In Asia: The Best, The Worst, and the Most Criminal Of Humanity

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Some of the worst of humanity, serial bomb blasts in the Indian city of Jaipur, killing 80, injuring 200:

Asia Times Online attempts to analyze the event, including the possibility that this is state-sponsored terrorism used as a type of cheap negotiation tactic.

Intelligence contacts have told Asia Times Online that while there is “no direct cause-effect link” between the incidents on the border and the Jaipur blasts, the former indicate that “infiltration from across the border in Pakistan will increase as summer progresses and more attacks like the ones at Jaipur can be expected”.

The contacts point out that in a week from now, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee goes to the Pakistani capital Islamabad for his first interaction with the new government there. The “composite dialogue” between the countries, in cold storage for several months, will be revived.

The possibility of elements in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) seeking to disrupt this process with terror attacks in India cannot be ruled out. The ISI is known to have acted in the past to weaken initiatives by democratic governments in Pakistan to normalize relations with India. Pakistan only ended nearly eight years of military rule with parliamentary elections in February.

link: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/S…

TIME magazine notes another reason why yesterday’s date may have been of importance to terrorists, who most experts agree are attempting to stir up animosity between the local Hindu and Islamic communities in this area:

Yesterday’s blasts came on the 10th anniversary of New Delhi’s nuclear weapons tests in Rajasthan – tests that confirmed India as a nuclear weapons power and led to an escalation of tensions with Pakistan, which subsequently tested its own nuclear bomb.

link: http://www.time.com/time/world…

Timed to occur when devout Hindus were at worship in the temples that were targets of the consecutive bomb blasts, the recent violence illustrates a further problem with India’s security services:

“The IB [Intelligence Bureau] can’t be everywhere – they’re spread really thin,” says M.K. Dhar, who worked at the agency for 30 years and retired as its No.2 top operative in 1996. “The bigger problem is state police intelligence is almost non-existent. The state police are not training and not deployed to deal with terrorism and to gather intelligence. All of this must be mended, and a comprehensive strategy must be devised.”

link: http://www.time.com/time/world…

In China, with the death toll from this week’s earthquake escalating and currently at 15,000, local people are showing the strength of compassion and the best of humanity:

Chinese volunteers trooped into quake-hit areas on Wednesday on foot, bicycle and in their cars in an outpouring of generosity toward those left homeless and grieving by Monday’s 7.9 magnitude earthquake.

At the edges of the worst-hit region, many who narrowly escaped disaster themselves descended on the Sichuan city of Mianyang, where about 10,000 survivors gathered at a sports ground seeking food and shelter.

“We just have to help,” said one woman, dishing out rice porridge to anyone who asked from the back of her pedicab. “We live just around the corner from the stadium,” she said.

snip

Taxi drivers also joined the rescue efforts.

“I dropped everything to get over to Dujiangyan,” said driver Ran Ruimin, referring to the town about 50 km (30 miles) from the provincial capital Chengdu where some 900 students were buried in the rubble of their collapsed school.

“I took water up there and brought back survivors to the hospital (in Chengdu). The person I took to hospital was covered in blood,” he said.

link: http://www.reuters.com/article…

In neighboring Burma (Myanmar), the military junta daily reminds us of the most criminal aspects of humanity, even while declaring themselves devout Buddhists:

In the days since the cyclone hit, homeless refugees have gravitated toward the Buddhist temples seeking help. The monasteries have become the Superdomes of the disaster, one scholar observed, comparing the sturdy pagodas to the New Orleans stadium that sheltered victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Monks and nuns have been sharing their modest stores of rice and rainwater, and providing floor space and whatever medical care they can offer.

But even these humble acts of kindness appear to be taken as a challenge by the Burmese junta. News reports coming out of Burma in recent days suggest that soldiers are blocking the doors to some temples and warning abbots they must turn out the storm’s refugees.

“Unfortunately the regime sees their compassion as a threat,” said McDonald.

link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…

The San Francisco Chronicle goes onto describe how even a religion like Buddhism, which has practicing compassion as its central doctrine, can be perverted by folks who just want to justify their pursuit of power at all costs:

“The regime is trying to control the aid distribution because they want to be the ones to offer it ceremonially, partly to show they have legitimacy,” said University of Wisconsin anthropologist Ingrid Jordt, who has lived in Burma as a practicing Buddhist nun.

“They are the patrons, the distributors of largesse,” said Bruce Matthews, a Burma expert and professor emeritus of religion at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. “What anybody gets is what the military wants you to get. Theoretically, they are Buddhists. They care about their Buddhist image.”

Meanwhile the deck of suffering has dealt another deathly blow to the people of Myanmar in the form of another potential cyclone that could hit the country within days:

Citing an alarming new forecast by the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre, the United Nations disaster response arm has warned that a new cyclone may currently be forming above Burma and could make landfall within the next 24 hours.

The Hawaiian based JTWC indicated that the storm was forming over the Burmese capital, which is acting as the nerve centre for whatever outside aid work has been sanctioned by the junta.

Although the UN spokeswoman stressed that the forecast does not guarantee a second onslaught of devastation, she described the threat as “terrible”.

link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t…

Please keep the people of Burma, China and India in your thoughts, prayers and meditations. I’d also like everyone to try to actively practice one small act of compassion today in their honor, in a small, spontaneous grassroots effort of spreading peace.

Pony Party, Morning Pony

Let me teach you.

When you are tense, let me teach you to relax.

When you are short tempered, let me teach you to be patient.

When you are short sighted, let me teach you to see.

When you are quick to react, let me teach you to be thoughtful.

When you are angry, let me teach you to be serene.

When you feel superior, let me teach you to be respectful.

When you are self absorbed, let me teach you to think of greater things.

When you are arrogant, let me teach you humility.

When you are lonely, let me be your companion.

When you are tired, let me carry the load.

When you need to learn, let me teach you.

After all, I’m your horse.

~By Willis Lamm ~

More bad news for Myanmar: Another cyclone may hit

As if the devastation from Cyclone Nargis on May 3 was not enough. As if the inability of the government to help the victims or allow international aid organizations to feed and shelter the millions in need was not enough.  As if the people of Myanmar had not suffered enough death, disease, hunger, thirst, cold, and fear.  An estimated 2 million survivors of the storm are still in need of emergency aid.  To date, U.N. agencies and other groups have been able to reach only 270,000 people.

Bottlenecks, poor logistics, limited infrastructure and the military government’s refusal to allow foreign aid workers have left most of the delta’s survivors living in miserable conditions without food or clean water. The government’s efforts have been criticized as woefully slow.

Souce

The situation is about to get much, much worse.  Forecasters are now tracking another tropical low that is expected to become another cyclone and track into the already devastated Irriwaddy delta.

Here is the projected storm path from the U.S. military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center:

Photobucket

Here is the text of the current forecast warning:

1. FORMATION OF A SIGNIFICANT TROPICAL CYCLONE IS POSSIBLE WITHIN

150 NM EITHER SIDE OF A LINE FROM 16.5N 96.1E TO 19.4N 92.1E

WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS. AVAILABLE DATA DOES NOT JUSTIFY

ISSUANCE OF NUMBERED TROPICAL CYCLONE WARNINGS AT THIS TIME.

WINDS IN THE AREA ARE ESTIMATED TO BE 25 TO 30 KNOTS. METSAT IM-

AGERY AT 131800Z INDICATES THAT A CIRCULATION CENTER IS LOCATED

NEAR 16.7N 95.7E. THE SYSTEM IS MOVING WEST-NORTHWESTWARD AT 06

KNOTS.

2. REMARKS:

RECENT ANIMATED INFRARED SATELLITE IMAGERY AND A 121210Z SSMI

MICROWAVE IMAGE INDICATE PRONOUNCED LOW-LEVEL CYCLONIC TURNING

OF CONVECTION AT THE WESTERN END OF THE MONSOON TROUGH. HOWEVER,

MORE RECENTLY, CONVECTION HAS WANED SOMEWHAT IN RESPONSE TO LAND

INTERACTION. THE CIRCULATION CENTER IS CURRENTLY TRANSITING

GENERALLY NORTHWESTWARD ACROSS THE YANGON DELTA REGION OF MYANMAR.

OBSERVATIONS FROM YANGON AS OF 131300Z, SUPPORT A 25 TO 30 KNOT

CIRCULATION WITH SEA LEVEL PRESSURES NEAR 1000 MB (3 MB PRESSURE

FALLS OVER THE PAST 24 HOURS) AND SUSTAINED WINDS AT 10 KNOTS

GUSTING TO 20 KNOTS OUT OF THE NORTHEAST. A PARTIAL 130301Z ASCAT

IMAGE ALSO INDICATES STRONG WESTERLIES TO THE SOUTH OF THE

CENTER WITH SUSTAINED EASTERLIES TO THE NORTH, FURTHER PROOF OF

CYCLONIC TURNING.  THE CENTER CURRENTLY LIES UNDER LOW VERTICAL

WIND SHEAR JUST SOUTH OF THE SUBTROPICAL RIDGE AXIS WITH FAVOR-

ABLE SOUTHWESTERLY DIFFLUENCE ALOFT. THOUGH THE DISTURBANCE IS

CURRENTLY OVER LAND, MINIMAL DEGRADATION OF THE LOW LEVEL IS

EXPECTED DUE TO THE LOW LYING TOPOGRAPHY AND FAIRLY QUICK TRANSIT

OVER THE LOW-LYING COASTAL REGION OF SOUTHERN MYANMAR. EMERGENCE

INTO THE BAY OF BENGAL IS EXPECTED WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 18 HOURS.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED SURFACE WINDS ARE ESTIMATED AT 25 TO 30 KNOTS.

MINIMUM SEA LEVEL PRESSURE IS ESTIMATED TO BE NEAR 1000 MB. THE

POTENTIAL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SIGNIFICANT TROPICAL CYCLONE

WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS IS GOOD WITH THE ONLY LIMITATION BEING

TEMPORARY LAND INTERACTION.

Source

Photobucket

The warning comes after a major aid group told Al Jazeera that hundreds of thousands of survivors from Cyclone Nargis are facing a potentially “apocalyptic” threat from water-borne diseases.

From a Burmese blogger:

Aw! Dukha Dukha Dukha

Life is all about suffering

at least I still have my place on earth

My neighbors are worse than me

We just have to live on

suffer and struggle

This is what Life is all about!

Help comes or not I do not mind

My life depends upon my own Karma

Source

Help if you can

Food: World Food Programme

Action Against Hunger

Relief supplies: International Committee of the Red Cross

Medicine: Doctors without Borders

Note: All aid organizations are reporting fraud.  Give directly to the organization, not secondary sites or emails.

DailyKos let me down yesterday. This is important!

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Cross-posted at dkos.

Special intro for docudharma version

This diary is written for the dKos audience in hopes of achieving a wide readership.  I had not intended to post it here, as it began as a fairly straightforward plagiarization of tahoebasha3’s diary, Overlooked by Media, Important Torture Testimony.  I was frustrated that the issue had not received more attention, so I wanted to point it out again on dKos.  In the process, the diary expanded to the point that I really want to post it here.  And I do so confident in the knowledge that what all of us care about is stopping our government from torturing.  Yet I don’t want to pull energy away from the great diary which inspired me to stay up most of the night creating this.  If this post pulls attention away from where it is deserved, or if it is in any way offensive to do this, please let me know so I can delete it.  Please save your comments pertinent to the original essay for that essay and only comment here with respect to what has been added.

dKos diary starts here  

I have come to rely on dailyKos for almost all of my news.  In fact, I’m downright smug about it.  When someone offers up an item from the news, I usually say something along the lines of “I know.  What really happened is . . .”  When someone dismisses something I’ve read here as propaganda or wild speculation, I just sigh at their ignorance.  I have learned that if I read something here which has gone unchallenged or uncorrected, then it is virtually always accurate.  And I usually learn it somewhere between a day and six months before any non-Kossack.  But yesterday the great orange glow was dimmer than it should have been.

Fortunately, I have recently begun spending more time at docudharma.  It was there that I learned of important developments which I had not seen reported here.  As a result of encouragement there, tahoebasha’s diary was cross-posted here on dailyKos, garnering little attention.  In searching for it here, I discovered another important diary on the same issue.  This is my attempt to support those diarists, and decent people everywhere, in calling for attention to these matters. Please read on.

Cross-posted at docudharma.

How important was the testimony of three distinguished legal scholars before a subcommittee of the US Congress to the effect that leaders and lawyers at the highest level of our government are guilty of war crimes?  Their straightforward testimony was unequivocal.  Is this an important development for our country, one worthy of our attention?  Remember this?

For me, I can’t imagine anything more important.  If we don’t get this story before the American people, we all know that no one will.

