chemicals.

Japan's Fisheries Agency said in a statement that the fire had killed at least one Japanese seaman on board.

Maritime authorities said anti-whaling protesters in the Southern Ocean, which clashed with the whalers earlier in the week, were not involved.

"The fire has almost been extinguished," Hideki Moronuki, a Japanese Fisheries Agency official in Tokyo, told Reuters on Saturday. "But it will take a while before we can go into the engine room and see whether the engines are okay and the ship can sail on its own."

Greenpeace had offered on Friday to tow the stricken boat with its converted salvage ship Esperanza as the Nisshin Maru wallowed without power less than 100 nautical miles from the world's largest Adelie penguin colony.

"We would appreciate their offer, but I don't think we will accept such an offer," Moronuki said, recalling that the vessel had been boarded by Greenpeace activists in New Caledonia in 1998 as it lay in port after another fire.

He said that if the ship failed to set sail on its own, Japan would ask for help from a Japanese tanker sailing close by.

Moronuki denied news reports that the ceiling of the engine room had burned down and there was a threat of sea pollution.

"These are malevolent reports. The Nisshin Maru is not carrying chemicals at all, except for fuel, and the ceiling of the engine room was not burned down," he said.

"There has been no oil leak and there will be no oil leak."

The fire, fueled in part by whale oil, burned in a factory area above the engine room and below the ship's bridge.

Maritime New Zealand spokesman Lindsay Sturt said on Friday that fears were easing of an oil or chemical leak spill after the crew managed to pump off excess water and correct the list to the ship.

After Army Posts were erected throughout the West, do you remember what happened next to the Indian Nations?
Italians protest U.S. base expansion

By COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press Writer Sat Feb 17, 2:52 PM ET

VICENZA, Italy - Tens of thousands of people marched through the northeastern Italian city of Vicenza under heavy police guard on Saturday to protest a planned U.S. military base expansion.

Despite fears that violent demonstrators would be drawn to the protest, the march took place without incident, finishing outside the main train station where it started, as hundred of police officers stood guard and helicopters hovered overhead. The route did not pass the airfield where the expanded base is to be built, where critics keep a permanent picket.

"The government majority — whether they agree with the protest or, like me, do not — welcomes that the demonstration in Vicenza finished in an orderly fashion," said Premier Romano Prodi, who had urged protesters to be peaceful. "This must be stressed."

Police estimated the crowd at 50,000 to 80,000, while organizers put the numbers at 120,000.

"To build a military base is not the gesture of a peaceful government," said 24-year-old city resident Simone Pasin, draped in a rainbow peace flag. "I think it's time to dismantle military bases and put up structures of peace."

Trains and buses brought in leftist activists and anti-globalization protesters from across Italy to support residents concerned that the expansion would increase traffic and noise and air pollution, deplete local resources and raise the risk of terrorist attacks.

Prodi's government has approved the project, angering his far-left allies. The Communist and Green parties, members of the governing coalition, have backed the protest, though no one from the government showed up after Prodi banned ministers from attending.

Prodi has said his government had no reason to halt the expansion, which also has been approved by local authorities.

The Ederle base has about 2,900 active duty military personnel. The expansion at the Dal Molin airport, on the other side of town, would allow the U.S. military to move four battalions now based in Germany, raising the number to 5,000.

The move is part of the U.S. Army's overall transformation into a lighter, more mobile force — reducing its numbers in Europe from a Cold War high of 480,000 to 88,000 by 2012. Under the plans, elements of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade, a rapid reaction unit now spread between Italy and Germany, would be united.

"I think it is a done deal. I don't think there is any turning back. This is what Prodi has said and what the local authorities have said," said David Bustamente, a spokesman at the U.S. Consulate in Milan. "This demonstration is about process."

Construction is scheduled to begin later this year and to be completed by 2011 at a total cost of $576 million. Before construction begins, a task force run by Italians has been set up to hear community concerns and make adjustments to the plans where possible.

"We're trying to show sensitivity, because we know people are concerned," Bustamente said.

The 173d Airborne Brigade, Europe's quick response force, is scheduled to redeploy soon for
Afghanistan.

