An object destined to miss us eventually hits us because we deflect it... Can't play Shapes! DON'T play Nine Ball!
UN urged to take action on asteroid threat

By Irene Klotz Sat Feb 17, 8:03 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An asteroid may come uncomfortably close to Earth in 2036 and the
United Nations should assume responsibility for a space mission to deflect it, a group of astronauts, engineers and scientists said on Saturday.

Astronomers are monitoring an asteroid named Apophis, which has a 1 in 45,000 chance of striking Earth on April 13, 2036.

Although the odds of an impact by this particular asteroid are low, a recent congressional mandate for
NASA to upgrade its tracking of near-Earth asteroids is expected to uncover hundreds, if not thousands of threatening space rocks in the near future, former astronaut Rusty Schweickart said.

"It's not just Apophis we're looking at. Every country is at risk. We need a set of general principles to deal with this issue," Schweickart, a member of the Apollo 9 crew that orbited the moon in March 1969, told an American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in San Francisco.

Schweickart plans to present an update next week to the U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space on plans to develop a blueprint for a global response to an asteroid threat.

The Association of Space Explorers, a group of former astronauts and cosmonauts, intends to host a series of high-level workshops this year to flesh out the plan and will make a formal proposal to the U.N. in 2009, he said.

Schweickart wants to see the United Nations adopt procedures for assessing asteroid threats and deciding if and when to take action.

The favored approach to dealing with a potentially deadly space rock is to dispatch a spacecraft that would use gravity to alter the asteroid's course so it no longer threatens Earth, said astronaut Ed Lu, a veteran of the
International Space Station.

The so-called Gravity Tractor could maintain a position near the threatening asteroid, exerting a gentle tug that, over time, would deflect the asteroid.

An asteroid the size of Apophis, which is about 460 feet

long, would take about 12 days of gravity-tugging, Lu added.

Mission costs are estimated at $300 million.

Launching an asteroid deflection mission early would reduce the amount of energy needed to alter its course and increase the chances of a successful outcome, Schweickart said.

NASA says the precise effect of a 460-foot (140-meter) object hitting the Earth would depend on what the asteroid was made of and the angle of impact.

Paul Slovic, president of Oregon-based Decision Research, which studies judgment, decision-making and risk analysis, said the asteroid could take out an entire city or region.

Guatemala: Pursuing justice for Claudina Velasquez' killing
Claudina Velasquez
Claudina Velasquez? AI

“Claudina was killed by one thing: impunity…Claudina’s killer knew that the likelihood of him being found was very remote.”
– Claudina’s father

19 year-old university student Claudina Velasquez had been studying to become a lawyer when her dead body was found on 13 August 2005. She had been shot and traces of semen were found on her body.

As serious deficiencies have been reported in the investigation into Claudina's murder, her killers may not be brought to justice. For example, no tests were performed on the primary suspects to establish whether or not they had fired a gun. A high number of similar cases in Guatemala are shelved on the grounds of lack of evidence, due to poor quality investigations.

Families seeking help from the authorities are often faced with indifference and discrimination, and a particularly worrying tendency to blame the victim's behaviour or background for their death.

"The investigator said they thought Claudina was a nobody because she was wearing sandals and a belly button ring."
- Claudina's father

Despite such obstacles, Claudina's family have been active in pursuing justice. They have been in close contact with the Public Prosecutor’s Office exerting pressure to ensure that the investigations are not abandoned, proposed lines of investigation, and have even carried out their own independent inquiries. Even so, no significant progress has been achieved.

In November 2005, recognizing the deficiencies in the investigation into Claudina's murder, the head of the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes Against Life took over. Since then investigations have effectively restarted, including the blood samples of five suspects being sent to Spain for DNA analysis. While this is a positive step, it is likely that critical forensic evidence has now been lost, and so far, no significant progress has been achieved. Possible witnesses have still not been interrogated.

Due to the lack of results, Claudina's family has denounced the case before the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office. The Office’s preliminary report on Claudina’s case, presented in October 2006, highlighted many of the deficiencies mentioned above. Attention was drawn to the inadequate processing of the crime scene, and the initial police assumption that Claudina was a sex worker. This included the failure to run basic forensic tests on her clothing, which was instead returned unexamined to her family.

New lines of investigation must be opened. Were a thorough and effective investigation to be carried out, the potential to find Claudina's killers would be high.