In addition, the National Lawyers Guild has called for the prosecution and dismissal from their jobs of lawyers for their actions in advising the highest ranking officials in our government.  I repeat this information here, even though it has been diaried, because humanity cries out for our attention on these matters.  I thought I’d never say this in a million years (and I apologize to all those I have silently scorned for saying it), but please recommend this diary.  Please follow this story.  Please insist that our country be a place in which those who are known to be guilty of torture and empowerment of torture are brought to justice.

Thanks to tahoebasha2 for calling to my attention testimony before the House Judiciary Committee– the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, in the diary Yoo: DOJ will not enforce U.S. laws against torture.  That diary received only 35 comments.  Included with the diary are three of the most galvanizing testimonies before Congress I have ever been privileged to witness.  The clarity, strength, and conviction of the sobering testimony left no space for the usual braying from our elected leaders.  At the very least, please watch those videos, which I have included again here.

Text of Marjorie Cohn’s testimony

Text of David Luban’s testimony

Text of Phillipe Sands’ testimony

Thanks to Code Breaker, I learned that the National Lawyers Guild has released a White Paper explaining why lawyers currently or formerly at the highest level of our government are now subject to criminal prosecution for legal advice given while in conduct of their official duties as part of the United States government.  In this paper, which is quoted extensively in NLG calls for investigation into Bush Admin. & Torture Memos the NLG calls for the prosecution and firing from their jobs of the lawyers involved.  This diary received 10 comments.

It is now known that torture was discussed and approved at the very highest levels of the United States government.  It is known that lawyers working in the government wrote memos which illegally re-define torture, which illegally offer legal justification for torture, and which illegally assure government employees that they will not be prosecuted by the DOJ for committing torture.  There is no reason to quibble about whether torture is the correct word here.  According to widely held and internationally accepted norms, our government planned and executed a program of torture for which it attempted to develop legal cover.

One of the scholars testifying on May 6 was Phillipe Sands.  His article in Vanity Fair, The Green Light, documents the legal development of the justification of torture.  He demonstrates that the discussions occurred at the highest level of government and that the legal justifications for torture preceded the implementation of torture at Guantanamo.  He demonstrates close involvement with torture at Guantanamo from the very highest levels, including physically visiting Guantanamo and issuing direct verbal orders.  Furthermore, he demonstrates that the very procedures used at Guantanamo migrated to other sites, including abu ghraib.  Here’s a gentle reminder of abu ghraib.

Do you salute the flag of the United States of America?  If so, you have an obligation to stand up for what the flag should stand for.

Do we want the United States to remain a member in good standing in the community of nations?  This requires accepting and respecting universally accepted codes of conduct.  In both the paper from the NLG and the powerful congressional testimony, the principle of jus cogens is invoked.  Is this a big deal for our country?  Here is what the NLG has to tell us about the legality of what has happened in the United States:

The prohibition against torture is a jus cogens norm.   Jus cogens are defined as norms “accepted and recognized by the international community of states as a whole … from which no derogation is permitted…”   In international criminal law, the legal duties that arise in connection with crimes designated as violations of jus cogens norms include the duty to prosecute or extradite, the non-applicability of statutes of limitations, the non-applicability of any immunities up to and including those enjoyed by Heads of State, the non-applicability of the defense of “obedience to superior orders” and universal jurisdiction over perpetrators of such crimes. Other jus cogens norms include the prohibitions against slavery, genocide, and wars of aggression.  Jus cogens norms, like customary international law norms, are legally binding. No affirmative executive act may undercut the force of these prohibitions nor may a legislature legalize crimes designated as violating jus cogens norms or immunizing from prosecution those responsible. Jus cogens norms differ from norms which have attained the status of customary international law by dint of their universal and non-derogable character and the fact that jus cogens norms are peremptory, that is, they trump any other inconsistent international law.

While legal scholars often differ as to what specific acts can be defined as being subject to jus cogens norms, it is beyond dispute that the prohibition against torture has attained that status.

Torture is legally equivalent to slavery, genocide, and wars of aggression.  As such, there is an internationally accepted duty to prosecute and/or extradite for the crime of torture.  There is no possibility of immunity even for Heads of State.  There is no defense on the basis of obedience of orders.  There is no statute of limitations.  All of humanity claims the right of jurisdiction, so heinous and unacceptable is the crime of torture to all civilized peoples.  The crime of torture is so universally abhorred that no national law can provide cover against the widely accepted international laws condemning torture.  Are we concerned that our nation is behaving like an international pariah?

I could go on and on.  I want to go on and on.  But I fear I have already taxed my readers’ patience.  One matter which some may question is whether the conduct we are discussing constitutes torture.  If torture is understood in the universally and legally accepted senses, there is no room for debate.  Lawyers for the Bush administration created definitions of torture out of whole cloth.  Jus cogens norms are unaffected by such maneuvering.  The 1984 Convention, which is binding to 145 nations, including the United States, defines torture in part as

any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person.

 No mention is made of organ failure.  There is no cynical discussion of how long it must last.

There is an international consensus on what constitutes torture. This consensus is codified in laws which are binding to the United States. Elected leaders at the very highest levels of the United States have broken these laws.  Prosecution of these crimes is legally and morally mandated.

If Kossacks aren’t paying attention, few others will be. I am not an effective activist.  I care deeply about these matters, but I am wired for knowledge acquisition and dissemination.  I get confused when it comes to converting thought into action.  I have little sense of which buttons to push or where the power lies.  I’m begging you wonderful, admirable activists to set your sights more firmly on bringing to justice those who would insult our humanity and shame our nation.

Thank you for reading.  I hope I haven’t come across as preachy or self-righteous.  To be honest, I am agitated and teary.  These developments are embers of hope.  I am trying to fan them furiously, but I also feel desperate for help.

I would apologize to Code Breaker and tahoebasha2 if I felt it necessary.  I have essentially repeated both their diaries, with added commentary.  But they have made it clear in their diaries and their comments that they will celebrate with me any widening of the discussion on this topic, which transcends petty interests.

Reference–Time line and List of Principles

I know this diary is already long.  I provide the following simply as a reference for anyone who wants to become more familiar with the details of this issue.

Here’s a timeline of the willful decision to involve the United States in the crime of torture.  Also a brief summary of the principle actors.  Links to most pertinent documents may be found on the WaPo site here.

September 11, 2002 – Anniversary of 9/11.  al-Qatahni not providing information to interrogators.

December 2001 – Haynes tells CentCom admiral in charge of detainees to “take the gloves off” and ask whatever he wanted in the interrogation of John Walker Lindh.

January 9, 2002 – John Yoo and Robert Delahunty give Haynes prepared opinion that the president is not bound by traditional international-law prohibitions.  Colin Powell and his counsel oppose this.

January 25, 2002 – Gonzales signs memo to president supporting Haynes and Rumsfeld over Powell.

January, 2002 – Feith uses lawyerly double talk to trick General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, into thinking the Geneva Convention will be followed while simultaneously recommending to Rumsfeld and Bush that it offered no protection to the detainees at Guantanamo.

February 7, 2002 – Presidential order gives determination that, legally, none of the detainees at Guantanamo can rely on protection granted by the Geneva Convention, Article 3.

February, 2002 – Dunlavey placed in charge of military interrogations at Guantanamo by Rumsfeld.  In violation of the chain of command, he is told to report directly to Rumsfeld. “I don’t care who he is under.  He works for me.”

March, 2002 – High-ranking al-Qaeda official captured in Pakistan.  Tenet wants to use aggressive interrogation but worries about criminal prosecution.  Requests guidance.  Yoo-Bybee Memo is response to this request.

June, 2002 – Pressure applied from the highest levels to get information from al-Qatahni.

August 1, 2002 – Yoo-Bybee Memo (with input from Addington) declares that physical torture occurs only when the pain is “equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death” and that mental torture requires “suffering not just at the moment of infliction but . . . lasting psychological harm.”

August 8, 2002 – al-Qatahni placed in isolation.

September, 2002 – brainstorming sessions at Guantanamo to discuss new interrogation techniques, facilitated by Diane Beaver and attended by representatives of the D.I.A. and the C.I.A.  Ideas include some taken from the televisions program 24.

Fall, 2002 – FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service refuse to be associated with the new techniques.

September 25, 2002 – Gonzales, Addington, Rizzo, and Haynes arrive at Guantanamo, offer suggestions, view at least one interrogation, and deliver the message to do “whatever needed to be done.”  Rumsfeld is “directly and regularly involved” during this time.

October 11, 2002 – Phifer Memo requests use of the new techniques, along with a legal opinion authored by Diane Beaver, staff judge advocate at Guantanamo, providing legal justification for use of the enhanced interrogation techniques.  This document was demanded of her, then offered as an indication that the justification came from a lower level lawyer at Guantanamo.  She was operating in a sphere outside her expertise and doing so in the face of marked unresponsiveness from those she approached for help.  This document was a direct result of Beaver insisting on written justification for policies being put in place orally from above.  She expected it to be reviewed and approved at the highest levels.

November 2002 – Haynes Memo to Rumsfeld recommending approval of 15 out of 18 aggressive interrogation techniques.

November 4, 2002 – Miller replaces Dunlavey as commander at Guantanamo.

November 14, 2002 – Alternative N.C.I.S. interrogation plan, using traditional techniques, is rejected.

November 23, 2002 – Aggressive interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani, the “20th hijacker,” is begun as a result of a vocal command given to Miller, probably by Rumsfeld.  Interrogation continues into January, 2003.

December 2002 – Rumsfeld approves use of aggressive techniques in writing.  With his signature is a handwritten remark seemingly trivializing the issue of torture.  He does not rule out future use of the other 3 techniques, including waterboarding.

December 17, 2002 – Mora of the N.C.I.S. is shocked upon getting an unauthorized look at a copy of the Haynes Memo.

December 20 and January 9, 2003 –  Mora meets with Haynes to express his grave concern.

January 15, 2003 – Mora places his concerns in writing, insisting to Haynes and Dalton of the clear illegality of the actions at Guantanamo.  Two hours later, the interrogations of al-Qatahni cease.  By the end of 54 days of torture, according to an army investigator, al-Qatahni had “black coals for eyes.”

August, 2003 – Miller and Beaver visit Guantanamo and encounter near lawlessness.

September 14, 2003 – Sanchez authorizes new interrogation techniques at abu ghraib, including several listed in the Haynes Memo and in violation of the Geneva Convention, which was believed to still be in full force at abu ghraib.

April 2004 – 60 Minutes breaks story of abu ghraib prisoner abuse.

June 22, 2004 – Gonzales and Haynes press conference.  Release of Haynes Memo.  Gonzales and Haynes claim that 1) the administration had moved deliberately and carefully within the law, acting always from good faith interpretations of accepted legal views, 2) the Yoo-Bybee Memo was not a justification for action but rather a theoretical legal exercise, 3) initiative for the enhanced interrogation techniques came from the bottom up in hopes of breaking down al-Qatahni, 4) legal justification for Guantanamo came from relatively low-ranking lawyers at Guantanamo, and 5)events at Guantanamo had no bearing on events at abu ghraib.

August, 2006 – Pentagon’s inspector general report concludes unequivocally that techniques had migrated from Guantanamo to abu ghraib.

June 29, 2006 – In Mamdan v. Rumsfeld U.S. Supreme Court holds that Guantanamo detainees are entitled to protection under the Geneva Convention, Article 3.  Justice Anthony Kennedy points out that “violations of Common Article 3 are considered ‘war crimes.'”

May 13, 2008 – Charges against al-Qatahni are dropped, possibly because of the interrogation techniques used.

The principle actors

The positions given are contemporaneous with the relevant actions.

Jim Haynes–top Pentagon general counsel.  Essentially, Rumsfeld’s counsel.

Alberto Gonzales–White House counsel, essentially George Bush’s counsel.

David Addington–Cheney counsel, now chief of staff.

William Haynes–Pentagon counsel, essentially Rumsfeld’s counsel.

John Yoo–Justice Department lawyer working for Jay Bybee.

Jay Bybee–Justice Department lawyer at Office of Legal Counsel, Yoo’s superior.

Douglas Feith–Undersecretary of defense for policy, no. 3 official at the Pentagon.

General Richard Myers–Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued in favor of following Geneva Conventions.

Major General Michael Dunlavey–Commander of Guantanamo during discussion of new interrogation techniques.

Lieutenant Colonel Diane Beaver–staff judge advocate to Dunlavey.  Scapegoat for legal opinion on torture.

John Rizzo–C.I.A. counsel who asked for DOJ guidance on techniques.

Major General Geoffrey Miller–Commander of Guantanamo after Dunlavey and during torture of al-Qatahni.