Some in Italy's ruling coalition feared the demonstration might suggest anti-U.S. sentiment in the country, but despite the presence of some "Yankees Out!" T-shirts, the mood was more anti-military than anti-American.

"The problems is not that Americans are in Vicenza," said Pasin. "The problem is that there is a military base."

A group of Americans ignored a warning by the U.S. Embassy to avoid Vicenza and joined the protest behind a banner reading "Not in our name," cheered by passing Italians who shook their hands and snapped their photos.

"The U.S. should not build military bases, the U.S. should think of its domestic problems," said John Gilbert, an American living in Italy for the past 25 years who was in a group of about 20 Americans who had traveled from Rome and Florence.

Spineless Democrats are causing the continued loss of life, Schumer and Clinton at the top of the list!
Senate Republicans block Iraq measure

By Susan Cornwell and Donna Smith 2 hours, 47 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans blocked the U.S. Senate on Saturday from considering a rebuke to
President George W. Bush's
Iraq troop buildup, but lawmakers vowed to continue waging a bitter struggle over war policy.

For the second time in two weeks, Republicans senators halted progress on a nonbinding resolution opposing Bush's recent decision to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the resolution the day before.

The Senate's vote in favor of the resolution was 56-34; four short of the number needed to allow the full Senate to debate the measure.

The rare Saturday session came on a day U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Baghdad and asserted an U.S.-Iraqi military crackdown was off to a good start.

"The majority in the U.S. Senate just voted against the escalation of the war in Iraq," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), a Nevada Democrat. Seven Republicans, five more than the previous time, had voted for the measure.

"The Senate is not done with this issue," he added. "The Senate will keep trying to force
President Bush to change course in Iraq."

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record), a Kentucky Republican, said the House resolution was a "nonsensical proposition" that asserted support of U.S. troops while disapproving of their mission.

"The Senate was created to block that kind of dealing and today it stops at the doors of this chamber," McConnell said.

Republican senators vowed to block all similar measures unless Democrats promise to also allow consideration of a proposal forbidding a cutoff of funds to U.S. troops.

THE NEXT BATTLE

Both Reid and McConnell mentioned a domestic-security bill coming soon to the Senate floor as a possible venue for their next battle over Iraq.

The 435-member House defied the Republican Bush on Friday, voting 246 to 182 against the troop increase. The measure does not, however, force the president to do anything, and the administration says the president's plan is underway.

The House measure passed with the support of 17 Republicans, many worried about their political fate if they stick with Bush on the unpopular war.

But in the Senate, a minority can block debate, and Democrats have only a 51-49 majority.

Senate Democrats said they would seek ways other than nonbinding resolutions to change Iraq policy, including revisiting the 2002 congressional authorization of the war.

Democrats would "ratchet up the pressure on the president, on those who are still on his side in terms of this policy, until they change," vowed Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), Democrat of New York. "We will be relentless."

McConnell said Republicans would keep trying to shift terms of the debate toward funding, arguing that if Democrats felt the war was wrong, they should vote to cut funds.

House Democrats are considering ways to restrict Bush's use of $93.4 billion in new war funds to keep him from using it for the troop buildup.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record) said Senate Democrats feared funding votes because it would put numerous presidential candidates on record on the contentious issue.

"If you did have this vote, the radical left would eat every Democratic hopeful for president alive," Graham said.

The White House also looked ahead to the funding battles.

"Both houses of Congress within a matter of weeks will conduct binding votes on a matter of cardinal importance for America's future security and global credibility: whether to fund the president's (spending) request for our military. The president urges both houses to approve his request," a White House statement said.

Listen to the mothers on all sides!
from Vets Against the Iraq War:
Marine’s Mother Interrupts Senate Hearing
News "Tina Richards, the mother of a US Marine who has already done two tours in Iraq interrupted a Senate hearing Tuesday to beg Senators not to send her son for a third tour."
By KWTX
January 30, 2007
Tina Richards, the mother of a US Marine who has already done two tours in Iraq interrupted a Senate hearing Tuesday to beg Senators not to send her son for a third tour.

As Senator Orrin Hatch, a strong supporter of the Bush Administration's policy in Iraq, was telling members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that when considering a resolution opposing the
President's plan to send even more soldiers to Iraq, "we must also consider the message that we are sending to our troops," a woman in a tee shirt reading "Military Families Speak Out" interrupted him.

