The TSA Hustle

Plane crash pilot 'disorientated'

The scene in Mangalore of the Air India plane crash in May

The pilot of an airliner that crashed on landing killing 158 people had only just woken up and was disoriented, a report has indicated.



Air India flight commander Zlatko Glusica's reactions were slow as he approached Mangalore airport, the government Court of Inquiry into the May 22 crash concluded.


Only eight people survived when the flight from Dubai overshot a hilltop runway, crashed and plunged over a cliff.

The inquiry examined information from the digital flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder of the aircraft, which were found at the crash site.


The panel said that Mr Glusica, who was suffering from "sleep inertia" and was "disoriented" when the plane began its descent, reacted late and did not follow many standard operating procedures during the landing.

The data recorders caught the sound of heavy nasal snoring and breathing.


Co-pilot, H.S. Ahluwalia, is heard repeatedly warning Mr Glusica to abort the landing and try the procedure again. The last words captured by the recorders as the plane crashed were one of the pilots saying, "Oh my God."


Mr Glusica, a Serbian, had more than 10,200 hours of flying experience, while Mr Ahluwalia had 3,650 hours.


India's Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said he had received the report and the government would study it before taking any action.


The Mangalore crash was the worst in India since the 1996 mid-air collision between a Saudi airliner and a Kazakh cargo plane near New Delhi that killed 349 people.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/asia-pacific/plane-crash-pilot-disorientated-2425011.html

Beatles break into top 100 on iTunes

The Beatles, whose entire back catalogue was reissued in September 2009
Photo: 2009

The Beatles finally joined the digital revolution by making their music available for download through Apple’s iTunes store on Tuesday.


It was the first time that music fans had been able to buy digital versions of their favourite Beatles tracks and immediately it proved popular.

A total of 11 songs were in the top 200 with Hey Jude the highest entry at number 84.
Individual tracks are available from Apple’s iTunes store for 99p per song, and can be copied to an iPhone, iPod, iPad or other MP3 player, and music fans can also buy and download entire albums, complete with sleeve notes, album artwork and even videos featuring the Fab Four.
But most albums cost significantly more to download than they do to buy as physical CDs. The White Album, for instance, will set music fans back £17.99 on iTunes, but only £12.99 from Amazon and £14.29 from Play.com.
Purchasing the entire Beatles back catalogue will cost £125.
The agreement between Apple and The Beatles marks the end of a long courtship, during which Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive and a huge Beatles fan, tried to persuade the group to license its music to Apple’s download service.
The Beatles have been notable absentees from the digital music revolution, and it was initially thought that a trademark dispute between Apple Inc, the technology company, and Apple Corps, the Beatles' label, could be to blame, though that legal wrangle was settled in 2007.
Sir Paul McCartney said in 2008 that he “really hoped” a deal would happen, but hinted that negotiations between Apple Corps, Apple Inc and EMI were more complicated than previously thought.
Some had speculated that the remaining members of the group did not want to sell their songs as individual tracks, and instead would only license their music to download sites if they were sold as complete albums.
The news of the deal between Apple and The Beatles got a mixed reaction from music fans. Many people pointed out that they had already “ripped” their Beatles CDs to their computer to transfer on to their music player and mobile phone.
"It has taken so long to get The Beatles on iTunes, and for that reason, it feels like a bigger deal than perhaps it should be," said Stuart Dredge, an online music expert with Music Ally.
"The Fab Four's back catalogue will undoubtedly be popular in digital form, but once the initial sales spike passes, the music industry will be more interested in Apple's plans to evolve iTunes beyond a pure a-la-carte download store."
The Beatles can expect the buying frency to continue.
In September 2009, when the remastered Beatles albums were released they shattered chart records around the world, selling more than 2.25 million copies within days of release in North America, the UK and Japan.
Released as individual albums and box sets on 9 September they brought in s fortune. Figures from record company EMI show UK sales of the digitally remastered albums e exceeded 354,000 in 11 days of release.
Hard figures for the money made by the Beatles from their music are hard to come by. It is estimated that they made £55 million during the group’s lifetime, but since then their reputation has grown ever stronger, and every time an album is remastered or released in a new format, the sales shoot up.
The digital remastering of their catalogue last year, for example, took their total album sales to nearly 9 million, while the repackaging of their number ones in 2000 sold more than seven million in the US alone.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/8138613/Beatles-break-into-top-100-on-iTunes.html

Barack Obama's hopes for a nuclear-free world fading fast

US president Barack Obama (left) and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev sign a nuclear arms treaty in Prague in April. Photograph: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images

Barack Obama's hopes of reshaping US foreign policy stand on the brink of failure tonight, after two of his most cherished initiatives — nuclear disarmament and better relations with Moscow — were dealt serious setbacks.



According to a leaked Nato document seen by the Guardian, a move to withdraw US tactical nuclear weapons from Europe has been omitted from the alliance's draft strategic doctrine, due to be adopted by a summit this weekend in Lisbon.

Meanwhile in Washington, a Republican leader in the Senate signalled that the nuclear arms control treaty Obama signed in April with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is unlikely be ratified this year. Most observers say that if the treaty – known as New Start – is delayed until next year, it will be as good as dead, as the Democratic majority in the Senate will be even thinner by then, following the party's losses in the midterm elections.

Together the setbacks mark a new low point for Obama's ambitions, set out in a landmark 2009 speech in Prague, to set the world on a path to abolition of nuclear weapons.


They also rob the president of the main concrete achievement so far in his bid to "reset" US-Russian relations. In the absence of progress in the Middle East or Iranian compromise over its nuclear ambitions, the developments threaten to eclipse Obama's legacy in foreign policy.


"All this stuff was integrated – the nuclear package and the Russian relationship," said Steven Clemons, policy analyst at the New America Foundation. "In terms of the long-term international significance it's the most important thing Obama has done, and it has just come apart."


In the latest draft of Nato's "new strategic concept", seen by the Guardian, nuclear weapons remain at the core of Nato doctrine, and an attempt to withdraw an estimated 200 American B-61 nuclear bombs from Europe, a legacy of the cold war, is not mentioned.


Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium – who all have B-61 bombs on their soil – had pushed to have the tactical weapons removed, with the encouragement of supporters of disarmament in the Obama camp including the US ambassador to Nato, Ivo Daalder.

However, in a victory for France, which led a rearguard action against diluting nuclear deterrence in Nato doctrine, the draft strategic concept states that the weapons would only be removed as a trade-off with Moscow.

"In any future reductions, our aim should be to seek Russian agreement to increase transparency on its nuclear weapons in Europe and relocate these weapons away from the territory of Nato members," the draft states. "Any further steps must take into account the disparity with the greater Russian stockpile of short-range nuclear weapons."

Advocates of disarmament still hope the door to withdrawal could be left open in another strategic review, possibly next year.