Alberto Mora–Naval general counsel who insisted on the illegality of the new techniques.

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Police report 60 killed by bombs in western India

Associated Press

1 hour, 20 minutes ago

NEW DELHI – A series of bombs exploded across the ancient city of Jaipur on Tuesday, killing at least 60 people and transforming busy markets, a jewelry bazaar and a Hindu temple into scenes of carnage.

All seven blasts were within the old walls of the western city known for its pink-hued palaces, and suspicion quickly fell on Islamic militant groups blamed for a string of attacks in India in recent years. Police said an eighth bomb was found and defused by police.

“Obviously, it’s a terrorist” attack, said A.S. Gill, the police chief of Rajasthan, the state where Jaipur is located. “The way it has been done, the attempt was to cause the maximum damage to human life.”

2 Senate votes to halt oil reserve shipments

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 23 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – The Senate, in a direct challenge to President Bush, voted Tuesday to temporarily halt the shipment of thousands of barrels of oil a day into the government’s emergency reserve. Both Democrats and Republicans said such shipments make no sense when oil is costing more than $120 a barrel and could better be used to add supplies to a tight market and possibly lower prices.

“We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world and storing it,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. “When American consumers are burning at the stake by high energy prices, the government ought not be carrying the wood.”

Until both chambers of Congress pass the emergency reserve directive and Bush signs it – or Congress enacts it over a presidential veto – the legislation has no force of law. But the Senate’s message to the president Tuesday was a strong one.

3 Death toll from China quake soars past 13,000

By Ben Blanchard, Reuters

2 hours, 24 minutes ago

DUJIANGYAN, China (Reuters) – The death toll in China’s earthquake climbed past 13,000 on Tuesday and looked likely to rise much higher after media said some 19,000 people were buried in rubble in just one area.

Rain and severed roads hampered rescuers in the mountainous area near the epicenter of Monday’s 7.9-magnitude quake in the southwestern province of Sichuan, China’s worst earthquake in over three decades.

State media reported devastation as troops reached stricken villages near the epicenter in Wenchuan, a remote county cut off by landslides about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the provincial capital, Chengdu.

4 World fears for plight of Myanmar cyclone victims

By Aung Hla Tun, Reuters

30 minutes ago

YANGON (Reuters) – International fears about the plight of 1.5 million victims in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar deepened on Tuesday as the United Nations and Western powers suggested helpless people could have been robbed of food and other aid.

As if fears of shoddy aid distribution were not enough, heavy rains pelted survivors in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta, complicating the already slow delivery of aid to hundreds of thousands of homeless people facing hunger and disease.

As more foreign aid trickled into the former Burma, critics ratcheted up the pressure on its military rulers to accelerate a relief effort that is only delivering an estimated tenth of the supplies needed in the devastated delta.

5 FBI cites escalating mortgage fraud problem

By James Vicini, Reuters

1 hour, 46 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mortgage fraud is an escalating problem in the United States, the FBI said on Tuesday in a report that cited the subprime lending crisis as a key contributing factor.

The FBI said it received 46,717 “suspicious activity reports” from financial institutions related to mortgage fraud last year, compared with 35,617 in fiscal 2006 and just 6,936 in fiscal 2003. The government’s fiscal year begins on October 1.

The total dollar loss attributed to mortgage fraud is unknown. But 7 percent of the suspicious activity reports filed in 2007 indicated a specific dollar loss exceeding $813 million, the FBI said.

6 Lebanon army ready to use force to halt fighting

by Jocelyne Zablit, AFP

2 hours, 30 minutes ago

BEIRUT (AFP) – A precarious calm returned to Lebanon on Tuesday after the army warned it was ready to use force to restore order after six days of sectarian bloodshed that have shaken the nation.

US President George W. Bush, on the eve of a trip to the Middle East, warned Iran and Syria that the international community would not allow Lebanon to fall under foreign domination again and vowed to shore up the Lebanese military.

The fighting, which has left at least 62 people dead and close to 200 wounded, is the worst sectarian unrest since the 1975-1990 civil war and has stoked fears the country was headed for another all-out conflict.

7 U.S. high court allows apartheid claims against multinationals

By Warren Richey, The Christian Science Monitor

Tue May 13, 4:00 AM ET

The US Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that multinational companies can be sued in a US court for allegedly aiding and abetting the former apartheid government in South Africa.

The high court announced Monday that it could not hear a case involving 11 consolidated lawsuits against more than 50 international corporations. Four justices recused themselves from consideration of the case apparently due to potential conflict, leaving only a five-justice court to consider whether to take up the suit.

In a brief order, the court said it lacked the necessary quorum. “Since a majority of the qualified justices are of the opinion that the case cannot be heard and determined in the next term of the court, the judgment [of the lower court] is affirmed,” the unsigned order says.

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8 Bush administration rules limit lawsuits

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 36 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Faced with an unfriendly Congress, the Bush administration has found another, quieter way to make it more difficult for consumers to sue businesses over faulty products. It’s rewriting the bureaucratic rulebook.

Lawsuit limits have been included in 51 rules proposed or adopted since 2005 by agency bureaucrats governing just about everything Americans use: drugs, cars, railroads, medical devices and food.

Decried by consumer advocates and embraced by industry, the agencies’ use of the government’s rule-making authority represents the administration’s final act in a long-standing drive to shield companies from lawsuits.

9 Oil demand set to ease, high prices turn on stockpiling: IEA

AFP

Tue May 13, 6:50 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) – Record oil prices and a slowdown in advanced economies are set to curb global oil demand despite growth in China and the Middle East, the IEA forecast on Tuesday, saying stockpiling was a key factor.

Demand from emerging economies might be set back if governments decide that fuel subsidies are unsustainable, the International Energy Agency said in a monthly report.

The report, which cut estimated global oil demand this year for the fourth month running, also provided figures showing a jump in production of biofuels.

10 Sweet sorghum, clean miracle crop for feed and fuel

by Jean-Louis Santini, AFP

Tue May 13, 8:49 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The hardy sweet sorghum plant could be the miracle crop that provides cheap animal feed and fuel without straining the world’s food supply or harming the environment, said scientists working on a pilot farming project in India.

“We consider sweet sorghum an ideal ‘smart crop’ because it produces food as well as fuel,” William Dar, Director General of the non-profit International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) said in a statement.

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is the world’s fifth largest grain crop after rice, corn, wheat and barley.

11 Norway island stores wind power for still days

by Nina Larson, AFP

Tue May 13, 7:27 AM ET

UTSIRA, Norway (AFP) – How to keep the lights on when all is still and the local windmill won’t budge? A small Norwegian island testing a way to store wind-generated energy for calm days may have found the answer.

The tiny, windswept island of Utsira, situated off Norway’s southwestern coast, is home to what is said to be the world’s first full-scale system for cleanly transforming surplus wind power into hydrogen.

Perched atop a 40-metre-high wind turbine on a perfectly windstill day, technician Inge Linghammer explains that at times like this or on days when the gales whipping the unsheltered island get too strong the windmill shuts down and stops pumping out power.

12 NASA probe closing in on Mars, but will it land?

By Irene Klotz, Reuters

1 hour, 26 minutes ago

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Nine months ago, NASA’s Phoenix probe blasted off for Mars with an unprecedented mission to sample water on another world.

Before that can happen, however, the space agency faces a formidable challenge: landing.

The odds are not great. Historically, 55 percent of all attempts to land on Mars have failed and the method being used for the touchdown of the Phoenix spacecraft on May 25 hasn’t been attempted in 32 years.

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13 Iran report pushes oil to new record, gas jumps above $3.73

By JOHN WILEN, AP Business Writer

Tue May 13, 3:44 PM ET

NEW YORK – Oil prices shot to a new record near $127 a barrel Tuesday on concerns that Iran may consider cutting crude oil production. Gas prices, meanwhile, rose to a new record over $3.73 a gallon Tuesday, and their advance shows little sign of slowing with Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer driving season, just 10 days away.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose as high as a record $126.98 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday before retreating to settle up $1.57 at $125.80.

Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill., said traders reacted to news reports that Iran’s government is considering cutting crude oil production. James Cordier, president of Tampa, Fla., trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com, said the news quickly made its way around trading floors.

14 Vatican: It’s OK to believe in aliens

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 13, 4:07 PM ET

VATICAN CITY – Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

“How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?” Funes said. “Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ‘sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation.”

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15 Trapped students had little time to escape quake

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 13, 2:22 PM ET

JUYUAN, China – The high school students were settling in to afternoon arts and humanities classes when the massive quake struck. The school collapsed so rapidly – one floor “pancaking” atop another – that there was practically no time to escape.

As orange-suited rescue teams searched the wreckage for survivors, worried and sometimes wailing parents watched amid a cold, steady drizzle Tuesday.

Troops lined two deep kept the emotional family members away from the teams working with cranes and hand tools.

16 Myanmar police block aid workers, food piles up

Associated Press

2 hours, 29 minutes ago

YANGON, Myanmar – Police barred foreign aid workers from reaching cyclone survivors in hard-hit areas Tuesday, while emergency food shipments backed up at the main airport for Myanmar’s biggest city.

Relief workers reported some storm survivors were being given spoiled or poor-quality food rather than nutrition-rich biscuits sent by international donors, adding to fears that the ruling military junta in the Southeast Asian country could be misappropriating assistance.

U.N. officials warned that the threat was escalating for the 2 million people facing disease and hunger in low-lying areas battered by the storm unless relief efforts increased dramatically.

17 Zimbabwe violence could reach crisis levels: UN

by Fanuel Jongwe, AFP

2 hours, 47 minutes ago

HARARE (AFP) – The UN warned on Tuesday that post-election violence in Zimbabwe was rising to near crisis levels ahead of a planned presidential run-off, with opposition supporters bearing the brunt of attacks.

As opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai prepared to return home to contest the election against President Robert Mugabe, his hopes the ballot would be held later this month in a peaceful atmosphere appeared to be wishful thinking.

With Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change claiming 32 of its supporters have been killed since voting on March 29, the United Nations resident representative in Zimbabwe said most of the violence was directed against followers of the opposition, although the MDC was not blameless.

18 Bolivia’s Morales sets recall referendum in effort to resolve crisis

By Jack Chang, McClatchy Newspapers

Mon May 12, 6:14 PM ET

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Bolivian President Evo Morales , trying to ease a deepening political crisis, on Monday scheduled for Aug. 10 a sweeping recall referendum that would allow voters to cut short his term in office, as well as those of his vice president and the country’s eight provincial governors.

Morales said the vote would resolve a political showdown between his leftist administration and five governors who have pushed statutes that would give their regions more independence from the federal government. Morales has called the autonomy campaigns illegal and attempts to split this impoverished country.

“The Bolivian people have the right to decide and resolve the differences of authorities elected by the Bolivian people,” Morales said after approving the referendum. “Above any individual, personal, sectorial or regional interest, in first place comes the unity of the country.”

19 Mexico’s efforts to end violence against women stymied by macho culture

By Franco Ordonez, McClatchy Newspapers

Tue May 13, 4:08 PM ET

MEXICO CITY – Martha couldn’t take the beatings anymore. She visited local police three times last year to report that her husband was punching her in the stomach so hard she could barely breathe. Each time, the police told her they could do nothing unless she returned with cuts and bruises.

Discouraged and fearful, Martha, 43, who asked that her last name not be published for fear of retribution from her husband, in March packed some clothes and left. She’s lived with three different relatives since.

“There were times I didn’t want to wake up,” she said, crying. “I wanted it to stop. I wanted to die.”

20 Outgunned Lebanese army no longer seen as neutral

By Hannah Allam, McClatchy Newspapers

Mon May 12, 7:34 PM ET

BEIRUT, Lebanon – With the beleaguered Lebanese army looking on, opposition and pro-government militias traded gunfire in northern Lebanon Monday in a continuation of the fighting that’s killed at least 50 people and paralyzed most of Beirut .

Many Lebanese fear the bloodshed will spark a renewed civil war as the militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah and its allies inflict repeated defeats on the pro-government militias fielded by Sunni Muslims and the Druze minority.

The Christian-led Lebanese Armed Forces, long touted as perhaps the country’s last truly national institution, offered little resistance to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its Shiite allies. Instead, the army has acquiesced to Hezbollah’s conquest of territory and sent soldiers to take over checkpoints handed over by Hezbollah .

21 Hizballah’s Toughest Foe in Lebanon

By NICHOLAS BLANFORD/QMATIYEH, Time Magazine

44 minutes ago

Sleiman Jaafar’s smiling thinly-bearded face beams down from his “martyr’s” portrait at the funeral procession inching its way along the narrow street in Qmatiyeh, a small village clinging to a mountainside overlooking Beirut. Handfuls of rice and pink and white rose petals hurled from windows and balconies shower the throng of mourners below. The funeral was a moment to absorb the human cost of the recent deadly clashes between Hizballah and the Lebanese government in which nearly 40 people are thought to have died. But it also generated a mix of seething anger, anxiety and an ominous feeling that more violence is to come.