"Stop the surge," said Richards, who identified herself as the mother of a US Marine who after returning from his second tour in Iraq was now being recalled for yet another.

"Don't send my son back please," said Richards while Judiciary Committee chairman Senator Russell Feingold, D-Wisconsin, attempted to gavel the hearing to order.

"Bring the troops home please. My son is broken, he cannot go for a third time and come back"

Four or five women who were sitting behind the mother who interrupted stood up holding a banner reading "Stop the Backdoor Draft"

Some of them were also wearing "Military Families Speak Out" clothing as well.

Nothing is ever really settled, but may eventually be forgotten...
Police issue warrant in Wiesel attack

By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 16, 8:03 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO - Police on Friday issued an arrest warrant for a New Jersey man suspected of roughing up Nobel laureate and Holocaust scholar Elie Wiesel at a San Francisco hotel earlier this month.

The warrant for 22-year-old Eric Hunt includes charges for attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and committing a hate crime, police said.

Wiesel was a featured speaker at a Feb. 1 peace forum at the Argent Hotel. He was approached in the lobby by a man in his 20s who asked for an interview, authorities said.

When Wiesel consented to talk in the hotel's lobby, the man insisted it be done in a hotel room and dragged the 78-year-old off the elevator on the sixth floor, police said.

Wiesel began screaming, and the man fled. Wiesel, who was not injured, then told police.

Police have said they were aware that a man claimed responsibility for the attack in a posting on an anti-Semitic Web site registered in Australia. Police did not comment further on the case Friday.

"We're reserving any comment until the time when suspect in custody," police Sgt. Steve Mannina said.

Wiesel couldn't immediately be reached for comment at Boston University, where he teaches, or through his institute in New York.

There was no telephone number listed for an Eric Hunt in Sussex County, N.J. Police were not aware if Hunt had an attorney.

Wiesel, who survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during World War II, has worked for human rights in many parts of the world and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

...ongoing globalization of GAS...
Internet cafes tie Turkmenistan to world

By ALEXANDER VERSHININ, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 16, 1:54 PM ET

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan - For one of the world's most reclusive countries, the computers on shabby desks with cheap plastic chairs represent a small crack in two decades of isolation.

Days after Turkmenistan's first new leader since the Soviet era was sworn in — following the death of the eccentric autocrat Saparmurat Niyazov — the poor Central Asian nation's first Internet cafes opened to the public Friday.

Whether residents of a country will be able to surf the Web like people elsewhere remains an open question.

"We have opened Internet cafes in Ashgabat, and similar ones in regional centers will follow," said the new president, Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, in televised remarks at a government session. "Soon each public school will have Web access."

There are two cafes in downtown Ashgabat, the capital, one in the solemn Soviet-era Central Telegraph building and the other in a dilapidated telephone exchange station. Each is located in a small room equipped with five computers, as well as rudimentary desks and chairs.

The cafes sat empty most of the day Friday, said cafe administrator Jenet Khudaikulieva, since few had heard about them. But she insisted that no Web sites would be blocked, and there was no visible attempt to register visitors or log the sites they were surfing.

An Associated Press reporter was able to easily read the Web sites of international news organizations as well as political opposition sites.

Previously, Web access was restricted to a limited few and independent online publications were blocked by government filters.

One hour of computer time costs about $4 — a princely sum in a country where two-thirds of the population live below the poverty line and the average monthly income is less than $100.

"The connection speed is fantastic but the price stinks," said Gulsar Berdyklycheva, a third-year university student who dropped in to check e-mail.

Tatyana Strigina, a street vendor, said she could not afford Web access at current prices.

"It's way too expensive," she said.

Unrestricted Internet access was one of Berdymukhamedov's election promises, which also included education reforms, higher pensions and support for private entrepreneurship. He won an overwhelming victory over five rivals in Sunday's presidential vote and was inaugurated Wednesday.

The vote, however, was tightly controlled and was not monitored by foreign election observers. Berdymukhamedov pledged to follow the general course set by Niyazov, who ruled the natural gas-rich nation for two decades and cultivated a massive personality cult.