But Daryl Kimball, the head of the Arms Control Association, said the Lisbon document represented a lost opportunity for the alliance.


"Nato does not need these weapons against any of the 21st century threats we face," Kimball said. "The weapons raise the risk of nuclear terrorism, and their presence makes it harder to convince Russia to cut its own tactical arsenal."

US and Russian negotiators had been expected to discuss tactical weapons in the next round of arms control talks, but those talks will almost certainly not take place if the New Start treaty is shelved.


The White House had hoped the Senate would ratify the treaty in its lame-duck session currently underway, before newly-elected Republican senators take their seats in January.


However, the administration still needed some Republican support to get the 67 votes required for ratification. In a last-ditch move last week, it offered to spend an extra $4 bn (£2.5 bn) on modernisation of the existing nuclear arsenal — an effort to placate the Republican whip, Jon Kyl.

However, Senator Kyl issued a statement tonight saying he still did not think the treaty could be passed in the lame-duck session, "given the combination of other work Congress must do and the complex and unresolved issues related to Start and modernisation." Some Democrats were still hoping tonight the statement could be a bluff aimed at extracting yet more funding for America's nuclear labs. Others, however, saw it as a slammed door, and a reflection of Republican determination to make Obama a one-term president and erase his legacy.


Paul Ingram, head of the British American Security Information Council (Basic), said Obama's radical vision of "a world without nuclear weapons" laid out in his Prague speech was now fading.


"I wouldn't say it was dead. It's in emergency resuscitation," Ingram said.


"If there is hope no, it's not coming from Washington. The leadership of this is not going to come from Washington."


On nuclear weapons
"So today, I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. I'm not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly – perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change. We have to insist, 'Yes, we can.'"


Prague, 5 April 2009 On the New Start treaty with Russia
"The new agreement will mutually enhance the security of the parties and predictability and stability in strategic offensive forces. We are ready to move beyond Cold War mentalities and chart a fresh start in relations between our two countries."

Joint statement with Dmitry Medvedev, London, 1 April 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/16/barack-obama-nuclear-hopes-fading

US study urges preferrential market access for Pakistani textile products

WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (APP): A leading U.S. think tank study has recommended Washington to ease trade restrictions on Pakistani textile exports and increase the military’s capacity to defeat militants on the battlefield as part of efforts to strengthen a cooperative partnership to defeat extremists operating in the region.




“The U.S. commitment to a long-term strategic partnership with Pakistan is a critical step in securing Pakistani action against the militant groups within its borders,” a report by an independent task force for the Council on Foreign Relations says.

“The Obama administration’s strategy in Pakistan has resulted in stronger relationships with civilian and military authorities more substantial and targeted aid,” it notes.

Meanwhile, al-Qaeda militants are being increasingly targeted in the tribal border regions.

“To reinforce U.S.-Pakistan ties and contribute to Pakistan’s economic stability in the aftermath of an overwhelming natural disaster, the Obama administration should prioritize and the Congress should enact agreement that would grant preferential market access to Pakistani textiles,” former deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage and former national security adviser Samuel R. Berger, stress in the report.

This agreement would help revive the Pakistani industry and all of the associated sectors of the economy, including Pakistan-grown cotton, the report adds.

“To further enhance Pakistan’s stability, the United States should maintain current levels of economic and technical assistance to help military and civilian leaders reconstruct and establish control over areas hard-hit by the flood, including those contested by militant forces.

American assistance should also encourage private sector investment in conflict-prone and flood-ravaged regions.”

As part of efforts to build Pakistani support for the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, the United States “must move rapidly to implement high-profile assistance projects and should also reach out on a sustained basis to nontraditional allies in Pakistani society, including business interests, educators, local media, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).” The authors of the report particularly highlight that a continuing robust response to this summer’s epic floods is necessary to prevent Pakistan from sliding into economic and political troubles.

Washington’s first order of business in Pakistan must be to help address the extreme humanitarian suffering and dislocation caused by this summer’s floods. The best way for the United States to address the challenges of terrorism and security is by working shoulder toshoulder with a stable partner in Islamabad.

The report says as it cultivates a closer partnership with Islamabad and contributes to shoring up the Pakistani state and national economy, the United States should seek action against Afghan, Pakistani and other related militant groups.

“By demonstrating American generosity and assistance at a time of grave Pakistani peril, the United States will also make a better case for the strategic benefits of its partnership.”

One of the greatest challenges to improving relations between the people of Pakistan and the United States is the perception that America does not welcome Pakistani visitors, the chairs of the task force note.

“This perception has been reinforced by heavy-handed U.S. border security policies and clumsy implementation,” the authors point out.

Other miscommunications and security precautions have even disrupted official Pakistani travel within the United States. “Although the U.S. government must do what is necessary to secure the borders, future decisions regarding travel restrictions and airport security should do far more to take Pakistani sensitivities, as well as the diplomatic implications of new regulations, into consideration. As a practical matter, an interagency liaison team should be established to manage and avert diplomatic incidents related to security procedures at U.S. airports.”

Focusing on the regional dimensions of the ongoing tensions, the report proposes “to reduce regional tensions that distract from counterterror operations and undermine Pakistan’s stability, the United States should encourage progress in the Indo-Pakistani relationship.”

“Washington should not attempt to impose itself in Indo-Pakistani negotiations.

An indirect approach is better. The United States should help to build new constituencies for peace by helping to fund international development schemes that benefit businesses and people on both sides of the Indo-Pakistani border.”

The United States, the report suggests, “should seek creative new ways to encourage Indo-Pakistani trade and investment, including U.S. technical assistance for infrastructure development along the international border and the Kashmir divide.”

“Specifically, the United States should advance with India and Pakistan, and with multilateral institutions like the World Bank, the idea of a fund exclusively for improving the road and rail network between India and Pakistan. This would update facilities and employ large numbers of people on both sides of the border. It would demonstrate the advantages of improving bilateral relations. Over time, this effort could be expanded to power grids and gas pipelines, further demonstrating each country’s stake in the economic progress of the region.”

http://app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=122099&Itemid=39

Shining A Light On Shariah Creep

Islamofascism: The Council on American-Islamic Relations may wish it never sued to overturn an Oklahoma ban on Shariah law. Now the entire nation will get to see it and other Islamists' true anti-American colors.




CAIR is thumping its chest over persuading a Clinton-appointed federal judge to temporarily block Oklahoma from enacting a state constitutional amendment that prohibits state courts from considering Islamic law when deciding cases. Fully 70% of Oklahoma voters passed the landmark measure.



But CAIR has ignited a legal firestorm that will likely rage all the way to the Supreme Court. Thanks to CAIR's latest bit of lawfare, Americans will get to hear a long overdue debate not just about the constitutionality of such bans on Shariah law but about the constitutionality of Shariah law itself.