22 Maliki’s Imperfect Makeover

By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD, Time Magazine

Tue May 13, 1:00 PM ET

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was at pains to stress his new non-sectarian attitude when addressing Iraqi parliamentarians Monday. “The events of the past weeks have proven that we are neutral, not biased, that we did not take the side of this party or this sect against another,” said Maliki, whose government has waged a two-month crackdown on the militia of onetime ally Muqtada al-Sadr. “We have also proven there is no security for any sect unless other sects can be guaranteed their security.”
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23 Military cracks down on scrap-metal scavengers

By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 13, 1:31 PM ET

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. – Hundreds of Marines were conducting a combat training mission in the Mojave Desert when an air patrol spotted something kicking up dust: A civilian pickup truck speeding across the barren landscape.

Behind the wheel was a suspected scrap metal thief who had been combing the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center for spent brass shell casings. His intrusion onto the base was the 12th time in six months that scavengers had inadvertently halted combat exercises.

Bombing ranges have become prime hunting grounds for so-called “scrappers,” who are motivated by soaring commodity prices to take greater risks in their quest for brass, copper and aluminum. The scavenging causes headaches for the military, which cannot patrol every inch of the remote bases where spent ammunition, shrapnel and unexploded ordnance are easy to find.

24 Americans curb gasoline use amid high prices

Reuters

Tue May 13, 2:44 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Americans are tapping the brakes on their road travel heading into the peak summer driving season because of a record rise in gasoline prices.

Retail gasoline demand in the world’s biggest fuel consuming nation has slipped about 1 percent so far this year, MasterCard Advisors said in a report.

And the nation’s gasoline stations reported a 0.4 percent decline in April sales, according to data released by the Commerce Department.

25 Immigration arrests at Iowa meat plant total 390

Reuters

1 hour, 15 minutes ago

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Immigration arrests at the Agriprocessors Inc meat plant in Postville, Iowa, totaled 390, making it the largest number of such arrests at a single U.S. location, an immigration official said on Tuesday.

“Every one of the 390 were arrested for administrative immigration violations. They were arrested for being in the country illegally,” said Tim Counts, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit, which led the raid on the plant on Monday.

Criminal charges may still be filed against some of the 390, said Counts.

26 More than 2 million U.S. youths depressed: study

Reuters

Tue May 13, 1:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More than 2 million U.S. teenagers have suffered a serious bout of depression in the past year, including nearly 13 percent of girls, according to a federal government survey released on Tuesday.

On average, 8.5 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 described having had a major depressive episode in the previous year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported.

But there were “striking differences” by sex, with 12.7 percent of girls and 4.6 percent of boys affected.

27 Consumer confidence near record low: report

Reuters

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Confidence of American consumers continued to plummet as a result of weakening economic conditions and escalating gasoline prices, according to a weekly survey published on Tuesday.

The ABC News/Washington Post Consumer Comfort Index fell to -47 in the week ended May 11 from -46 the previous week, and is three points away from its all-time low of -50 hit in February 1992. The index ranges from -100 to +100.

The news outlets said 77 percent of Americans described the economy as getting worse, matching a 27-year high reached in October and November 1990.

28 Security Flaws Exposed at Nuke Lab

By ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON, Time Magazine

2 hours, 15 minutes ago

If you were a terrorist looking for weapons-grade nuclear material in America, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory might be a good place to start. At the core of the nuclear-weapons research facility about an hour’s drive from San Francisco stands the “Superblock,” a collection of buildings surrounded by multi-story steel-mesh fencing, a no-man’s-land, electronic security gear, armed guards and cables to prevent a helicopter landing on the roof. These defenses are in place largely to protect Building 332, a repository for roughly 2,000 pounds of deadly plutonium and volatile, weapons-grade uranium – enough fissile material to build at least 300 nuclear weapons. But a recent simulated terror attack tested those defenses, and sources tell TIME that the results were not reassuring.
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29 Televangelist John Hagee apologizes to Catholics

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer

9 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – John Hagee, an influential Texas televangelist who endorsed John McCain, apologized to Catholics Tuesday for his stinging criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and for having “emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews.”

Hagee’s support for McCain has drawn cries of outrage from some Catholic leaders who have called on McCain to reject Hagee’s endorsement. The likely Republican nominee has said he does not agree with some of Hagee’s past comments, but did not reject his support.

In a letter to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, Hagee wrote: “Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.”

30 Senators pressure Saudis to boost oil output

By Richard Cowan, Reuters

1 hour, 57 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats trying to pressure Saudi Arabia to boost oil output introduced legislation in the Senate on Tuesday that would stop a $1.4 billion U.S. arms sale to the kingdom.

“We are saying that we need real relief and we need it quickly. You (Saudi Arabia) need our arms, but we need you to cooperate and not strangle American consumers,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat.

The resolution to disapprove the Saudi arms sale the Bush administration outlined in December and January could be voted on in coming days, timed for President George W. Bush’s trip to Saudi Arabia this week.

31 Five to be tried for 9/11 attacks; charges against 6th dropped

by Jim Mannion, AFP

1 hour, 7 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US has referred five accused co-conspirators in the September 11 attacks for military trial but dropped charges against the alleged “20th hijacker” without explanation, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and four others were referred for trial by a special military commission on capital charges of murder, terrorism and other war crimes, it said.

But Susan Crawford, the convening authority for the war crimes tribunals, “dismissed without prejudice” charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi who was subjected to harsh interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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32 Stocks mixed after retail sales report, spiking oil

By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer

1 hour, 55 minutes ago

NEW YORK – Wall Street turned in a mixed performance Tuesday after a fresh report on retail sales and a new oil price record told investors the same old story: The economy is hurting and costs are rising, but things could be worse.

The Commerce Department’s latest report showed that retail sales fell by 0.2 percent in April, as expected. The data did show better-than-expected sales if automobiles are excluded, but indicated Americans are reluctant to make big-ticket purchases – especially as soaring fuel prices cut into demand.

“The numbers are coming out weak, but the economy’s not falling apart,” said Alexander Paris, economist and market analyst for Chicago-based Barrington Research. “On balance, they were negative, but you’d expect them to be.”

33 HP taking aim on IBM with risky $13.2B acquisition of EDS

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

57 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Riding a hot streak that has doubled its stock price in the past three years, Hewlett-Packard Co. is rolling the dice on a $13.2 billion acquisition of technology services provider Electronic Data Systems Corp.

The all-cash deal announced Tuesday represents HP’s biggest gamble under the leadership of Mark Hurd, who was hired as chief executive in March 2005 to turn around the Palo Alto-based maker of personal computers and printers.

As Hurd relentlessly cut costs while demanding better execution from the company’s remaining workers, HP recovered from a nagging financial hangover that was exacerbated by the biggest acquisition in its 69-year history – the $19 billion purchase of Compaq Computer Corp., completed in 2002 over strident shareholder objections.

34 Reports: Carl Icahn considering attempt to oust Yahoo board

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

18 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is reportedly loading up on Yahoo Inc.’s stock in preparation for a possible attempt to shove aside the Internet icon’s board and bring the company’s disillusioned suitor, Microsoft Corp., back to the bargaining table.

As he mulls whether to lead a rebellion, Icahn has accumulated about 50 million Yahoo shares, a stake of roughly 3.6 percent in the Sunnyvale-based company, both CNBC and The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Both media outlets cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Icahn hadn’t returned messages seeking comment as of late Tuesday. He faces a Thursday deadline to submit an alternate slate of directors to oppose Yahoo’s board at the company’s July 3 annual meeting.

35 Median home prices drop in many cities

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

38 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Median home prices fell in two-thirds of the cities surveyed during the first three months of this year while sales declined in 46 states compared to a year ago, according to the latest report highlighting the depth of the nation’s housing woes.

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that median prices for existing single-family homes dropped in 100 of 149 metropolitan areas in the January-March period, while 48 metropolitan areas saw price increases and one reported no change.

The 67 percent of cities reporting price declines was the largest percentage of cities reporting price drops in the history of the survey, which goes back to 1979. In the fourth quarter, prices had fallen in 36 percent of the cities surveyed.

36 JPMorgan may cut 4,000 jobs on Bear deal and markets

By Joseph A. Giannone, Reuters

1 hour, 47 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) could cut as many as 4,000 of its own employees worldwide as the bank prepares to take on staff from Bear Stearns Cos (BSC.N) at the same time it deals with turmoil in financial markets, people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

In addition to roughly 2,000 JPMorgan employees who will be replaced by counterparts acquired through its takeover of Bear Stearns, the sources said that an additional 1,000 to 2,000 JPMorgan employees may lose their jobs because of the slowdown in investment banking activity and credit market crisis.

Final decisions dealing with specific employees have not been made, though JPMorgan is expected to decide on market-related cuts by early June, the sources said.

37 Wal-Mart posts record profit on discount prices

AFP

2 hours, 50 minutes ago

NEW YORK (AFP) – Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s biggest retailer, reported Tuesday record quarterly earnings and sales but sounded a cautious note on the weak US economy.

Analysts said that Wal-Mart’s cut-rate strategy has broader appeal in the current economic slump as falling home values, rising inflation and tighter credit force cash-strapped consumers to shop for bargains.

“While some retailers are being pinched by the current state of the US economy and rising fuel prices, Wal-Mart Stores is finding a bit of success by attracting bargain-hunting consumers,” said Joseph Hargett at Schaeffer’s Research.

38 Eurozone under pressure to improve public finances

AFP

1 hour, 21 minutes ago

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Eurozone finance ministers must not loosen their budget orthodoxy in the face of weakening economic growth, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said Tuesday.

After progress last year in improving public finances across the 15 countries sharing the euro, Juncker said “we see risks” that the trend would not be pursued this year.

“That’s why we have called on our colleagues to execute their 2008 budgets with the greatest orthodoxy possible” and that 2009 budgets be prepared in the same spirit, the Luxembourg finance minister said after chairing a meeting with his eurozone counterparts.

39 French bank Credit Agricole seeks six billion euros after subprime losses

AFP

Tue May 13, 7:33 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) – French banking giant Credit Agricole said on Tuesday it was seeking 5.9 billion euros (9.2 billion dollars) in fresh cash from shareholders after taking new charges of 1.2 billion euros for problems in the US subprime market.

The bank said its first quarter net profit would be 892 million euros, tumbling from the year-earlier 2.66 billion euros, after a write-down of 1.21 billion euros to cover credit problems at Calyon, its investment bank.

Analyst forecasts had been for a first quarter net profit of around 1.2 billion euros.

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40 Israel Museum puts Dead Sea scroll on rare display

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer

51 minutes ago

JERUSALEM – One of the most important Dead Sea scrolls is going on display in Jerusalem this week – more than four decades after it was last seen by the public. The 24-foot scroll with the text of the Bible’s Book of Isaiah had been in a dark, temperature-controlled room at the Israel Museum since 1967. It went on display two years earlier, but curators replaced it with a facsimile after noticing new cracks in the calfskin parchment.

The museum decided to put the scroll back on show for three months as part of Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

The priceless manuscript, written by a Judean scribe around 120 B.C., was in a long glass case Tuesday, its neat rows of Hebrew letters distinct and legible. President Bush, visiting Israel this week for the anniversary celebration, will be one of the first to view it.

41 NOAA chief urges creating National Climate Service

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer

2 hours, 23 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – With concerns about global warming rising along with the planet’s temperature, the head of the federal agency in change of weather research and forecasting is proposing creation of a new National Climate Service.

Conrad C. Lautenbacher said Tuesday a climate service within his agency could combine data from the research and analysis work done by several agencies, as well as coordinate climate information for the government.

“In the future I think it would make a lot of sense for us to separate the science from the political furball of policy,” he said.

42 China’s panda preserves reported safe

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 13, 4:22 PM ET

CHENGDU, China – All the pandas at the world’s most famous panda preserve were reported safe late Tuesday, more than a day after China’s worst earthquake in three decades closed off the remote, mountainous area.

The Wolong National Nature Reserve and panda breeding center is the only place in the world where the rare animals can be seen in such large numbers. But Chinese officials and zoo officials overseas had worried about the fate of the center’s 86 pandas since Monday’s devastating earthquake rattled nearby areas in central Sichuan province.

Late Tuesday, officials at Wolong used a satellite phone to contact the State Forestry Administration and report that the pandas were safe, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said all panda cubs had been taken to safety.