Under Niyazov, who called himself Turkmenbashi or Father of All Turkmen, Internet access was tightly restricted to state-run and officially approved organizations, embassies, accredited foreign journalists and international groups. State-run television broadcast persistent paeans to Niyazov and devoted extensive coverage to his travels and ceremonies. Newspapers were all government-controlled.

Niyazov also reduced compulsory education from 10 years to nine — a change Berdymukhamedov ordered reversed.

In recent years, however, satellite TV dishes have become widely popular, particularly in Ashgabat and other larger cities, giving more affluent Turkmen families access to Russian, Turkish and other foreign television.

Computers and computer gaming centers are not uncommon, but Internet access was limited to a very small proportion of the population; the country's main state university and several scientific organizations have Web access, but visitors had to register with administrators and could call up only officially approved Web sites. Some embassies with public libraries or resource centers, including the United States, allowed approved members of the Turkmen public unfettered access.

Richard A. Boucher, a U.S. assistant secretary of state who made an official visit to Turkmenistan Friday, said he discussed educational reforms with Berdymukhamedov.

"I heard a couple of Internet cafes opened here today," he later told reporters. "It's a good indication of further change."

Turkmenistan is important to both Russia and the West because of its enormous natural gas reserves and its status as a stable, neutral country bordering
Iran and
Afghanistan.

___

Associated Press Writer Mike Eckel contributed to this report from Moscow.

...frog lived about 25 million years ago, based on the geological strata where the amber was found.
Frog in amber may be 25M years old

1 hour, 12 minutes ago

MEXICO CITY - A miner in the state of Chiapas found a tiny tree frog that has been preserved in amber for 25 million years, a researcher said. If authenticated, the preserved frog would be the first of its kind found in Mexico, according to David Grimaldi, a biologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the find.

The chunk of amber containing the frog, less than half an inch long, was uncovered by a miner in Mexico's southern Chiapas state in 2005 and was bought by a private collector, who lent it to scientists for study.

A few other preserved frogs have been found in chunks of amber — a stone formed by ancient tree sap — mostly in the Dominican Republic. Like those, the frog found in Chiapas appears to be of the genus Craugastor, whose descendants still inhabit the region, said biologist Gerardo Carbot of the Chiapas Natural History and Ecology Institute. Carbot announced the discovery this week.

The scientist said the frog lived about 25 million years ago, based on the geological strata where the amber was found.

Carbot would like to extract a sample from the frog's remains in hopes of finding DNA that could identify the particular species, but doubts the owner would let him drill into the stone. "I don't think he will allow it, because it's a very rare, unique piece," said Carbot.

Grimaldi of the American Museum of Natural History called the idea of extracting DNA "highly, highly unlikely," given that — as other scientists have noted — genetic material tends to break down over time.

But George O. Poinar, an entomologist at Oregon State University who founded the Amber Institute, said extracting DNA is theoretically possible.

"If it's well-preserved ... and none of the frog has been exposed to the outside, where air could enter in and oxidize the DNA, it could be possible to get DNA."

DON'T POKE THE BEAR!!!
Israeli construction hits raw nerve

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 16, 1:43 PM ET

JERUSALEM - No single symbol ignites Middle Eastern emotions more than the rectangle of sacred ground in the heart of Jerusalem known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

An Israeli plan for a new pedestrian walkway up to the hilltop compound has recently become a magnet for Muslim anger. But the rage goes far beyond the construction project — it's about the loaded history and politics of one of the world's most fiercely contested places.

The compound is Islam's third-holiest site, and Muslim leaders are using the walkway controversy to send an unequivocal message to
Israel: hands off.

For 1,300 years, the 35-acre compound in Jerusalem's Old City has been home to the Dome of the Rock, with its intricate mosaic walls and golden cap, and to the black-domed Al Aqsa Mosque. Muslims believe that the site is where Muhammad ascended to heaven in a mystical nighttime journey recounted in the Quran.

The site is Judaism's holiest, marking the place where the first Jewish temple stood until it was destroyed by the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar 2,500 years ago, and where the second stood before being razed by Roman legions in the year 70.

In some Jewish traditions, the hilltop is also where the world was created, where God formed Adam from dust and where the biblical Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice him. Jews have gathered for centuries to pray outside the compound at the Western Wall.