This is not a debate CAIR wants to have, since it ultimately will have to defend the indefensible. It claims in a press release that Shariah law is "a dynamic legal framework" derived from Islamic scripture "and analytical reasoning."



In fact, there's nothing reasoned about it. It's a medieval legal code that administers cruel and unusual punishments such as stonings, amputations and honor killings. Think the Taliban.



Shariah can be seen in action this week with Pakistan's death sentence on a Christian woman for blasphemy. Between 1986 and 2009, at least 974 people have been charged for defiling the Quran or insulting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.



CAIR, which thinks free speech is a one-way street, is working with the Organization of the Islamic Conference on an international blasphemy law that would criminalize "Islamophobia," according to the book, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America."



Shariah also permits wife-beating, something CAIR also knows about. Its sister organization, the Islamic Society of North America, condones it in its fatwas (or religious rulings) for Muslim Americans. More, CAIR distributes a book, "The Meaning of the Holy Quran," which authorizes men to hit their wives.



CAIR says it's just a "civil rights advocacy group." But the Justice Department says it's a front group for Hamas and its parent, the radical Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement that has a secret plan to impose Shariah law on the U.S.



"From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg in a recent court filing.



U.S. prosecutors in 2007 named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal scheme led by the Holy Land Foundation to funnel millions to Hamas suicide bombers and their families.


"CAIR has been identified by the government at trial as a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization, a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Jacks, who recently won an award from Attorney General Eric Holder for convicting the Holy Land terrorists.




Federal courts found "ample evidence" linking CAIR to the conspiracy and are expected to unseal the dossier in coming weeks.



The Holy Land revelations prompted the FBI to sever ties with CAIR until it can demonstrate it's not a terror front. "Until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and Hamas, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner," advised Assistant FBI Director Richard Powers in a 2009 letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.



CAIR's leaders don't want a ban on Shariah law, because they have a secret agenda to institutionalize Shariah law in America.



"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future," CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper let it slip out to a Minneapolis Star-Tribune reporter in 1993, before CAIR was formed.



CAIR's founding chairman, Omar Ahmad, wants Shariah law to replace the Constitution. "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant," he told a Muslim audience in Fremont, Calif., in 1998. "The Quran should be the highest authority in America."



CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad is an Islamic supremacist who thinks Muslims should run Washington: "Who better can lead America than Muslims?"



Islamizing America also happens to be the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood — the radical, Cairo-based outlaw group the government says CAIR is fronting for. The founding archives of its U.S. branch, seized in an FBI raid and introduced as evidence in the Holy Land trial, reveal a "strategic goal" of "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house ... so that Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions." The Brotherhood calls its plan a "grand jihad."



CAIR argues in its suit that "the Shariah ban's purpose is to stigmatize, denigrate and segregate plaintiff's faith in the public's mind as something foreign and to be feared."



No, the goal is to make sure no Oklahoma judge considers Shariah law in rulings on domestic violence, family law, probate, free speech, contracts and other matters, as judges have in other states, to a wider degree in Canada and now on a routine basis in Britain. The ban is to prevent courts from legitimizing a religious legal system antithetical to the U.S. Constitution in the areas of freedom of speech, equality and humane punishment, among other bedrock Western principles.



Thanks to CAIR's lawsuit, all this can now be aired out for the public.


http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=553407&p=2

I Don't Understand with Obama

White House warns on stockpile in push for treaty

The Obama administration has warned Republicans an $80bn plan to upgrade the US atomic weapons stockpile would be at risk if Congress did not approve a landmark nuclear arms treaty with Russia.


Barack Obama, president, is pushing to have the treaty approved before the new Congress takes office in January. He unveiled his 10-year plan to modernise the nuclear complex the day he sent the New Start treaty to the Senate for ratification, partly in a move to win Republican support.


Officials add that if the New Start deal – perhaps Mr Obama’s biggest foreign policy achievement – was not ratified by the Senate, it would not only damage efforts to “reset” relations with Russia, but also destroy the arms inspection system that built bilateral confidence.

The administration fears that ratification prospects will recede if the issue is handed to the new Senate, with its reduced Democratic majority. But Republicans, who hold a trump card because of the need for a two-thirds majority, say they are reluctant to pass the deal in the lame-duck session of Congress.


The administration also recognises that a single senator could hold up the deal. “It is necessary to get unanimous consent to do a lot of things,” said the administration official.


A separate civil nuclear deal with Moscow may also fall, because of a lack of legislative days, leaving Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president, with little to show for his co-operation with the Obama administration on issues such as Iran.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/77b9a9e6-ed01-11df-9912-00144feab49a.html#axzz14urH45vf

Fort Hood Probe: Army Chooses Its Words Carefully

Sun Tzu said one of the most important rules of war is to know one's enemy. The Army's 118-page investigation mentions the word "tragedy" eight times, and "Muslim" zero.


http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/11/10/fort-hood-probe-army-chooses-its-words-carefully/?xid=rss-topstories

Palin, Germany, China: Odd trio of Fed critics

It’s rare that $600 billion gets called a joke. But these are different times.




As the U.S. readies to join the other Group of 20 nations in Seoul, South Korea, its plan to pump money into the banking system to jump-start the recovery is finding enemies both foreign and domestic – from finance officials in Germany and China to Sarah Palin.



Former vice presidential candidate and Tea Party favorite Palin weighed in on the debate late Monday over whether the plan, known as quantitative easing, would help boost the U.S. economy, calling on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to "cease and desist."






Palin was referring to a statement last week from German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who said he was perplexed by the move, which aims to boost the economy by making loans less expensive.



The issue, if not Palin’s take on it, is sure to loom over the two-day G-20 conference, which opens Thursday.



"I have great doubts about whether it makes sense to pump unlimited amounts of money into the markets," Schaeuble told Der Spiegel news magazine on Saturday. "There is no shortage of liquidity in the U.S. economy. I can't see the economic argument for this move."



More to the point, last week he called the policy "clueless."



Bernanke has been defending the plan almost from the moment it was announced last Wednesday.



Story: Bernanke: Inflation worries are ‘overstated’

In an editorial penned for The Washington Post last week, Bernanke said concerns that the Fed's program would spur rampant inflation were overblown. He has argued that the policy would lead to a stronger U.S. economy, which is good for the world and would eventually lead to a stronger U.S. currency.



The Fed is making the move because unemployment, now at 9.6 percent, is too high and inflation is too low, he argued. "In the most extreme case, very low inflation can morph into deflation (falling prices and wages), which can contribute to long periods of economic stagnation," Bernanke said.



China, Germany, Brazil and a host of developing nations are worried the plan will have the opposite effect. They are concerned that the Fed's move will weaken the U.S. dollar and spark asset bubbles and inflation in their own nations. Pumping $600 billion into the U.S. banking system is likely to lead to lower interest rates and a weaker dollar, which makes U.S. exports relatively cheaper than exports from other nations.