43 Use of wind energy expected to grow dramatically

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 13, 4:23 PM ET

WASHINGTON – Two decades from now Americans could get as much electricity from windmills as from nuclear power plants, according to a government report that lays out a possible plan for wind energy growth.

The report, a collaboration between the Energy Department research labs and industry, concludes wind energy could generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030, about the same share now produced by nuclear reactors.

Such growth would pose a number of major challenges, but is achievable without the need of major new technological breakthroughs, said the report released Monday.

44 Vast Chile volcano ash cloud partially collapses

By Monica Vargas, Reuters

Tue May 13, 3:52 PM ET

PUERTO MONTT, Chile (Reuters) – A towering cloud of hot ash, gas and molten rock spewed miles into the air by a volcano in southern Chile has partially collapsed, raising fears it could smother surrounding villages, an expert said on Tuesday.

Luis Lara, a scientist with the government’s geology and mining agency, said the column of ash, which had soared as high as 20 miles, was now about 4.5 miles.

The column of debris, kept aloft by the pressure of constant eruptions, could collapse entirely, smothering the ghost town of Chaiten 6 miles away with hot gas, ash and molten rocks.

45 Two billion trees planted in UN campaign

AFP

Tue May 13, 2:47 PM ET

NAIROBI (AFP) – More than two billion trees were planted around the world as part of the UN’s campaign to combat climate change, the world body’s environment programme (UNEP) said Tuesday in a statement.

The Nairobi-based agency said the tree planting campaign, inspired by Kenyan Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai, will help mitigate the effects of pollution and environmental deterioration.

The campaign launched in 2006 saw two billion trees planted, double the original target, with Ethiopia leading the count at 700 million, Turkey at 400 million, Mexico at 250 million and Kenya at 100 million trees.

46 Barcelona gets emergency water supplies by boat

by Marcelo Aparicio, AFP

Tue May 13, 3:24 PM ET

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) – A water tanker arrived in Barcelona on Tuesday as the capital of Spain’s drought-stricken region of Catalonia began importing drinkable water by boat, regional authorities said.

The orange and white Sichem Defender came from the city of Tarragona in Spain’s northeast with 19,000 cubic metres (just under five million gallons) of water, enough to meet the daily consumption needs of 170,000 people.

In total six ships, including four water tankers which are due to arrive from the south of France, will make 63 monthly deliveries of water to Barcelona, Spain’s second-largest city and a top European tourist destination.

47 Low technology is the only hope in Myanmar, China disasters

by Richard Ingham, AFP

Tue May 13, 11:38 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) – There is no hi-tech solution to help the thousands of survivors in Myanmar and China who need immediate help and assistance, aid workers said Tuesday.

So surely we have some hi-tech help for the hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar and China who are walking on the tightrope of death. Right?

The short, sad answer is No. In the early 21st century, disaster relief bears a remarkable similarity to that of the mid-20th century — and even before.

48 NASA Rolls Out Space Shuttle Tires for Loan

Robert Z. Pearlman, SPACE.com

1 hour, 22 minutes ago

When space shuttle Discovery touched down in December 2006 after spending 13 days in space traveling 5.3 million miles, it came to rest on four main landing gear and two nose gear tires. Although not much larger than a truck tire, just one of Discovery’s main gear tires could carry three times the load of a Boeing 747 tire or the entire starting line-up of a NASCAR race – 40 race cars – all hitting the pavement at 250 miles per hour.

The rear tires that brought the STS-116 crew to their safe end of mission, like all orbiter main gear tires, were rated for only one use and were replaced before Discovery flew again nearly a year later. The orbiter’s nose gear met the same fate after only their second landing.

Discovery’s spent tires and those of 50 other past flights dating as far back as 1986 were moved to NASA surplus yards and storage centers. The Kennedy Space Center in Florida began the process to auction more than 60 of the retired tires as scrap in February 2005 before the agency reconsidered and pulled the tires from the sale. Instead, NASA said, they would be set aside for then-unspecified “outreach and educational activities.”

49 Earth Extinctions Blamed on Cosmic Speed Bump

Charles Q. Choi, Special to SPACE.com

Tue May 13, 7:02 AM ET

The sun bounces up and down as it roams the Milky Way, and such wavering might have hurled showers of comets Earth’s way that caused mass extinctions, including the one that killed the dinosaurs, a new study claims.

To arrive at the comet showers idea, astronomers calculated the path of our solar system across the Milky Way as it circles the galactic core. As we pass through the densest part of the galactic disk, the gravitational pull of the surrounding gas and dust clouds dislodges comets in the Oort Cloud in the outer solar system, causing these icy goliaths to plunge toward the sun, the researchers said.

The sun passes through this galactic zone every 35 million to 40 million years, raising the chances of comets hurtling inward tenfold, according to calculations. This cycle seems to coincide with evidence of craters and mass extinctions on Earth, which suggest we suffer more collisions roughly every 36 million years.

50 Piece of Missing Cosmic Matter Found

Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer SPACE.com

Mon May 12, 7:01 AM ET

Astronomers have found a piece of the universe’s puzzle that’s been missing for awhile: a type of extremely hot, dense matter that is all but invisible to us.

Engaging in something like cosmic accounting, astronomers have tried to balance the scant amount of matter that has been directly observed with the vast amount that remains unobserved directly. The latter constitutes about 90 percent of the universe’s matter.

Galaxies, the stars within them, the planet we live on and the chairs we sit on are made up of normal matter – the protons, electrons and neutrons that are collectively called baryons. Baryonic matter can be seen and directly observed, but it makes up only about 4 percent of the universe.

51 Sloths are Not Total Sloths

Jeanna Bryner, Senior Writer LiveScience.com

1 hour, 38 minutes ago

In the first brain-wave study of any animal sleeping in the wild, scientists have discovered the three-toed sloth naps much less than commonly believed.

The three-toed sloth is a small furry mammal, about the size of a raccoon, that spends most of its life in treetops of tropical rain forests where it feeds on leaves and fruits. While sloths do epitomize sluggishness on many counts – digestion can take up to a month – slothful sleeping may not be one of these. Past estimates came from captive-animal studies.

“If animals behave differently in captivity – where all previous comparative studies were performed – than they do in the wild, measuring their brain activity in captivity can lead to the wrong conclusions,” said lead researcher Niels Rattenborg of the Sleep and Flight Group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology.

52 China Quake a ‘Worst-Case Scenario’ for California

Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer

Tue May 13, 4:32 PM ET

The deadly earthquake in China this week was devastating and felt across a vast area. The epicenter struck central China’s Sichuan Province, yet it was felt as far away as Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. And its origin was shallow.

In short, it is exactly what seismologists fear could happen in Southern California some day.

Scientists think the Sichuan earthquake was caused by seismic activity associated with the Indian land-mass colliding with the Asian continent (this same force has slowly built up the Himalaya mountain range). Because this week’s temblor was relatively shallow – 11.8 miles (19 km) below the ground – it caused especially violent quaking on the surface, which led to extensive damage.

53 Overconfidence Ensures Failure in Business

Jeanna Bryner, Senior Writer LiveScience.com

Tue May 13, 1:10 PM ET

New research reveals big-headed business people are more likely to jump into new ventures with little regard for competition and market size. The results, detailed in the recent issue of the journal Experimental Psychology, shed light on why many ventures fail in the first few years.

In 2006, nearly 650,000 new businesses with employees opened their doors in the United States, while nearly 565,000 firms closed, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. More than 99 percent of the nearly 27 million businesses in the U.S. in 2006 were small firms with fewer than 500 employees.

“Market entry decisions tend to be overoptimistic,” said lead researcher Briony Pulford, a psychologist at the University of Leicester in England, “with the inevitable result that new business startups tend to exceed market capacity, and many new businesses fail within a few years.”

54 Kids Say Kids With Glasses Look Smarter

Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience Managing Editor

Tue May 13, 10:46 AM ET

Some children dread getting glasses.

Researcher Jeffrey Walline repeats some age-old advice for parents: Tell your kids they’ll look smarter in spectacles. And now he has a study to back up the advice.

The assistant professor of optometry at Ohio State University and his colleagues surveyed 42 girls and 38 boys between the ages of 6 and 10 to get their views on glasses.

The majority thought kids wearing glasses looked smarter and more honest than non-spectacled peers.

NO LIES RADIO will broadcast LIVE the Winter Soldier hearing on Capitol Hill

Thursday May 15th at 6am Pacific – 9am Eastern – 01:00 GMT Repeated this Saturday May 17th at 9am Pacific – 12 Noon Eastern – 16:00 GMT Click Here to Listen and or save for thursdays hearings, also on graphic below.

NO LIES RADIO will broadcast LIVE the Winter Soldier hearing on Capitol Hill, where nine members of Iraq Veterans Against the War will testify under oath before the Congressional Progressive Caucus about rules of engagement, the killing and abuse of civilians, the use of drop weapons, and the true consequences of the troop “surge”. The coverage of the special hearing to the Congressional Progressive Caucus will be hosted by Aimee Allison and Aaron Glantz of KPFA, part of the team that recently was nominated for a Project Censored award for KPFA’s coverage of the Winter Soldier gathering in Silver Springs, Maryland this March.

Hearing participants will include CPC Co-Chairs Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, and Maxine Waters.

This broadcast is another program in NO LIES RADIO/KPFA/Pacifica’s recent coverage of returning veterans’ issues, including “Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan” and “The Crisis in Veterans’ Healthcare.”

IVAW Testifiers: Jason Lemieux, Former Marine Corp Sergeant Scott Ewing, Former Army Cavalry Scout Geoffrey Millard, Former Army National Guard Kristofer Goldsmith, Former Army Sergeant Vincent Emanuele, Former Marine Corp James Gilligan, Former Marine Corp Corporal Adam Kokesh, Former Marine Corp Sergeant Sergio Kochergin, Former Scout/Sniper Marine Corp Luis Montalvan, Former U.S. Army Captain

Iraq War Vets to Testify in Congress


Viewing the Hearing Live:

IVAW is still in negotiations with CSPAN to cover the hearing live. Check Capital Hearings for the schedule. IVAW will also post the video of the hearing shortly after its conclusion.

 

Muse in the Morning


Broken Dreams

Self-absorption

I’ve seen your claims

that you desire

a better world

Why is changing

your behavior

not a footstep

along that path?

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 9, 2008

Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning

The muses are ancient.  The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them.  Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward.  In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.

It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse.  Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets.  Others have been suggested throughout the centuries.  I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts.  And maybe there should be many more.

I know you have talent.  What sometimes is forgotten is that being practical is a talent.  I have a paucity for that sort of talent in many situations, though it turns out that I’m a pretty darn good cook.  ðŸ™‚  

Let your talent bloom.  You can share it here.  Encourage others to let it bloom inside them as well.

Won’t you share your words or art, your sounds or visions, your thoughts scientific or philosophic, the comedy or tragedy of your days, the stories of doing and making?  And be excellent to one another!

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Police report 60 killed by bombs in western India

Associated Press

1 hour, 20 minutes ago

NEW DELHI – A series of bombs exploded across the ancient city of Jaipur on Tuesday, killing at least 60 people and transforming busy markets, a jewelry bazaar and a Hindu temple into scenes of carnage.

All seven blasts were within the old walls of the western city known for its pink-hued palaces, and suspicion quickly fell on Islamic militant groups blamed for a string of attacks in India in recent years. Police said an eighth bomb was found and defused by police.

“Obviously, it’s a terrorist” attack, said A.S. Gill, the police chief of Rajasthan, the state where Jaipur is located. “The way it has been done, the attempt was to cause the maximum damage to human life.”

2 Senate votes to halt oil reserve shipments

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 23 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – The Senate, in a direct challenge to President Bush, voted Tuesday to temporarily halt the shipment of thousands of barrels of oil a day into the government’s emergency reserve. Both Democrats and Republicans said such shipments make no sense when oil is costing more than $120 a barrel and could better be used to add supplies to a tight market and possibly lower prices.

“We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world and storing it,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. “When American consumers are burning at the stake by high energy prices, the government ought not be carrying the wood.”

Until both chambers of Congress pass the emergency reserve directive and Bush signs it – or Congress enacts it over a presidential veto – the legislation has no force of law. But the Senate’s message to the president Tuesday was a strong one.

3 Death toll from China quake soars past 13,000

By Ben Blanchard, Reuters

2 hours, 24 minutes ago

DUJIANGYAN, China (Reuters) – The death toll in China’s earthquake climbed past 13,000 on Tuesday and looked likely to rise much higher after media said some 19,000 people were buried in rubble in just one area.

Rain and severed roads hampered rescuers in the mountainous area near the epicenter of Monday’s 7.9-magnitude quake in the southwestern province of Sichuan, China’s worst earthquake in over three decades.