Jews and many Christians believe the site will be the stage for the world's end, when the Messiah will arrive and the temple will be divinely rebuilt.

Israel captured the compound from Jordan in June 1967. Even though Israel left its day-to-day administration in the hands of the Islamic trust known as the Waqf and barred Jews from praying there out of respect for Muslim sensitivities, Jewish sovereignty has been seen by Muslims as an affront to their religion and by Palestinians as a desecration of their most important national symbol. Disagreements over who should control the holy site have played a leading role in scuttling past peace talks.

Muslim anger has repeatedly taken shape in the form of allegations, never substantiated, that Israel is tunneling under the compound to destroy the mosques to make room for the third Jewish temple. In 1990, and again in 1996, similar rumors set off riots that left some 100 people dead, nearly all of them Palestinians.

Two incidents helped fuel those fears. In 1969, a Christian tourist from Australia set fire to the Al Aqsa mosque, hoping to speed the coming of the Messiah. In 1984, Israeli authorities arrested a group of Jewish extremists who had planned to dynamite the Dome of the Rock to expedite the rebuilding of the temple.

The Israeli government's reasons for the new project seemed simple: The existing walkway partially collapsed in a 2004 snowstorm, it was unsafe and it had to be replaced. The structure is meant to serve Jews and tourists. Palestinians enter the compound from elsewhere.

Early this month, when archaeologists began a salvage dig outside the compound's Mughrabi Gate ahead of the walkway's construction, the Waqf claimed it had sovereignty over the ramp because it touched the compound and charged that Israel was harming an integral part of the holy site.

That claim was quickly followed by a more inflammatory charge: The dig was cover for another attempt to tunnel under the Islamic holy places and cause their collapse.

Israel says the accusations are ludicrous and that it notified all relevant parties, including the Waqf, before beginning construction. Muslim officials, however, said they were never consulted.

Adnan Husseini, the Waqf's director, told The Associated Press that there are "ongoing" Israeli attempts to undermine the mosques from below, and that he suspected Israeli archaeologists were currently tunneling underneath the compound.

"We are against all of these excavations, because they threaten the future of the mosque," Husseini said.

Husseini denies that Israel has any rightful claim on the compound, and has questioned the existence of any Jewish history there. A Waqf booklet for tourists says the existence of the temples is supported by "no documented historical or archaeological evidence," a radical view that contradicts the consensus of biblical scholars.

Since the Mughrabi Gate project started, there have been only limited clashes, including a scuffle between police and protesters Friday, and nobody has been seriously hurt.

But Israel has been condemned, reprimanded or warned by nearly every Islamic country. During a trip to Turkey this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to a suggestion that a Turkish team be allowed to observe the construction work to help calm Muslim fears. Turkey is Israel's closest Muslim ally.

Israel also began broadcasting live images of the work site on the Internet Thursday.

History shows that Israel does not want to harm the Islamic holy sites, said Gershom Gorenberg, an Israeli historian and journalist who wrote, "The End of Days," a book about the struggle over the Temple Mount.

In Israel, only an extremist fringe demands the right to pray on the compound, he said, noting that most Orthodox Jews believe it is forbidden to go there before the Messiah arrives. Instead, they pray at the Western Wall.

For Muslims, fears that Israel wants to harm the mosques "fly in the face of their experience of the last 40 years," during which Israel has done nothing to compromise the Muslim holy sites, Gorenberg said.

"But Israel's inability to take those fears into account," he said, "also flies in the face of the experience of the last 40 years."

Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior research fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, noted that when Israeli troops fought their way onto the compound in June 1967, they found an old Arab gatekeeper with a large key around his neck. He opened the Mughrabi Gate, let them out, and showed them the way down to the Western Wall, which was what they were really interested in.

"For the paratroopers, the Mughrabi Gate wasn't a way on to the Temple Mount — it was a way off," Klein Halevi said.

_____

On the Net:

http://www.antiquities.org.il/home_eng.asp

Father of Couch Potatos dies!
Inventor of the TV remote dies

By SHANNON DININNY, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 56 minutes ago

BOISE, Idaho - Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote has died.

Robert Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made couch potatoship possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday.

In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Adler and co-inventor Polley, another Zenith engineer, an Emmy in 1997 for the landmark invention.