Ma Delun, a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said Tuesday he was concerned the Fed's spending spree may undermine efforts to balance out global growth.



The Fed's program "may add risks to the global economic imbalance, put pressure on emerging markets to adjust their international balance of payments and could also stir the formation of asset bubbles, all of which require our vigilance," Ma said in Beijing.



China is concerned enough about that possibility that it has pushed up yields on short-term debt and announced for new rules to slow the flow of "hot money" into its banking system.



There's even worries within the Fed about whether the program could ignite inflation in the United States. Kevin Warsh, a Fed governor with close ties to Bernanke, warned Monday that the program has "significant risks" and said he doubted it would have "significant" benefits for the economy.



But Bernanke drew unusual support from Obama, who rarely comments on decisions made by the independent Fed.



"The Fed's mandate, my mandate, is to grow our economy. And that's not just good for the United States, that's good for the world as a whole," Obama said at a news conference in India Monday. "The worst thing that could happen to the world economy . . . is if we end up being stuck with no growth or very limited growth. And I think that's the Fed's concern, and that's my concern as well."



Obama said that a strong, job-creating economy in the United States would be the country's most important contribution to a global recovery as he pleaded with world leaders to work together despite sharp differences.



"The United States will do its part to restore strong growth, reduce economic imbalances and calm markets," he wrote in a letter sent Tuesday to G-20 leaders.



Some investors were voting with their pocketbooks by buying gold, a safe haven in times of economic uncertainty. Gold hit record highs for a fourth day in a row Tuesday, with futures for the precious metal climbing to $1,422.10 an ounce (on a non-inflation adjusted basis).



The growing tensions have led some to call for using gold if not as a standard, then at least as a guidepost for currencies. World Bank President Robert Zoellick, a former Treasury Department official, called for a system to use gold "as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values."



Writing in the Financial Times, Zoellick said the system “is likely to involve the dollar, the euro, the yen, the pound and a (Chinese) renminbi that moves towards internationalization and then an open capital account."



Obama turned the criticism around on China Tuesday as he cautioned that the G-20 still had a long way to go to in creating a framework for balanced global growth.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40090217/ns/business-world_business/

Stone age etchings found in Amazon basin as river levels fall



Entre os achados está uma pedra tomada por rostos. Entre as fisionomias se destaca a de um moleque sapeca. Imagens pode ser vistas melhor à noite devido o reflexo da lua (Foto: Walter Calheiros/Free lancer)



Children eat sugar cane and play in Brazil's Rio Negro, whose water level fell recently to reveal stone age etchings. Photograph: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters

A series of ancient underwater etchings has been uncovered near the jungle city of Manaus, following a drought in the Brazilian Amazon.



The previously submerged images – engraved on rocks and possibly up to 7,000 years old – were reportedly discovered by a fisherman after the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon river, fell to its lowest level in more than 100 years last month.



Tens of thousands of forest dwellers were left stranded after rivers in the region faded into desert-like sandbanks.



Though water levels are now rising again, partly covering the apparently stone age etchings, local researchers photographed them before they began to disappear under the river's dark waters.



Archaeologists who have studied the photographs believe the art – which features images of faces and snakes – is another indication that thousands of years ago the Amazon was already home to large civilisations.



Eduardo Neves, president of the Brazilian Society of Archaeology and a leading Amazon scholar, said the etchings appeared to have been made between 3,000 and 7,000 years ago when water levels in the region were lower. The etchings were "further, undeniable evidence" that the region had been occupied by a significant number of ancient settlements and people.



"There has always been this idea that the Amazon was empty. The truth is that this hypothesis is not correct. In many parts of the Amazon we now have proof of settlements," he said, adding that the discovery was of great scientific importance.



Recent years have seen a growing number of archaeologists studying the Amazon, revising previous theories that the rainforest was too inhospitable to host a major civilisation.



"The conventional account of the Amazon basin is that it was inhabited by very small, often nomadic indigenous communities," said archaeologist Manuel Arroyo-Kalin, a research associate at University College London and Durham University familiar with the Manaus region.There was growing proof of "incredible pottery, large villages [and] roads going from one place to another" which "for a century or two" had been discarded by scholars.



With soy farmers, loggers and urban settlements advancing, cataloguing and preserving ancient Amazon sites had become a race against time.



"In the city of Manaus the amount of archaeology that has been destroyed is impressive," Arroyo-Kalin said.



Archaeologists are particularly concerned about the imminent inauguration of a 2.2-mile bridge across the Rio Negro connecting Manaus with Iranduba. The area is home to numerous archaeological sites, where ancient ceramics and burial urns have been found. "The bridge … will probably alter quite dramatically life on the other side of the Rio Negro … because [it] will put pressure on the land with urbanisation, and river fronts tend to be loaded with archaeological remains," Arroyo-Kalin said. "By changing the dynamic of how the region is being used … you will certainly start damaging archaeology."



Neves said he hoped the latest find would boost efforts to preserve the rainforest and its ancient secrets.
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/10/amazon-brazil-stone-age-etchings

18 per cent of Americans say they could not put food on the table

People look at job listings at a government-run employment center in Las Vegas. One in five say they have struggled to put food on the table in the past year Photo: AFP

The number was only marginally lower than in September 2009, when record numbers said they were reliant on government-provided food, according to research by Gallup.




The new figures have raised objections to plans in Congress to end increased funding provided to the scheme by the Recovery Act, which was passed in early 2009 when the economic crisis started to affect families heavily.



Moves under consideration would take an estimated $59 (£37) a month worth of food from low-income families.

Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Centre, said that he was concerned that when Republicans assume control of the House of Representatives in January they will be more reluctant to spend money on food stamps.




"Food insecurity is very widespread in this country – it's not a phenomenon of just poor districts or inner-city districts," Mr Weill said

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8123852/18-per-cent-of-Americans-say-they-could-not-put-food-on-the-table.html

Merkel Has 'Re-Ignited a Culture War' Over Nuclear Power

A Greenpeace activist, right, sits in a container blocking the Castor transport train in northern Germany.

Demonstrations against the annual Castor nuclear transport train broke records this year. Green leaders call it a rebuke of Angela Merkel's government, which recently extended the lifespans of German nuclear plants. Have German politics rolled back to the 1980s?