State media reported devastation as troops reached stricken villages near the epicenter in Wenchuan, a remote county cut off by landslides about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the provincial capital, Chengdu.

4 World fears for plight of Myanmar cyclone victims

By Aung Hla Tun, Reuters

30 minutes ago

YANGON (Reuters) – International fears about the plight of 1.5 million victims in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar deepened on Tuesday as the United Nations and Western powers suggested helpless people could have been robbed of food and other aid.

As if fears of shoddy aid distribution were not enough, heavy rains pelted survivors in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta, complicating the already slow delivery of aid to hundreds of thousands of homeless people facing hunger and disease.

As more foreign aid trickled into the former Burma, critics ratcheted up the pressure on its military rulers to accelerate a relief effort that is only delivering an estimated tenth of the supplies needed in the devastated delta.

5 FBI cites escalating mortgage fraud problem

By James Vicini, Reuters

1 hour, 46 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mortgage fraud is an escalating problem in the United States, the FBI said on Tuesday in a report that cited the subprime lending crisis as a key contributing factor.

The FBI said it received 46,717 “suspicious activity reports” from financial institutions related to mortgage fraud last year, compared with 35,617 in fiscal 2006 and just 6,936 in fiscal 2003. The government’s fiscal year begins on October 1.

The total dollar loss attributed to mortgage fraud is unknown. But 7 percent of the suspicious activity reports filed in 2007 indicated a specific dollar loss exceeding $813 million, the FBI said.

6 Lebanon army ready to use force to halt fighting

by Jocelyne Zablit, AFP

2 hours, 30 minutes ago

BEIRUT (AFP) – A precarious calm returned to Lebanon on Tuesday after the army warned it was ready to use force to restore order after six days of sectarian bloodshed that have shaken the nation.

US President George W. Bush, on the eve of a trip to the Middle East, warned Iran and Syria that the international community would not allow Lebanon to fall under foreign domination again and vowed to shore up the Lebanese military.

The fighting, which has left at least 62 people dead and close to 200 wounded, is the worst sectarian unrest since the 1975-1990 civil war and has stoked fears the country was headed for another all-out conflict.

7 U.S. high court allows apartheid claims against multinationals

By Warren Richey, The Christian Science Monitor

Tue May 13, 4:00 AM ET

The US Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that multinational companies can be sued in a US court for allegedly aiding and abetting the former apartheid government in South Africa.

The high court announced Monday that it could not hear a case involving 11 consolidated lawsuits against more than 50 international corporations. Four justices recused themselves from consideration of the case apparently due to potential conflict, leaving only a five-justice court to consider whether to take up the suit.

In a brief order, the court said it lacked the necessary quorum. “Since a majority of the qualified justices are of the opinion that the case cannot be heard and determined in the next term of the court, the judgment [of the lower court] is affirmed,” the unsigned order says.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Recommended

8 Bush administration rules limit lawsuits

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 36 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Faced with an unfriendly Congress, the Bush administration has found another, quieter way to make it more difficult for consumers to sue businesses over faulty products. It’s rewriting the bureaucratic rulebook.

Lawsuit limits have been included in 51 rules proposed or adopted since 2005 by agency bureaucrats governing just about everything Americans use: drugs, cars, railroads, medical devices and food.

Decried by consumer advocates and embraced by industry, the agencies’ use of the government’s rule-making authority represents the administration’s final act in a long-standing drive to shield companies from lawsuits.

9 Oil demand set to ease, high prices turn on stockpiling: IEA

AFP

Tue May 13, 6:50 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) – Record oil prices and a slowdown in advanced economies are set to curb global oil demand despite growth in China and the Middle East, the IEA forecast on Tuesday, saying stockpiling was a key factor.

Demand from emerging economies might be set back if governments decide that fuel subsidies are unsustainable, the International Energy Agency said in a monthly report.

The report, which cut estimated global oil demand this year for the fourth month running, also provided figures showing a jump in production of biofuels.

10 Sweet sorghum, clean miracle crop for feed and fuel

by Jean-Louis Santini, AFP

Tue May 13, 8:49 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The hardy sweet sorghum plant could be the miracle crop that provides cheap animal feed and fuel without straining the world’s food supply or harming the environment, said scientists working on a pilot farming project in India.

“We consider sweet sorghum an ideal ‘smart crop’ because it produces food as well as fuel,” William Dar, Director General of the non-profit International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) said in a statement.

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is the world’s fifth largest grain crop after rice, corn, wheat and barley.

11 Norway island stores wind power for still days

by Nina Larson, AFP

Tue May 13, 7:27 AM ET

UTSIRA, Norway (AFP) – How to keep the lights on when all is still and the local windmill won’t budge? A small Norwegian island testing a way to store wind-generated energy for calm days may have found the answer.

The tiny, windswept island of Utsira, situated off Norway’s southwestern coast, is home to what is said to be the world’s first full-scale system for cleanly transforming surplus wind power into hydrogen.

Perched atop a 40-metre-high wind turbine on a perfectly windstill day, technician Inge Linghammer explains that at times like this or on days when the gales whipping the unsheltered island get too strong the windmill shuts down and stops pumping out power.

12 NASA probe closing in on Mars, but will it land?

By Irene Klotz, Reuters

1 hour, 26 minutes ago

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Nine months ago, NASA’s Phoenix probe blasted off for Mars with an unprecedented mission to sample water on another world.

Before that can happen, however, the space agency faces a formidable challenge: landing.

The odds are not great. Historically, 55 percent of all attempts to land on Mars have failed and the method being used for the touchdown of the Phoenix spacecraft on May 25 hasn’t been attempted in 32 years.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Viewed

13 Iran report pushes oil to new record, gas jumps above $3.73

By JOHN WILEN, AP Business Writer

Tue May 13, 3:44 PM ET

NEW YORK – Oil prices shot to a new record near $127 a barrel Tuesday on concerns that Iran may consider cutting crude oil production. Gas prices, meanwhile, rose to a new record over $3.73 a gallon Tuesday, and their advance shows little sign of slowing with Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer driving season, just 10 days away.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose as high as a record $126.98 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday before retreating to settle up $1.57 at $125.80.

Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill., said traders reacted to news reports that Iran’s government is considering cutting crude oil production. James Cordier, president of Tampa, Fla., trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com, said the news quickly made its way around trading floors.

14 Vatican: It’s OK to believe in aliens

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 13, 4:07 PM ET

VATICAN CITY – Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

“How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?” Funes said. “Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ‘sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation.”

From Yahoo News World

15 Trapped students had little time to escape quake

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 13, 2:22 PM ET

JUYUAN, China – The high school students were settling in to afternoon arts and humanities classes when the massive quake struck. The school collapsed so rapidly – one floor “pancaking” atop another – that there was practically no time to escape.

As orange-suited rescue teams searched the wreckage for survivors, worried and sometimes wailing parents watched amid a cold, steady drizzle Tuesday.

Troops lined two deep kept the emotional family members away from the teams working with cranes and hand tools.

16 Myanmar police block aid workers, food piles up

Associated Press

2 hours, 29 minutes ago

YANGON, Myanmar – Police barred foreign aid workers from reaching cyclone survivors in hard-hit areas Tuesday, while emergency food shipments backed up at the main airport for Myanmar’s biggest city.

Relief workers reported some storm survivors were being given spoiled or poor-quality food rather than nutrition-rich biscuits sent by international donors, adding to fears that the ruling military junta in the Southeast Asian country could be misappropriating assistance.

U.N. officials warned that the threat was escalating for the 2 million people facing disease and hunger in low-lying areas battered by the storm unless relief efforts increased dramatically.

17 Zimbabwe violence could reach crisis levels: UN

by Fanuel Jongwe, AFP

2 hours, 47 minutes ago

HARARE (AFP) – The UN warned on Tuesday that post-election violence in Zimbabwe was rising to near crisis levels ahead of a planned presidential run-off, with opposition supporters bearing the brunt of attacks.

As opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai prepared to return home to contest the election against President Robert Mugabe, his hopes the ballot would be held later this month in a peaceful atmosphere appeared to be wishful thinking.

With Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change claiming 32 of its supporters have been killed since voting on March 29, the United Nations resident representative in Zimbabwe said most of the violence was directed against followers of the opposition, although the MDC was not blameless.

18 Bolivia’s Morales sets recall referendum in effort to resolve crisis

By Jack Chang, McClatchy Newspapers

Mon May 12, 6:14 PM ET

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Bolivian President Evo Morales , trying to ease a deepening political crisis, on Monday scheduled for Aug. 10 a sweeping recall referendum that would allow voters to cut short his term in office, as well as those of his vice president and the country’s eight provincial governors.

Morales said the vote would resolve a political showdown between his leftist administration and five governors who have pushed statutes that would give their regions more independence from the federal government. Morales has called the autonomy campaigns illegal and attempts to split this impoverished country.

“The Bolivian people have the right to decide and resolve the differences of authorities elected by the Bolivian people,” Morales said after approving the referendum. “Above any individual, personal, sectorial or regional interest, in first place comes the unity of the country.”

19 Mexico’s efforts to end violence against women stymied by macho culture

By Franco Ordonez, McClatchy Newspapers

Tue May 13, 4:08 PM ET

MEXICO CITY – Martha couldn’t take the beatings anymore. She visited local police three times last year to report that her husband was punching her in the stomach so hard she could barely breathe. Each time, the police told her they could do nothing unless she returned with cuts and bruises.

Discouraged and fearful, Martha, 43, who asked that her last name not be published for fear of retribution from her husband, in March packed some clothes and left. She’s lived with three different relatives since.

“There were times I didn’t want to wake up,” she said, crying. “I wanted it to stop. I wanted to die.”

20 Outgunned Lebanese army no longer seen as neutral

By Hannah Allam, McClatchy Newspapers

Mon May 12, 7:34 PM ET

BEIRUT, Lebanon – With the beleaguered Lebanese army looking on, opposition and pro-government militias traded gunfire in northern Lebanon Monday in a continuation of the fighting that’s killed at least 50 people and paralyzed most of Beirut .

Many Lebanese fear the bloodshed will spark a renewed civil war as the militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah and its allies inflict repeated defeats on the pro-government militias fielded by Sunni Muslims and the Druze minority.

The Christian-led Lebanese Armed Forces, long touted as perhaps the country’s last truly national institution, offered little resistance to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its Shiite allies. Instead, the army has acquiesced to Hezbollah’s conquest of territory and sent soldiers to take over checkpoints handed over by Hezbollah .

21 Hizballah’s Toughest Foe in Lebanon

By NICHOLAS BLANFORD/QMATIYEH, Time Magazine

44 minutes ago

Sleiman Jaafar’s smiling thinly-bearded face beams down from his “martyr’s” portrait at the funeral procession inching its way along the narrow street in Qmatiyeh, a small village clinging to a mountainside overlooking Beirut. Handfuls of rice and pink and white rose petals hurled from windows and balconies shower the throng of mourners below. The funeral was a moment to absorb the human cost of the recent deadly clashes between Hizballah and the Lebanese government in which nearly 40 people are thought to have died. But it also generated a mix of seething anger, anxiety and an ominous feeling that more violence is to come.

22 Maliki’s Imperfect Makeover

By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD, Time Magazine

Tue May 13, 1:00 PM ET

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was at pains to stress his new non-sectarian attitude when addressing Iraqi parliamentarians Monday. “The events of the past weeks have proven that we are neutral, not biased, that we did not take the side of this party or this sect against another,” said Maliki, whose government has waged a two-month crackdown on the militia of onetime ally Muqtada al-Sadr. “We have also proven there is no security for any sect unless other sects can be guaranteed their security.”
From Yahoo News U.S. News

23 Military cracks down on scrap-metal scavengers

By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 13, 1:31 PM ET

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. – Hundreds of Marines were conducting a combat training mission in the Mojave Desert when an air patrol spotted something kicking up dust: A civilian pickup truck speeding across the barren landscape.

Behind the wheel was a suspected scrap metal thief who had been combing the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center for spent brass shell casings. His intrusion onto the base was the 12th time in six months that scavengers had inadvertently halted combat exercises.

Bombing ranges have become prime hunting grounds for so-called “scrappers,” who are motivated by soaring commodity prices to take greater risks in their quest for brass, copper and aluminum. The scavenging causes headaches for the military, which cannot patrol every inch of the remote bases where spent ammunition, shrapnel and unexploded ordnance are easy to find.

24 Americans curb gasoline use amid high prices

Reuters

Tue May 13, 2:44 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Americans are tapping the brakes on their road travel heading into the peak summer driving season because of a record rise in gasoline prices.