Take action!

Write to the Guatemalan President to ask for urgent investigations into Claudina Velasquez' murder.
Dear President Berger Perdomo, I am calling for the investigation into Claudina Velasquez’ murder, currently under the responsibility of the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Life, to be conducted in a coordinated, comprehensive and effective manner so that those found to be responsible can be brought to justice without further delay. The effectiveness of investigations into all cases of abduction and murder of women and girls must be improved in the future, for example by ensuring that police investigators and forensic experts receive intensive training in investigative procedures and techniques. Particular attention to training in the collection and preservation of forensic evidence in relation to gender-based violence should be paid, in accordance with international standards. I urge you to strengthen the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Witness Protection Programme to ensure the safety of all witnesses to crime and that of their family members. The authorities must address the high rate of violent crimes against women in Guatemala by overturning discriminatory legislation, which perpetuates violence against women and fosters a climate of impunity for crimes against women and girls. Yours sincerely,


You can copy and paste this sample letter into an e-mail or a document to print out. If you are planning to write your own appeal please read our letter writing guide.

Please send appeals to:

President of the Republic of Guatemala
Presidente de la Republica de Guatemala
Licenciado Oscar Berger Perdomo
Casa Presidencial, 6a. Avenida, 4-18 Zona 1.
Ciudad de Guatemala
Guatemala

Please let us know if you have taken this action
Yes, I have taken this action

Tet, 2007, and whatever animal it is this time...I don't have a place-mat in front of me...
Chinese crowds greet the New Year with a bang

By Lucy Hornby Sun Feb 18, 2:17 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - Bright, deafening explosions and thick smoke covered China's capital at midnight, as Beijingers celebrated the beginning of the New Year and the end of a firework ban in exuberant fashion.


Chrysanthemum bursts several stories high alternated with loud strings of crackers at every intersection, with scant regard for passing bicycles or milling crowds.

"I hope that during the Year of the Pig I get really rich, and will be healthy and joyous," said Deng Yu, a white collar worker enjoying the cacophony with his friends near Beijing's ancient Bell and Drum Towers.

"I also hope my parents will stay healthy, and my friends -- a lot of them, all of them around the world can be peaceful and happy."

Chinese cities have been gradually loosening firework restrictions, instituted over decade ago due to fire and safety concerns. This year was the first that fireworks were allowed throughout Beijing.

The city recruited 20,000 workers to sweep the streets of red firework debris that collected centimeters thick in some areas.

The volume of text messages, or SMSs, spiked by 40 percent as Chinese wished each other a prosperous Year of the Golden Pig. Children born when the gold and pig years coincide, or once every sixty years in the Chinese lunar calendar, are supposed to have a fat and easy life.

On Sunday, the first day of the New Year, an estimated 40,000 people jammed into Beijing's largest Daoist Temple to burn incense and make a wish. Religion is making a comeback after decades in which China's communist rulers tried to ban or co-opt "feudal superstition."

A recent poll by Shanghai-based East China Normal University found that nearly one-third of Chinese, or about 300 million, are religious. But most worshippers standing in line at the Baiyun Temple, built in 1224, were more pragmatic than theological.

"I hope I can be blessed with happiness and my dreams will come true. But as for whether I am religious...as long as I get my wish that's enough," said Ling Bencui, waiting in line to have her incense thrown in the flames.

The Chinese New Year marks the world's largest human migration, as millions of workers overload trains and buses in the struggle to get home and feast with their families. This year, China's people will collectively make 2.2 billion trips.

The overstretched system leaves some in the cold. Housecleaner Liu Jin spent a lonely midnight on the train, since she couldn't buy a ticket that would get her home early enough to join her family.

"I was the second in line when the tickets went on sale, but already not a single ticket was available. Those jerks at the Ministry of Railways had sold them all out the back door," said Liu, a widow whose son and mother live hundreds of miles away in Harbin.

"I was so mad I marched over to the police to complain, but they said 'what could they do?' China has too many people."

(Additional reporting by Eve Johnson)

Word at the barber shop is the team will be named, "The Mob!"
Las Vegas shoots for an NBA team
Sin City hosts All-Star weekend, but gambling is the deal-breaker on having a pro team.
By Michael A. Hiltzik, Times Staff Writer
February 16, 2007

Don't bet on it!