The so-called Castor transport train carries sealed containers of spent fuel rods almost every year from a nuclear reprocessing plant in La Hague, France, to a deep-earth storage facility in Gorleben, Germany. Camping out to block the train among the farms near Gorleben is a ritual for German environmentalists. This year, starting on Oct. 6 -- in response to the government's recent extension of legal lifespans for German nuclear power plants -- a record-breaking total of some 50,000 demonstrators turned out to wait for the train, which runs on a secret schedule and along an unpublicized route. On Monday and Tuesday the train waited 19 hours, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the facility, before track-sitting demonstrators could be cleared by police.
A leader of the Green Party's parliamentary group in Berlin, Renate Künast, told German TV that the protests were the "biggest that Gorleben has ever seen." She said protesters had responded to a "political provocation" by Angela Merkel's government, which in October officially changed a cherished Green Party phase-out of the nation's nuclear power plants. The last nuclear facility had been scheduled to go dark around 2020; as of October 28 plants can run for an average of another 12 years. Merkel called the extension a necessary bridge between old and new forms of domestic energy. Her critics call the measure a gift to the nuclear lobby, noting that it would create billions in additional profits for power utility companies.

The fuel rods originate in Germany, move to France for reprocessing, and return to Gorleben for temporary storage in a former salt mine. Protesters object to the movement of radioactive cargo through the countryside as well as the risk of some future disaster at Gorleben, which is also being researched by the government as a possible "final storage" facility for the highly radioactive, spent fuel rods.



The German government is also mulling a deal with Russia to move 951 radioactive rods burned in an old East German reactor from a temporary storage site in Ahaus, western Germany, to final storage in Majak, Siberia. The Süddeutsche Zeitung broke the news Tuesday. Those considerations are controversial already because of a risk of accidents in Majak.

The origin of Germany's Green movement, which has been vigorous enough to place one Green politician (Joschka Fischer) near the summit of power in Berlin, lies in popular demonstrations against the nuclear industry in the 1970s and '80s. The 2000 law capping the lifespans of nuclear plants was considered a triumph of Fischer's career. German papers on Wednesday morning consider the scale of the protests at Gorleben as well as the revival of Green politics under Angela Merkel's increasingly unpopular conservative government.


The leftist daily Die Tageszeitung writes:
"With their protests against the Castor train to Gorleben, nuclear power opponents have scored a clear win on points against Merkel's government. The massive show of participation by demonstrators shows that the government's hasty decision to extend nuclear-plant lifespans has led to more political engagement in Germany, rather than resignation ... It's now clear that people from all levels of society took to the streets out of personal conviction against the government's irresponsible policies. The attempt to tar them as violent troublemakers has failed."


"What's striking is the gap between political talk and behavior -- particularly in Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen's recent push to send highly radioactive waste to Russia. By talking up 'secure final disposal' and 'national responsibility' for nuclear waste, but at the same time hoping to send old fuel rods to a scandal-ridden nuclear complex in Siberia, Röttgen relinquishes his last ounce of public trust."

"Merkel's government will not reverse its decision about nuclear-facility lifespans just because of the protests near Gorleben. But now the chances have escalated that its own lifespan will be shortened."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung argues:
"In 2005, a government of Greens and Social Democrats in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia resisted the movement of fuel rods from an old East German research reactor in Rossendorf to the temporary site in Ahaus (in North Rhine-Westphalia) … Now the Greens are upset that the waste will be returned to its original owners in Russia. The worry that the fuel rods may not be processed and stored according to German safety standards is not without merit; but it is two-faced. Those who protest the removal of rods from Ahaus are the same people who protest attempts to find a final-storage site (for them) in Germany. If it goes on like this, the demonstrators will manage to ensure that radioactive waste from Germany as well as Russia will find its way to uncertain burial in Siberia."



The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"Storing nuclear waste is a thankless, dirty business … (But) instead of first establishing criteria for storage site and then finding a site, friends of the Gorleben facility did things the other way around. First they found the site, then they set the rules. First they invested billions, then they looked into possible objections and environmental damage. It would be an unusual way to approach a normal construction project, but in this case the concerns are much loftier: getting rid of waste."


"Germany, without doubt, needs to solve its nuclear problem at home. And wherever it sites a final storage facility, there will be protests. But the government can persuade only through geological, factual arguments and orderly practice in law -- not arguments about practical constraints and opportunities. The 'Gorleben principle' can no longer hold."




The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:
"A collective historical awareness of successful civil disobedience arose in Germany (with the protests in the '70s and '80s). These extra-parliamentary movements made German democracy stronger, not weaker. What many people see as carping, dithering and getting in the way is the best you can hope for in a democratic state -- that citizens should look after their deepest concerns."

"The only citizens in Germany who refute this collective awareness are politicians from the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and Free Democrats (FDP), who form the current government. Without the slightest appreciation or understanding (of history) they have re-ignited a painstakingly resolved culture war over nuclear power. They won't resolve it again, even if they put thousands of pitiable police officers in the street. It's up to the Greens, who may one day find themselves in power again -- as they were in 2000 -- to perform the hard work of negotiating a compromise between nuclear protesters and the nuclear industry, and to find a socially acceptable solution for the storage of nuclear waste."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,728340,00.html#ref=rss

'The planet won't be destroyed by global warming because God promised Noah,' says politician bidding to chair U.S. energy committee

Quizzed: Illinois Republican Representative John Shimkus answers questions for reporters
after appearing before the House ethics committee

A Republican congressman hoping to chair the powerful House Energy Committee refers to the Bible and God on the issue of global warming.


Representative John Shimkus insists we shouldn't concerned about the planet being destroyed because God promised Noah it wouldn't happen again after the great flood.

Speaking before a House Energy Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing in March, 2009, Shimkus quoted Chapter 8, Verse 22 of the Book of Genesis.

He said: 'As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.'

The Illinois Republican continued: 'I believe that is the infallible word of God, and that's the way it is going to be for his creation.


'The earth will end only when God declares its time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth. This earth will not be destroyed by a flood.

He added: 'Today we have about 388 parts per million in the atmosphere. I think in the age of dinosaurs, when we had the most flora and fauna, we were probably at 4,000 parts per million. There is a theological debate that this is a carbon-starved planet — not too much carbon. And the cost of a cap-and-trade on the poor is now being discovered.'

The Republican is a vocal opponent to President Obama's American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 - the so-called 'cap-and-trade' Bill, aimed at limiting carbon emissions.

The Bill passed the House
Shimkus, who has served on the committee since 1997, will likely be competing against Texas Representative Joe Barton and Michigan Congressman Fred Upton for the leadership.


In a letter to fellow Republican Congressmembers, Shimkus says: 'I believe I have the credentials within the Commitee to bring fairness, without protests from the other side of the aisle, in its operation.'

He adds that 'now is not the time to moderate or compromise on our most deeply held values'.

It is not the first time Shimkus has sparked surprise. In May 2007, he compared the Iraq war to a baseball game between his 'beloved' St Louis Cardinals and the 'much despised' Chicago Cubs.

He also hit the headlines in 2009 when he walked out as President Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of the House and the Senate.

The Committee on Energy and Commerce, to give it its full title, is one of the oldest standing committees of the United States House of Representatives having been established in 1795.