Retail gasoline demand in the world’s biggest fuel consuming nation has slipped about 1 percent so far this year, MasterCard Advisors said in a report.

And the nation’s gasoline stations reported a 0.4 percent decline in April sales, according to data released by the Commerce Department.

25 Immigration arrests at Iowa meat plant total 390

Reuters

1 hour, 15 minutes ago

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Immigration arrests at the Agriprocessors Inc meat plant in Postville, Iowa, totaled 390, making it the largest number of such arrests at a single U.S. location, an immigration official said on Tuesday.

“Every one of the 390 were arrested for administrative immigration violations. They were arrested for being in the country illegally,” said Tim Counts, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit, which led the raid on the plant on Monday.

Criminal charges may still be filed against some of the 390, said Counts.

26 More than 2 million U.S. youths depressed: study

Reuters

Tue May 13, 1:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More than 2 million U.S. teenagers have suffered a serious bout of depression in the past year, including nearly 13 percent of girls, according to a federal government survey released on Tuesday.

On average, 8.5 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 described having had a major depressive episode in the previous year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported.

But there were “striking differences” by sex, with 12.7 percent of girls and 4.6 percent of boys affected.

27 Consumer confidence near record low: report

Reuters

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Confidence of American consumers continued to plummet as a result of weakening economic conditions and escalating gasoline prices, according to a weekly survey published on Tuesday.

The ABC News/Washington Post Consumer Comfort Index fell to -47 in the week ended May 11 from -46 the previous week, and is three points away from its all-time low of -50 hit in February 1992. The index ranges from -100 to +100.

The news outlets said 77 percent of Americans described the economy as getting worse, matching a 27-year high reached in October and November 1990.

28 Security Flaws Exposed at Nuke Lab

By ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON, Time Magazine

2 hours, 15 minutes ago

If you were a terrorist looking for weapons-grade nuclear material in America, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory might be a good place to start. At the core of the nuclear-weapons research facility about an hour’s drive from San Francisco stands the “Superblock,” a collection of buildings surrounded by multi-story steel-mesh fencing, a no-man’s-land, electronic security gear, armed guards and cables to prevent a helicopter landing on the roof. These defenses are in place largely to protect Building 332, a repository for roughly 2,000 pounds of deadly plutonium and volatile, weapons-grade uranium – enough fissile material to build at least 300 nuclear weapons. But a recent simulated terror attack tested those defenses, and sources tell TIME that the results were not reassuring.
From Yahoo News Politics

29 Televangelist John Hagee apologizes to Catholics

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer

9 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – John Hagee, an influential Texas televangelist who endorsed John McCain, apologized to Catholics Tuesday for his stinging criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and for having “emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews.”

Hagee’s support for McCain has drawn cries of outrage from some Catholic leaders who have called on McCain to reject Hagee’s endorsement. The likely Republican nominee has said he does not agree with some of Hagee’s past comments, but did not reject his support.

In a letter to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, Hagee wrote: “Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.”

30 Senators pressure Saudis to boost oil output

By Richard Cowan, Reuters

1 hour, 57 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats trying to pressure Saudi Arabia to boost oil output introduced legislation in the Senate on Tuesday that would stop a $1.4 billion U.S. arms sale to the kingdom.

“We are saying that we need real relief and we need it quickly. You (Saudi Arabia) need our arms, but we need you to cooperate and not strangle American consumers,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat.

The resolution to disapprove the Saudi arms sale the Bush administration outlined in December and January could be voted on in coming days, timed for President George W. Bush’s trip to Saudi Arabia this week.

31 Five to be tried for 9/11 attacks; charges against 6th dropped

by Jim Mannion, AFP

1 hour, 7 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US has referred five accused co-conspirators in the September 11 attacks for military trial but dropped charges against the alleged “20th hijacker” without explanation, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and four others were referred for trial by a special military commission on capital charges of murder, terrorism and other war crimes, it said.

But Susan Crawford, the convening authority for the war crimes tribunals, “dismissed without prejudice” charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi who was subjected to harsh interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

From Yahoo News Business

32 Stocks mixed after retail sales report, spiking oil

By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer

1 hour, 55 minutes ago

NEW YORK – Wall Street turned in a mixed performance Tuesday after a fresh report on retail sales and a new oil price record told investors the same old story: The economy is hurting and costs are rising, but things could be worse.

The Commerce Department’s latest report showed that retail sales fell by 0.2 percent in April, as expected. The data did show better-than-expected sales if automobiles are excluded, but indicated Americans are reluctant to make big-ticket purchases – especially as soaring fuel prices cut into demand.

“The numbers are coming out weak, but the economy’s not falling apart,” said Alexander Paris, economist and market analyst for Chicago-based Barrington Research. “On balance, they were negative, but you’d expect them to be.”

33 HP taking aim on IBM with risky $13.2B acquisition of EDS

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

57 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Riding a hot streak that has doubled its stock price in the past three years, Hewlett-Packard Co. is rolling the dice on a $13.2 billion acquisition of technology services provider Electronic Data Systems Corp.

The all-cash deal announced Tuesday represents HP’s biggest gamble under the leadership of Mark Hurd, who was hired as chief executive in March 2005 to turn around the Palo Alto-based maker of personal computers and printers.

As Hurd relentlessly cut costs while demanding better execution from the company’s remaining workers, HP recovered from a nagging financial hangover that was exacerbated by the biggest acquisition in its 69-year history – the $19 billion purchase of Compaq Computer Corp., completed in 2002 over strident shareholder objections.

34 Reports: Carl Icahn considering attempt to oust Yahoo board

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

18 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is reportedly loading up on Yahoo Inc.’s stock in preparation for a possible attempt to shove aside the Internet icon’s board and bring the company’s disillusioned suitor, Microsoft Corp., back to the bargaining table.

As he mulls whether to lead a rebellion, Icahn has accumulated about 50 million Yahoo shares, a stake of roughly 3.6 percent in the Sunnyvale-based company, both CNBC and The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Both media outlets cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Icahn hadn’t returned messages seeking comment as of late Tuesday. He faces a Thursday deadline to submit an alternate slate of directors to oppose Yahoo’s board at the company’s July 3 annual meeting.

35 Median home prices drop in many cities

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

38 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Median home prices fell in two-thirds of the cities surveyed during the first three months of this year while sales declined in 46 states compared to a year ago, according to the latest report highlighting the depth of the nation’s housing woes.

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that median prices for existing single-family homes dropped in 100 of 149 metropolitan areas in the January-March period, while 48 metropolitan areas saw price increases and one reported no change.

The 67 percent of cities reporting price declines was the largest percentage of cities reporting price drops in the history of the survey, which goes back to 1979. In the fourth quarter, prices had fallen in 36 percent of the cities surveyed.

36 JPMorgan may cut 4,000 jobs on Bear deal and markets

By Joseph A. Giannone, Reuters

1 hour, 47 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) could cut as many as 4,000 of its own employees worldwide as the bank prepares to take on staff from Bear Stearns Cos (BSC.N) at the same time it deals with turmoil in financial markets, people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

In addition to roughly 2,000 JPMorgan employees who will be replaced by counterparts acquired through its takeover of Bear Stearns, the sources said that an additional 1,000 to 2,000 JPMorgan employees may lose their jobs because of the slowdown in investment banking activity and credit market crisis.

Final decisions dealing with specific employees have not been made, though JPMorgan is expected to decide on market-related cuts by early June, the sources said.

37 Wal-Mart posts record profit on discount prices

AFP

2 hours, 50 minutes ago

NEW YORK (AFP) – Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s biggest retailer, reported Tuesday record quarterly earnings and sales but sounded a cautious note on the weak US economy.

Analysts said that Wal-Mart’s cut-rate strategy has broader appeal in the current economic slump as falling home values, rising inflation and tighter credit force cash-strapped consumers to shop for bargains.

“While some retailers are being pinched by the current state of the US economy and rising fuel prices, Wal-Mart Stores is finding a bit of success by attracting bargain-hunting consumers,” said Joseph Hargett at Schaeffer’s Research.

38 Eurozone under pressure to improve public finances

AFP

1 hour, 21 minutes ago

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Eurozone finance ministers must not loosen their budget orthodoxy in the face of weakening economic growth, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said Tuesday.

After progress last year in improving public finances across the 15 countries sharing the euro, Juncker said “we see risks” that the trend would not be pursued this year.

“That’s why we have called on our colleagues to execute their 2008 budgets with the greatest orthodoxy possible” and that 2009 budgets be prepared in the same spirit, the Luxembourg finance minister said after chairing a meeting with his eurozone counterparts.

39 French bank Credit Agricole seeks six billion euros after subprime losses

AFP

Tue May 13, 7:33 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) – French banking giant Credit Agricole said on Tuesday it was seeking 5.9 billion euros (9.2 billion dollars) in fresh cash from shareholders after taking new charges of 1.2 billion euros for problems in the US subprime market.

The bank said its first quarter net profit would be 892 million euros, tumbling from the year-earlier 2.66 billion euros, after a write-down of 1.21 billion euros to cover credit problems at Calyon, its investment bank.

Analyst forecasts had been for a first quarter net profit of around 1.2 billion euros.

From Yahoo News Science

40 Israel Museum puts Dead Sea scroll on rare display

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer

51 minutes ago

JERUSALEM – One of the most important Dead Sea scrolls is going on display in Jerusalem this week – more than four decades after it was last seen by the public. The 24-foot scroll with the text of the Bible’s Book of Isaiah had been in a dark, temperature-controlled room at the Israel Museum since 1967. It went on display two years earlier, but curators replaced it with a facsimile after noticing new cracks in the calfskin parchment.

The museum decided to put the scroll back on show for three months as part of Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

The priceless manuscript, written by a Judean scribe around 120 B.C., was in a long glass case Tuesday, its neat rows of Hebrew letters distinct and legible. President Bush, visiting Israel this week for the anniversary celebration, will be one of the first to view it.

41 NOAA chief urges creating National Climate Service

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer

2 hours, 23 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – With concerns about global warming rising along with the planet’s temperature, the head of the federal agency in change of weather research and forecasting is proposing creation of a new National Climate Service.

Conrad C. Lautenbacher said Tuesday a climate service within his agency could combine data from the research and analysis work done by several agencies, as well as coordinate climate information for the government.

“In the future I think it would make a lot of sense for us to separate the science from the political furball of policy,” he said.

42 China’s panda preserves reported safe

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 13, 4:22 PM ET

CHENGDU, China – All the pandas at the world’s most famous panda preserve were reported safe late Tuesday, more than a day after China’s worst earthquake in three decades closed off the remote, mountainous area.

The Wolong National Nature Reserve and panda breeding center is the only place in the world where the rare animals can be seen in such large numbers. But Chinese officials and zoo officials overseas had worried about the fate of the center’s 86 pandas since Monday’s devastating earthquake rattled nearby areas in central Sichuan province.

Late Tuesday, officials at Wolong used a satellite phone to contact the State Forestry Administration and report that the pandas were safe, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said all panda cubs had been taken to safety.

43 Use of wind energy expected to grow dramatically

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 13, 4:23 PM ET

WASHINGTON – Two decades from now Americans could get as much electricity from windmills as from nuclear power plants, according to a government report that lays out a possible plan for wind energy growth.

The report, a collaboration between the Energy Department research labs and industry, concludes wind energy could generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030, about the same share now produced by nuclear reactors.

Such growth would pose a number of major challenges, but is achievable without the need of major new technological breakthroughs, said the report released Monday.

44 Vast Chile volcano ash cloud partially collapses

By Monica Vargas, Reuters

Tue May 13, 3:52 PM ET

PUERTO MONTT, Chile (Reuters) – A towering cloud of hot ash, gas and molten rock spewed miles into the air by a volcano in southern Chile has partially collapsed, raising fears it could smother surrounding villages, an expert said on Tuesday.

Luis Lara, a scientist with the government’s geology and mining agency, said the column of ash, which had soared as high as 20 miles, was now about 4.5 miles.

The column of debris, kept aloft by the pressure of constant eruptions, could collapse entirely, smothering the ghost town of Chaiten 6 miles away with hot gas, ash and molten rocks.

45 Two billion trees planted in UN campaign

AFP

Tue May 13, 2:47 PM ET

NAIROBI (AFP) – More than two billion trees were planted around the world as part of the UN’s campaign to combat climate change, the world body’s environment programme (UNEP) said Tuesday in a statement.

The Nairobi-based agency said the tree planting campaign, inspired by Kenyan Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai, will help mitigate the effects of pollution and environmental deterioration.

The campaign launched in 2006 saw two billion trees planted, double the original target, with Ethiopia leading the count at 700 million, Turkey at 400 million, Mexico at 250 million and Kenya at 100 million trees.