LAS VEGAS — To hear Mayor Oscar Goodman tell it, this city of extravagance has everything: the best hotels, the best entertainment, the best retail shopping, the most spectacular events.

But the one sign of a major league city that it lacks is, well, a major league team. The mayor wants to fix that — and he thinks playing host to Sunday's National Basketball Assn. All-Star game will help his city's case.

The NBA has never played its showcase game in a city without an NBA team. Goodman, who made his fortune as a defense lawyer representing Las Vegas mobsters, is prone to crowing already about its apparent Vegas success.

"You want tickets, fuhgeddaboutit, it's sold out," he says.

He sees local support for the game as evidence that his "great American city" would be a great home for a professional sports team.

But Goodman's city also is Sin City, a community commonly regarded as a great place to carouse. And the mayor faces a tough sell.

For starters, NBA Commissioner David Stern says Goodman is mistaken if he thinks the league is using the game to test the Las Vegas waters.

The attraction of Las Vegas as an All-Star venue, he said, was the availability of hotel rooms and convention space for all the activities that surround the game.

"But that's a different analysis from the one that goes on with respect to whether a city can support a franchise," Stern said.



One problem: gambling

And then there's gaming. Nevada is the only state in which sports gambling is legal.

As the NBA commissioner put it in an interview with The Times: "If they'll take the NBA off the board" — that is, eliminate betting on league games — "we could consider Las Vegas for an NBA franchise."

Many gambling and sports experts say Stern's demand is anachronistic when 48 of the 50 states have legalized gambling in some form.

"There's a little disconnect between the people in the leagues and the reality of what gambling is in the United States," says David Schwartz, a gaming industry expert at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. "Gambling today is strictly regulated."

That reassurance doesn't seem to impress pro league officials, many of whom fear even the public perception that gamblers might fix a game to fill their own pockets. The nationwide prevalence of legalized gambling, moreover, has not fully dispelled its unsavory aura.

As for the NBA, Stern says, it is concerned about gambling more as a distraction than as a moral issue or a threat to the game's integrity. He says he wants customers focused on what's happening on the basketball courts, not among oddsmakers.

"Historically, there's a notion that most of our fans are basketball fans," he says, "not point-spread fans."

The quest to bring a top sports franchise to town dates back years. With a population of 1.7 million, the Las Vegas metropolitan area is equal to or larger than many communities that have major league football, basketball, hockey and baseball teams.

Its population has more than doubled since 1990, but the prominence of gambling has been an enduring obstacle to major league interest.

More recently, Goodman has made landing a sports franchise a cornerstone of mayoral policy. In a January "state of the city" speech, Goodman pledged: "This is going to be the year that we are going to be involved with serious discussions about having a professional sports team locate in Las Vegas."


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Not all the big money opportunists think they should support Republican hooey!

Financier Soros puts millions into ousting Bush


Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday November 12, 2003
The Guardian

George Soros, one of the world's wealthiest financiers and philanthropists, has declared that getting George Bush out of the White House has become the "central focus" of his life, and he has put more than $15m (#9m) of his own money where his mouth is.

Mr Soros argues that the Bush White House is guided by a "supremacist ideology" that is leading it to abuse US power in its dealings with the rest of the world, and creating a state of permanent warfare.

Article continues
He has mounted a single-minded campaign involving a book, magazine and newspaper articles as well as multi-million dollar donations to liberal groups, all aimed at defeating President Bush in the November 2004 elections, a contest he describes as "a matter of life and death".

The Hungarian emigre and finance genius has given nearly $5bn to oppose dictators in Africa, Asia and the former Soviet bloc, but now he is directing his energies at the elected leader of his adopted country.

"It is the central focus of my life," he told the Washington Post in an interview published yesterday, after announcing a donation of $5m to a liberal activist organisation called MoveOn.org. The gift brings the total amount in donations to groups dedicated to Mr Bush's removal to $15.5m.

Other pledges of cash have gone to America Coming Together (ACT), an anti-Bush group that proposes to mobilise voters against the president in 17 battleground states. Mr Soros and a friend, Peter Lewis, the chairman of a car insurance company, promised $10m.

Mr Soros has also helped to bankroll a new liberal think-tank, the Centre for American Progress, to be headed by Bill Clinton's former chief of staff, John Podesta, which will aim to counter the rising influence of neo-conservative institutions in Washington.