Adler joined Zenith's research division in 1941 after earning a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics Inc.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published his most recent patent application, for advances in touch screen technology, on Feb. 1.

Adler is survived by his wife, Ingrid.

A question of whether US can do what it wants when it wants wherever it wants...!
31 to stand trial in CIA kidnapping case

By COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 16, 10:37 AM ET

MILAN, Italy - A judge Friday indicted 26 Americans and five Italians in the abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect on a Milan street in what would be the first criminal trial stemming from the
CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

The judge set a trial date for June 8, although the Americans, who have all left the country, almost certainly will not be returned to Italy.

Prosecutors allege that five Italian intelligence officials worked with the Americans to seize Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr on Feb. 17, 2003.

Nasr was allegedly transferred by vehicle to the Aviano Air Base near Venice, then by air to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and on to Egypt, where his lawyer says he was tortured. Nasr was freed earlier this week by an Egyptian court that found his four years of detention in Egypt "unfounded," and he is at a family home in Alexandria.

All but one of the Americans have been identified as CIA agents, including the former Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady and former Rome station chief Jeffrey Castelli. The other is Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph L. Romano III, who was stationed at the time at Aviano. Prosecutors believe many of the other American names in the indictment are aliases.

Among the Italians indicted by Judge Caterina Interlandi was the former chief of military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, and his former deputy, Marco Mancini.

Pollari, the only defendant who appeared at the preliminary hearing, has insisted that Italian intelligence played no role in the alleged abduction, and told the judge he was unable to defend himself properly because documents clarifying his position had been excluded from the proceedings because they contain state secrets.

The CIA declined to comment Friday on the case, which has put an uncomfortable spotlight on its operations.

Prosecutors are pressing the Italian government to seek the extradition of the Americans. The previous government of Silvio Berlusconi refused, and Premier Romano Prodi's center-left government has yet to make its decision.

Even if a request is made for their extradition — a move bound to further strain U.S.-Italian relations — it was unlikely that the CIA agents would be turned over for trial abroad.

The proceedings could be suspended by Italy's Constitutional Court, which has been asked by the government to rule on whether prosecutors overstepped their bounds by ordering wiretaps of Italian agents' phone calls.

All of the U.S. agents have court-appointed lawyers, who have acknowledged having no contact with their clients. In Italy, defendants can be tried in absentia.

Alessia Sorgato, a lawyer who represents three Americans, said she has not been able to talk to her clients.

"I'm happy because I will be able to fully argue the case," Sorgato said after the ruling. Sorgato and Guido Meroni, who represents six Americans, have argued that the evidence connecting their clients to Nasr's disappearance was circumstantial, based on phone records and their presence in locations in Italy during the period before the abduction.

During the proceedings, two other Italians reached plea bargains. A police officer who admitted stopping Nasr and asking for his identity papers during the course of the abduction was given a suspended sentence of one year, nine months and a day. A former reporter accused as an accessory was given six months, which was converted to a fine.

Two other Italian intelligence agents also were indicted on lesser charges as accessories.

Prosecutors say the alleged kidnapping operation was a breach of Italian sovereignty that compromised Italy's own anti-terrorism efforts.

According to Italian officials, Nasr fought in
Afghanistan and Bosnia and was suspected of recruiting fighters for radical Islamic causes. But his lawyer, Montasser al-Zayat, said Nasr had only traveled to Jordan, Yemen, Albania and Germany before entering Italy illegally in 1997.

No charges have ever been brought against Nasr. He was under investigation for terrorism-related activities at the time of his abduction, and Milan prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest more than two years after he disappeared, while he was in Egyptian custody. Italy and Egypt do not have an extradition treaty.

Nasr's lawyer in Egypt told Italian state TV that he wants to return to Italy, where he had been granted the status of political refugee.

Prosecutors elsewhere in Europe are moving ahead with cases aimed at the CIA program.

This week, the Swiss government approved prosecutors' plans to investigate the flight that allegedly took Nasr over Swiss airspace from Italy to Germany.

A Munich prosecutor recently issued arrest warrants for 13 people in another alleged CIA-orchestrated kidnapping, that of a German citizen who says he was seized in December 2003 at the Serbian-Macedonia border and flown to Afghanistan.

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.