46 Barcelona gets emergency water supplies by boat

by Marcelo Aparicio, AFP

Tue May 13, 3:24 PM ET

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) – A water tanker arrived in Barcelona on Tuesday as the capital of Spain’s drought-stricken region of Catalonia began importing drinkable water by boat, regional authorities said.

The orange and white Sichem Defender came from the city of Tarragona in Spain’s northeast with 19,000 cubic metres (just under five million gallons) of water, enough to meet the daily consumption needs of 170,000 people.

In total six ships, including four water tankers which are due to arrive from the south of France, will make 63 monthly deliveries of water to Barcelona, Spain’s second-largest city and a top European tourist destination.

47 Low technology is the only hope in Myanmar, China disasters

by Richard Ingham, AFP

Tue May 13, 11:38 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) – There is no hi-tech solution to help the thousands of survivors in Myanmar and China who need immediate help and assistance, aid workers said Tuesday.

So surely we have some hi-tech help for the hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar and China who are walking on the tightrope of death. Right?

The short, sad answer is No. In the early 21st century, disaster relief bears a remarkable similarity to that of the mid-20th century — and even before.

48 NASA Rolls Out Space Shuttle Tires for Loan

Robert Z. Pearlman, SPACE.com

1 hour, 22 minutes ago

When space shuttle Discovery touched down in December 2006 after spending 13 days in space traveling 5.3 million miles, it came to rest on four main landing gear and two nose gear tires. Although not much larger than a truck tire, just one of Discovery’s main gear tires could carry three times the load of a Boeing 747 tire or the entire starting line-up of a NASCAR race – 40 race cars – all hitting the pavement at 250 miles per hour.

The rear tires that brought the STS-116 crew to their safe end of mission, like all orbiter main gear tires, were rated for only one use and were replaced before Discovery flew again nearly a year later. The orbiter’s nose gear met the same fate after only their second landing.

Discovery’s spent tires and those of 50 other past flights dating as far back as 1986 were moved to NASA surplus yards and storage centers. The Kennedy Space Center in Florida began the process to auction more than 60 of the retired tires as scrap in February 2005 before the agency reconsidered and pulled the tires from the sale. Instead, NASA said, they would be set aside for then-unspecified “outreach and educational activities.”

49 Earth Extinctions Blamed on Cosmic Speed Bump

Charles Q. Choi, Special to SPACE.com

Tue May 13, 7:02 AM ET

The sun bounces up and down as it roams the Milky Way, and such wavering might have hurled showers of comets Earth’s way that caused mass extinctions, including the one that killed the dinosaurs, a new study claims.

To arrive at the comet showers idea, astronomers calculated the path of our solar system across the Milky Way as it circles the galactic core. As we pass through the densest part of the galactic disk, the gravitational pull of the surrounding gas and dust clouds dislodges comets in the Oort Cloud in the outer solar system, causing these icy goliaths to plunge toward the sun, the researchers said.

The sun passes through this galactic zone every 35 million to 40 million years, raising the chances of comets hurtling inward tenfold, according to calculations. This cycle seems to coincide with evidence of craters and mass extinctions on Earth, which suggest we suffer more collisions roughly every 36 million years.

50 Piece of Missing Cosmic Matter Found

Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer SPACE.com

Mon May 12, 7:01 AM ET

Astronomers have found a piece of the universe’s puzzle that’s been missing for awhile: a type of extremely hot, dense matter that is all but invisible to us.

Engaging in something like cosmic accounting, astronomers have tried to balance the scant amount of matter that has been directly observed with the vast amount that remains unobserved directly. The latter constitutes about 90 percent of the universe’s matter.

Galaxies, the stars within them, the planet we live on and the chairs we sit on are made up of normal matter – the protons, electrons and neutrons that are collectively called baryons. Baryonic matter can be seen and directly observed, but it makes up only about 4 percent of the universe.

51 Sloths are Not Total Sloths

Jeanna Bryner, Senior Writer LiveScience.com

1 hour, 38 minutes ago

In the first brain-wave study of any animal sleeping in the wild, scientists have discovered the three-toed sloth naps much less than commonly believed.

The three-toed sloth is a small furry mammal, about the size of a raccoon, that spends most of its life in treetops of tropical rain forests where it feeds on leaves and fruits. While sloths do epitomize sluggishness on many counts – digestion can take up to a month – slothful sleeping may not be one of these. Past estimates came from captive-animal studies.

“If animals behave differently in captivity – where all previous comparative studies were performed – than they do in the wild, measuring their brain activity in captivity can lead to the wrong conclusions,” said lead researcher Niels Rattenborg of the Sleep and Flight Group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology.

52 China Quake a ‘Worst-Case Scenario’ for California

Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer

Tue May 13, 4:32 PM ET

The deadly earthquake in China this week was devastating and felt across a vast area. The epicenter struck central China’s Sichuan Province, yet it was felt as far away as Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. And its origin was shallow.

In short, it is exactly what seismologists fear could happen in Southern California some day.

Scientists think the Sichuan earthquake was caused by seismic activity associated with the Indian land-mass colliding with the Asian continent (this same force has slowly built up the Himalaya mountain range). Because this week’s temblor was relatively shallow – 11.8 miles (19 km) below the ground – it caused especially violent quaking on the surface, which led to extensive damage.

53 Overconfidence Ensures Failure in Business

Jeanna Bryner, Senior Writer LiveScience.com

Tue May 13, 1:10 PM ET

New research reveals big-headed business people are more likely to jump into new ventures with little regard for competition and market size. The results, detailed in the recent issue of the journal Experimental Psychology, shed light on why many ventures fail in the first few years.

In 2006, nearly 650,000 new businesses with employees opened their doors in the United States, while nearly 565,000 firms closed, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. More than 99 percent of the nearly 27 million businesses in the U.S. in 2006 were small firms with fewer than 500 employees.

“Market entry decisions tend to be overoptimistic,” said lead researcher Briony Pulford, a psychologist at the University of Leicester in England, “with the inevitable result that new business startups tend to exceed market capacity, and many new businesses fail within a few years.”

54 Kids Say Kids With Glasses Look Smarter

Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience Managing Editor

Tue May 13, 10:46 AM ET

Some children dread getting glasses.

Researcher Jeffrey Walline repeats some age-old advice for parents: Tell your kids they’ll look smarter in spectacles. And now he has a study to back up the advice.

The assistant professor of optometry at Ohio State University and his colleagues surveyed 42 girls and 38 boys between the ages of 6 and 10 to get their views on glasses.

The majority thought kids wearing glasses looked smarter and more honest than non-spectacled peers.

I am numb

( – promoted by Turing Test)

I am numb.  I have seen far too much human suffering brought on by humans after a natural disaster had uncovered their inhumanity.  

I am haunted. The view from the hinterlands of Burma is biblical in its scope and complete in its destruction.

I am exhausted.  I could not stay.  There was too much disease (cholera and malaria) and the powers that be in my life would not let me become exposed.  

I am rude.  I am writing this as my lovely lady makes dinner and watches me out of the corner of her eye, worried at the darkness that has enveloped me, the depression she cannot shake me out of, despite her best efforts.  She’ll succeed eventually, but, for now, she is a comfort and for that, I am grateful, though I was rude to her earlier and feel ashamed.

Here’s what I know:  The junta has got to go.  They are the most openly corrupt regime I have ever witnessed and they don’t care who knows this because they have China desperate for their oil, just as the Sudan does not care who knows about Darfur – for the same reason.  

They are taking the limited supplies they are willing to let in and putting their own names on the packages and distributing them to cronies and their families or selling them in the Yangon marketplace at inflated extremes.  Ten USD for a bottle of water?  That was so yesterday.  Try twenty, thirty.  The unprivileged (aka those without connections to the regime) are streaming out of the capital, heading east to become yet more refugees.

None of that compares to the poor souls in the cyclone zone.  They have no food, no potable water, no homes, no prospects.  They will die, whether of disease or starvation or both.  They will die in the hundreds of thousands or more.

There has been talk of more crimes.  The destruction of the mangrove forests by the regime to make room for rice paddies.  That did happen.  The sale of rice by the regime outside of Burma while their people starve.  I don’t have proof, but I believe it.  The loss of a Red Cross boat that tried to navigate the river bloated with trees, bodies and disease.  The survivors (the people on the boat did survive; all the supplies were lost) will now need every vaccination ever created and that is the only water the neglected and forgotten of Burma now have to drink.

The frustration of the U.S. Marines, who I now think are GOD, and whose ships are sitting off the Burmese coast with every supply the people would need, two score helicopters to ferry it in and the damned, damned junta won’t let them in their airspace.

I have found a new reason to love my two countries (U.S. and U.K.).  Even Bush, who I can’t stand, has pleaded with these Myanmar bastards to let them in.  The EU is now openly condemning them.  I hate war.  I believe it should always be the last resort.  But, if the only way to save upwards of two MILLION people is to violate the airspace of such total assholes, I say go for it.  But then, I’m not the one who has to consider if that will kick off a war with China because they need the oil there and will back the bastards against us.

I’m numb and angered.

One of our contributing writers on THE ENVIRONMENTALIST is going to post an expose about several of John McCain’s campaign personnels’ lobbying connections to the Myanmar regime.  I’ll post a link here when it’s available.  

For now, I’m numb.

UPDATE:  A new cyclone is forming off the Burmese coast.  It is unclear where it will hit, but it’s on path for Yangon.  

Late Night ‘Toonin’

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
By zwoof at 2008-05-13

Iglesia………………………………………Episode 55



(Iglesia is a serialized novel, published on Tuesdays and Saturdays at midnight ET, you can read all of the episodes by clicking on the tag.)

Previous episode

“Now, if you would each read it again, quickly and without any assistance from me.”

When Abe read it, nothing happened but a light glimmer in the air around them. When Iglesia tried, a few rough shapes barely appeared.

“So what’s the trick, Slim?”

“In the reality you are accustomed and conditioned to inhabiting, a reality your mind is still convinced it is existing in…. physical force powered by physical energy, the electrically (for want of a better word) animated power of the body, and how it is used in reaction to other bodies, is the key to existence. Here, thought is your only weapon, and  only defense….and the only energy

When I endeavor to lend your thoughts energy through my (rather developed, to be immodest) thought, enhancing the minuscule amount of energy you are accustomed to devoting to your thought, your thoughts then became solid and real. When I withdrew it, the result was as you saw.”

“Thought, developed, projected thought, is the only meaningful thing that exists here. Thought, and will.” He suddenly swung a left hook at Iglesia. She reflexively put up her right forearm to block it. His solid fist passed through both her forearm ….and her head.

“When I earlier made physical contact with Abraham’s…nether region, I was “thinking it” solid. But I did not think of him in pain and so he felt none. Prior to you two meeting formally, I, for reasons we shall not discuss at this juncture, found it necessary to shock Abraham out of a distracted state. In that instance, I thought of him experiencing the minor pain that would he would have expected to go with the small blow I delivered.”

“Since his mind has been quite thoroughly conditioned throughout his former life to expect pain to accompany the specific blow I delivered in that situation, and since I was projecting pain on to his consciousnesses with my thoughts, he then experienced pain. Earlier, when he reacted reflexively to the kick I delivered, he was reacting to what he thought would be the result of such a blow. He expected crippling pain, thus he reacted as if the pain was real before his mind registered that there was no pain …pain, as you know it, does not exist in this place.

Nor for that matter, without my thoughts enhancing them, do your bodies.”

As the word ‘bodies’ left his mouth….Abe and Iglesia disappeared.

 

Huckabee’s Cross Sighted in Kentucky: Send Cash, Make the Baby-Jesus Smile

Christian America has long been cynically manipulated by politicians eager to win support and cash to fuel earthly ambitions.

Database Mining in a good suit means that most supporters will never see their candidate portrayed so transparently as the Second Coming, unless they self-identify officially as ‘church-going’ Christians.

Oregon voters are extremely unlikely to see this incarnation of the candidate for change. My own distrust of the candidate began in his equivocation on the role of religion in politics. As a person of faith who prays daily I absolutely reject any suggestion that faith has any role to play in the political process. I don’t want to know whether a candidate prays or not, what his or her sexual orientation may be, or whether they prefer to shop at Target or Saks.

Preacher Mike Huckabee is far more open about his Christian identity. Are all the highly intelligent voters who support the candidate for change and who have such contempt for folks  for the clinging religious voters aware that a vote for change is a vote for Christian more of the same?

We’re approaching something close to a crisis, where folks who want experience and some level of candor liberate themselves from the pundits and party loyalty to look to the real challenges we all face.

Flying under a false flag might strike many as a sign of sound judgment and integrity.

We won’t see these depictions of Obama as Jesus in New York or Oregon.

Fair enough?

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