The 74-year-old investor, who made a fortune betting against the pound in the late 80s and against the dollar this year, is to lay out the reasons for his detestation of the Bush administration in a book to be published in January, titled The Bubble of American Supremacy, a polemic which he has half-jokingly dubbed the 'Soros Doctrine'.

In the book, he will argue that the US is doing itself immeasurable harm by its heavy-handed role in the world. "The dominant position the United States occupies in the world is the element of reality that is being distorted," he writes, according to an excerpt to be published in next month's Atlantic Monthly magazine. "The proposition that the United States will be better off if it uses its position to impose its values and interests everywhere is the misconception. It is exactly by not abusing its power that America attained its current position."

The Bush administration's "war on terrorism" cannot be won, he argues, but is instead ushering in "a permanent state of war". He uses the emotive terms like "supremacist ideology" deliberately, saying that some of the rhetoric coming from the White House reminds him of his childhood in Nazi-occupied Hungary.

"When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans," he said in yesterday's interview. "My experiences under Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitised me."

His remarks have infuriated the Republican party, which has accused him of promoting his interests with the steady flow of money to like-minded institutions, and avoiding federal limits on donations to political parties - an allegation which Democrats consistently level at big business for its links with the Republicans.

"George Soros has purchased the Democratic party," said Christine Iverson, a Republican national committee spokeswoman.

So, yadda, yadda, yadda, everyone is still getting hosed, right? Wait till everyone starts dying of Measles!
Ex-envoy says Iraq rebuilding plan won't work

By Sue Pleming Sat Feb 17, 10:32 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kiki Munshi was showcased by the media in September as a seasoned U.S. diplomat who came out of retirement to lead a rebuilding group in
Iraq.

Now she is back home, angry, and convinced that
President George W. Bush's new strategy of doubling the number of such groups to 20 along with a troop surge of 21,500 will not help stabilize Iraq.

A diplomat for 22 years, she quit her job last month as leader of a Provincial Reconstruction Team -- groups made up of about 50 civilian and military experts that try to help Iraqi communities build their own government while strengthening moderates.

"In spite of the magnificent and often heroic work being done out there by a lot of truly wonderful people, the PRTs themselves aren't succeeding. The obstacles are too great," Munshi said this week in Washington, where she was pressing her view at the State Department and to Congress.

"Once again we are proceeding to lay people's lives on a line drawn with faulty information. Once again the fantasies of the 'policy-makers' drive decisions without much link to the realities on the ground," said Munshi, who retired from the foreign service in 2002 .

Her postings included Romania, India and Sierra Leone before Iraq, where Munshi said he had felt a "moral obligation to sort out the mess we have made there."

An audit by the special inspector general for Iraq last October found similar problems with the PRTs to those listed by Munshi, including an "ever-changing security situation, the difficulty of integrating civilian and military personnel, the lack of a finalized agreement on PRT operational requirements and responsibilities."

REJECTION

Members of Congress have also been critical of the program, which suffered early on from not being able to attract enough civilian staff and a dispute between the State and Defense departments over who would provide security for the teams.

The Bush administration rejects Munshi's views and the State Department said the expanded PRT plan was more focused, requiring team members to do pre-deployment training and with a clear goal of bolstering moderates and sidelining militants.

"We have been very mindful of the problems our PRT leaders have reported to us. We have worked very hard to streamline it," said Barbara Stephenson, the deputy coordinator for Iraq at the State Department, which oversees the PRT plan.

Munshi said the PRT plan was ill-conceived, under-funded and poorly staffed.

She said security was so bad that the council in the town in Diyala province where she was based had not had a quorum since last October and that death squads were rife.

PRT members found it hard to meet with Iraqis because of intimidation, she said, giving the example of training sessions that had been canceled because of poor security.

The PRTs are embedded with the military, a tactic Munshi says has varying results depending on the ability of the unit.

"All the PRTs embedded with the military are subject to the vicissitudes of military fortune, for good or ill," she said.

But the State Department countered that Munshi's experiences were not repeated in all the provinces and set up interviews with two PRT leaders who said while there were difficulties, they believed their work was making an impact.

Stephanie Miley, a PRT leader in the Iraqi town of Tikrit, said her teams managed to get out to see Iraqi officials five or six times a week but security issues meant they could not stay for long.

"I just hope that people will recognize that this is not something we will achieve overnight," she said.

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.