It takes a central role in formulating U.S. policy


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1328366/John-Shimkus-Global-warming-wont-destroy-planet-God-promised-Noah.html#ixzz14td4oxgH

Sentenced to hang: Pakistan Christian in blasphemy trialPremium

• Christians gather at a church in Lahore. Pakistan's three million strong Christian community fears persecution. Picture: Getty

HUMAN rights campaigners have condemned a decision by a court in Pakistan to sentence a Christian woman to be hanged after finding her guilty of blasphemy.






Asia Bibi, 45, was arrested last year after being accused of defaming the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam.



The mother-of-five denied the charges but was sentenced to death by a court on Monday, provoking outrage among Christian groups and human rights advocates. They say Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws are being used to discriminate against religious minorities and should be repealed.



Her supporters say Mrs Bibi will now appeal against the sentence handed down by a local court in the town of Sheikhupura, near Lahore.



Ashiq Masih, her husband, said the family was in a state of shock and believed the judge had been pressured into finding his wife guilty.



"It is an unjust decision," he said. "I can't believe it."



He added that he had not yet had the heart to break the news to his youngest children.



"I haven't told two of my younger daughters about the court's decision," he said.



"They asked me many times about their mother but I can't get the courage to tell them that the judge has sentenced their mother to capital punishment for a crime that she never committed."



The court heard she had been working as a farmhand in fields with other women, when she was asked to fetch drinking water.



Some of the other women - all Muslims - refused to drink the water, sparking a row. They said, as it had been brought by a Christian, it was "unclean", Mrs Bibi said in evidence.



The incident was forgotten until a few days later when Mrs Bibi said she was set upon by a baying mob. The police were called and took her to a police station for her own safety.



Shahzad Kamran, of the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan, said: "The police were under pressure from this Muslim mob, including clerics, asking for Asia to be killed because she had spoken ill of the Prophet Muhammad.



"So after the police saved her life they then registered a blasphemy case against her."



He added that she had been held in isolation for more than a year before being sentenced to death on Monday.



"The trial was clear," he said.



"She was innocent and did not say those words."



Although no-one has ever been executed under Pakistan's blasphemy laws - most are freed on appeal - as many as ten people are thought to have been murdered while on trial


http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Sentenced-to-hang-Pakistan-Christian.6619709.jp

"Chubby" Barack Obama Remembered in Jakarta

President Obama visited Indonesia Tuesday, to the delight of former neighbors and classmates who remembered him well.

President Obama's visit to Jakarta, Indonesia this week has meant the exposure of some pretty colorful details about Mr. Obama's childhood - including the fact that those he grew up with describe him as a chubby child known as the "boy who runs like a duck."




Chubby: Barack Obama, then known as Barry Soetoro, centre, is pictured at a classmate's birthday party in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1971


Mr. Obama is in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, as part of his 10-day tour of Asia that included three days in India as well as coming visits to South Korea and Japan. The trip marks his first visit as president to the island that he lived on for four years as a child, beginning in 1967.

Popular: The man who would become president of the USA was well-liked in his neighbourhood of Menteng Dalam

In an official press conference with President Susilo Bamband Ydhoyono on Tuesday, Mr. Obama said his return was a "little disorienting" in light of the drastic changes that have occurred in Indonesia in recent decades.



Still, he said, "the sights and the sounds and the memories all feel very familiar."



As the New York Times discovered, however, some in Indonesia remember a "Barry" Obama that most Americans may not be so familiar with.





As a child in Indonesia, Mr. Obama lived with his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, in the quaint neighborhood of Matraman-Dalam for two years. According to the Times, several community members fondly remembered "Barry" as a bit of a trouble maker.



"Barry was so naughty that my father even scolded him one time," said former neighbor and classmate Sonni Gondokusumo, 49.



He apparently wasn't particularly graceful, either. Community leader Coenraad Satjakoesoemah said the then-chubby "Barry" Obama was known as the "boy who runs like a duck."



The Times also discovered that Mr. Obama's nanny in Indonesia, which has an open-minded attitude toward homosexuality, was an openly gay man who dated a local butcher. The nanny later joined the Fantastic Dolls, a transvestite group of the kind common in Jakarta that entertained people on the street with dancing and playing volleyball.



Some on the right suggested during Mr. Obama's presidential campaign that he had attended a radical madrassa while in Indonesia. Former students at the Menteng school scoffed at that characterization. While many of the students at the school are Muslim, it draws the children of the elite in Indonesia. The school did not even have a prayer room when Mr. Obama attended; a mosque was built on the grounds in 2002.



In Indonesia, Obama Touts Outreach to Muslims

Mr. Obama's desire to be president one day may have been evident even from a young age, according to a story childhood friend Slamet Januadi told the Times.



Januadi said Mr. Obama once asked a group of boys if they would rather be a president, a solider or a businessman when they grow up. He noted that a president would have nothing while a solider could have weapons and a businessman could have money. None of the boys chose president.



"Then Barry said he would become president and order the soldier to guard him and the businessman to use his money to build him something," Mr. Januadi said. "We told him, 'You cheated. You didn't give us those details.'"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20022260-503544.html

.

Obama inks energy agreements in India

U.S. President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wave as they arrive in India at the beginning of his ten day trip through Asia, in New Delhi, India on November 7, 2010. UPI/Raj Patidar

 

NEW DELHI, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- As U.S. President Barack Obama wrapped up his trip to India, the two countries agreed to set up a green energy research and development center in India.




With each country funding $5 million for the next five years, the center is expected to focus on solar energy, energy efficiency, biofuels, clean coal technology and an integrated gasification combined cycle project that turns coal into synthesis gas.



The concept of such a center was first agreed upon during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's state visit to Washington last November.



It represents the U.S. government's second joint green energy research and development agreement, reached with China during Obama's visit to Beijing, which also occurred last November.



Speaking to India's Parliament Monday, Obama said, "We can pursue joint research and development to create green jobs; give India more access to cleaner, affordable energy; meet the commitments we made at Copenhagen and show the possibilities of low-carbon growth."



Obama's visit to India also marks the beginning of cooperation between the two countries on nuclear power.



"With my visit, we are now ready to begin implementing our civil nuclear agreement," Obama told Parliament. "This will help meet India's growing energy needs and create thousands of jobs in both of our countries."



The agreement between the two countries for cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy was signed in October 2008.



During Obama's visit, India and the United States also signed an agreement on shale gas cooperation that includes a resource assessment in India to be conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey, technical studies on shale gas exploration in India and training of Indian personnel in shale gas exploration and development.



Earlier this month, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora said that there is a "huge" tract of Indian sedimentary areas that is unexplored, "creating opportunities for global players" to venture into the shale sector, The Hindu newspaper reports.



Because India imports 75 percent of its crude oil needs, Deora said it is important to "vigorously" explore the Indian Sedimentary Basin to bridge the gap.



India aims to launch the first round of auction of shale gas-bearing areas by the end of 2011.



In a joint declaration issued Monday, Singh and Obama reaffirmed their "strong commitment to taking vigorous action to address climate change, ensure mutual energy security, and build a clean energy economy that w


http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/11/09/Obama-inks-energy-agreements-in-India/UPI-34851289335184/

Students to protest Obama’s visit to UI

As many as seven groups of students will hold a rally on Wednesday to protest the visit of US President Barack Obama to University of Indonesia where the president will give a lecture at noon, the Jakarta Police traffic management center said.




The demonstration in the university will begin at 09.00 a.m.



Other protests will be staged in front of the former office of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle on Jalan Diponegoro 58, in front of US embassy, and in front of City Hall on Jalan Merdeka Selatan.



At noon, protesters will hold demonstrations on Jalan Jendral Sudirman, in front of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Jalan H.R. Rasuna Said, and the Energi and Mineral Resources Ministery on Jalan Merdeka Selatan.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/11/10/students-protest-obama%e2%80%99s-visit-ui.html

Bush critisises Obama, says he has failed as president: Report

NEW YORK: Former US President George W Bush has criticised the policies of his Republican successor Barack Obama , saying he has made a "mess of relations" with Pakistan and is worried about America's strategy on Afghanistan, a media report said.




Bush, who generally has a policy of not slamming Obama, thinks he has failed as president and made a mess of relations with Pakistan, a Republican official close to Bush was quoted as saying by the 'New York Daily News'.



"He thinks the policy is adrift," the official said. While worried about the present Afghanistan strategy, Bush supports the troop surge and more muscular drone strikes against terrorist targets, he said.



"I want my President to succeed because if my President succeeds my country succeeds, and I want my country to succeed," Bush typically says when asked about Obama.



He had earlier dubbed Republican leader Sarah Palin as "unqualified" to be the next head of state.



"Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man. He thinks McCain ran a lousy campaign with an unqualified running mate and destroyed any chance of winning by picking Palin," the Republican official was quoted as saying.



Following its take-over of the US House of Representatives in the mid-term elections, the Republican Party is assessing its chances at winning the 2012 presidential race, and political heavy weight Sarah Palin is being considered as a front-runner.


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/Bush-critisises-Obama-says-he-has-failed-as-president-Report/articleshow/6889593.cms

Why Park51 is much more than the 'mosque at Ground Zero'

Park51’s white lattice ‘exoskeleton’ is inspired by the elaborately patterned mashrabiyas of Islamic architecture.
Photograph: Anonymous/ASSOCIATED PRESS

It's easier to say what the "mosque at Ground Zero" is not, than what it is. It's not a mosque, and it's not at Ground Zero – only nearby. It's not a "clubhouse for terrorists", as some objectors have called it, nor a work of "triumphalist stealth jihad". It does not "loom" over the "hallowed ground" of the 9/11 attacks, which cannot be seen from its site.




As to what it is, the explanation is not at first very enlightening. Park51, to use the project's proper name, is "a friendly and accessible platform" that "enriches lower Manhattan in body and spirit, with ecologically conscious design and operation". However, its architect, Michel Abboud, makes things clearer: it is a Muslim version of the YMCA, or the many Jewish community centres in New York. That is, it will have a swimming pool, basketball court, childcare and exhibition facilities, a library, auditorium, restaurant and catering school.


When built, it will be 16 storeys high, and 10% of its floor area will be a "prayer space". It will be large – big enough for 1,500 people – but there will be no minaret, or room for ablutions, or other essential features of a mosque. Its religious elements would be "a matter of interior design", as Abboud puts it, and faiths and groups other than Muslims will be able to pray there. The project now has planning permission and, subject to fundraising, will be completed, at the earliest, in three years' time.



As Abboud tells it, the year's most controversial building project came about almost by chance, through a sequence of reasonable decisions. It started when the developer Soho Properties bought the former Burlington Coat Factory in Park Avenue, lower Manhattan. It considered potential uses, conducted market research, and found that there was a need for "community facilities" in the area. Sharif El-Gamal, a Muslim American who runs Soho Properties, attended the nearby mosque of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who had been working in the area for 30 years.



Together they decided to create what is now Park51. That the project was close to Ground Zero was due to El-Gamal's and Rauf's long connections with the area. But they were conscious of the significance of the place, and it was not unwelcome to them. Rauf has said that it gave an opportunity to make "the opposite statement" to the destruction of the Twin Towers.



Abboud is a young architect on the rise, who "started building projects before I graduated", and now, at 33, runs Soma Architects, a practice with 30 staff and offices in New York, Mexico and Beirut. Its work so far has consisted mostly of smart restaurants and luxury residential projects – nothing approaching the significance of Park51. He is a walking melting pot, albeit of a somewhat privileged kind, a Catholic of French, Lebanese and Mexican origins.



"The difficulty from day one," he tells me with some understatement, "was to satisfy all the different parties: the developers, the religious institution and the average New Yorker." The building had to promote "integration and unity", and be "porous and open to the city" while "maintaining a landmark quality". He was "not going to fall into stereotypical illusions of what Islamic architecture looks like".



He conceived a "self-supporting exoskeleton", a white lattice that holds the building up, creates shade, and defines the character of the interiors. It is inspired by mashrabiyas, the elaborately patterned sunscreens common in Islamic architecture. He is not, he stresses, the first western architect to have this idea: Jean Nouvel's 1988 Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, for one, did something similar. The designs of Abboud's lattice are based on "ancient historical patterns that have a very long story to them", but "some people imagined there were reversed Stars of David included as a provocation to Jews". It was "only a few people, and very far-fetched", but he is still responding by making the traditional patterns "more blurred".



The design is "still evolving, but I expect the finished building to have a similar concept". Abboud claims that "every time the project is presented properly, without the media swirl, people respond positively".



Indeed, the idea of the project was in the public domain for six months, following its announcement in the New York Times a year ago, before anyone made a fuss. It was approved unanimously by the local Community Board in May. Only after that, with the US midterm elections looming, was a political storm whipped around it. Abboud believes that slow progress on the 9/11 memorial, which is now due to be dedicated at next year's 10th anniversary, did not help. "Whether consciously or unconsciously, people feared the centre could be built before the Ground Zero memorial was built."



It probably also doesn't help that the project is nuanced and ambiguous. As a 16-storey building for a Muslim group, located where it is, it is clearly a statement of something, but it is not completely explicit what this something is. As well as a community facility, it is a demonstration of Muslim presence in New York, and that most Muslims are not terrorists.



This clearly should not cause anyone a problem, yet in the febrile atmosphere of modern America, ambiguity makes space for baroque fears. "Let 'em build it, then bomb it – at the busiest time of day," was one of the less charming reactions. Abboud says: "It is very important to understand the healing power of architecture." There is an awful lot of healing still to do.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/07/ground-zero-park51-new-york

Rudy's attack leaves BJP HQ red-faced

NEW DELHI: An ill-considered and hasty attack on President Barack Obama by BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy by way of an "official reaction" for not mentioning Pakistan's role in 26/11 at a gathering that included victims of the terror attack has left top party leaders red-faced.



The criticism aired barely hours after Obama landed in India was seen to be an immature reading of the US president's stance on terrorism and while Rudy later tried to save face by claiming his reaction was more in the nature of "expectations" which Indians have from Obama, it was evident that the spokesperson had spoken out of turn.



"It was the first address by the US President at a place (Taj Hotel) which saw the biggest terror attack on India. It was a complete disappointment as the world and United States had proof that the attack was planned on Pakistani soil by its intelligence agencies. He had words which were not backed with action and intent," Rudy had said, adding that New Delhi seemed keen to provide a political bailout to Obama.



As criticism mounted in the media and among India's strategic community over Rudy's trigger-happy and unthinking reaction, the party had no option but to wash its hands off the matter. Obama's former campaign manager Peter Dagher described Rudy's reaction as "beneath India".



When contacted by TOI, BJP president Nitin Gadkari stubbornly refused to comment on whether or not what Rudy had said was the party's official reaction. "I don't want to talk about this matter on phone. Please talk to either Arun Jaitley or Sushma Swaraj," said Gadkari.





 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rudys-attack-leaves-BJP-HQ-red-faced/articleshow/6881790.cms

Militants Threaten More Attacks in Niger Delta - JTF Raises Alarm

Yenagoa — Barely a week after militants blew up two Nigeria Agip Oil Company pipelines in Bayelsa state, the Joint (Military) Task Force on the Niger Delta (JTF) has raised the alarm of a possible militant strike again in the state, following intelligence report.




The possibility of the strike, THISDAY gathered, has forced the JTF to fortify all roads leading to the state, especially along the busy East/West Warri/Port Harcourt highway.


Also, the long span bridges at Patani and Kaima have been taken over by battle-ready soldiers following threats of bomb attack by unknown militias .




THISDAY also gathered that two prominent ex-militant leaders from Bayelsa State have been fingered as culprits in last week's dynamite attack on the Agip pipelines at Osiama last week.



Intelligence report, unveiled to 35 ex-militant leaders in the state led by the Sector Commander of the JTF, Col. Victor Ezugwu and State Director of the State Security Service (SSS), Mr. Baba Musa, showed that the planned action may have been influenced by some external and political influence outside the region.



Ezugwu said it was this report that influenced the fortification of both the Kaima and Patani bridges over the recent threats. The meeting was held behind closed doors.



THISDAY check revealed that some ex-militant leaders including Comrade Ebikabowei Victor-Ben aka Boyloaf, Pastor Reuben Wilson, Joshua Machiver, Comrade Eris Paul aka Ogunboss and Africanus Ukparaisia aka General Africa who was represented by his deputy expressed their readiness to work harmoniously with security agencies in order to apprehend those involved in the attack.



Boyloaf and Ogunboss condemned the actions of the ex-militant leaders indicted by the intelligent report while also asking the Federal Government to expedite action on the amnesty agreements, saying while many of them could be patient for all the details of the agreement to be implemented, other may not, which maybe the reason for the attack.




Said Boyloaf: "There are no splinter group planning to engage in violence and some people in the struggle don't know the value of amnesty. The attack is selfish and criminal. There should be full stop to this rubbish. Anybody caught is on his own and the act is targeted at undermining a Niger Delta man at the Presidency. The deities of the region will not forgive them."


http://allafrica.com/stories/201011050448.html

After 136 years, Republicans in charge

When the last unofficial totals from Tuesday’s general election were posted well into the night, a new day had dawned for the political order in north Alabama.




Gone was the solidly Democratic legislative delegation that had risen to a near pinnacle in the Legislature. Only one incumbent northwest Alabama Democrat — Sen. Roger Bedford — survived Tuesday’s Republican landslide.



Incumbent Rep. Marcel Black, of Tuscumbia, did not face opposition, but it is clear he won’t be the next speaker of the House, a position that would have given the region powerful new standing in the state.



Two Shoals Democrats hung on to win open seats — Rep. Tammy Irons, of Florence, claimed the District 1 Senate seat of Bobby Denton, who is retiring, and Greg Burdine claimed Irons’ House seat in a race decided by 210 votes.



“It was a change the scope of which I have not seen in my lifetime,” said Bill Stewart, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama.



Only two Democrats — Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb and Public Service Commissioner Lucy Baxley — remain statewide officeholders and neither were on Tuesday’s ballot.



Stewart attributed the Republicans’ taking of the Legislature for the first time in 136 years, as well as every state constitutional office, to deep public dissatisfaction with the weak national economy and to the policies of President Obama.



“Things are not going well,” Stewart said. “The voters don’t like some of the legislation that’s been passed. This is a way to protest.”



Shannon Bridgmon, assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, said Republicans were successful tying the national political mood to Alabama races.



“The incumbents were seen as complacent, out of touch and self-serving,” she said. “The House and Senate races drew on the 62 percent pay raise, and that was salient across the board.”



Stewart and Bridgmon differ slightly on the effect of Black’s exclusion from the House Speaker’s chair after the Republican victory.



“Marcel Black has been a very powerful and influential legislator,” said Stewart, a Hartselle native. “Now, we will have Mr. (Mike) Hubbard as speaker, presumably. That is a loss for northwest Alabama, which is the stronghold of the Democratic Party outside the Black Belt.”



Bridgmon, a Florence resident, said because Black had not claimed the Speaker’s post, the political effect will be minimal. But Bedford’s loss of powerful committee chairmanships will be noticed.



“Voters don’t necessarily consider legislative committee assignments or where their legislative assignments will be,” she said.



With Republicans in the majority in both legislative chambers, they will decide committee assignments, assume chairmanships and control the flow of legislation.



“With the incoming class of freshmen, it will be interesting to see how successfully they lobby for north Alabama’s interests in Montgomery,” Bridgmon said. “Republican power is not generally from this region of the state.”



Both agreed that Tuesday’s sweeping Republican victories — in the state and nationally — create a new playing field for state lawmakers that contains important lessons.



“On the average day, the average person rarely has an opportunity to vent or express their frustration,” Stewart said. “On Tuesday, they did so.”



“I think this will be a wake-up call in north Alabama, that this will not be politics as usual as we move forward,” Bridgmon said.



Robert Palmer can be reached at 256-740-5720 or robert.palmer@TimesDaily.com.


http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20101104/NEWS/101109899/1031/news02?Title=After-136-years-Republicans-in-charge#

Dead, dying coral found near BP spill called 'smoking gun'

A close up of one of the impacted corals. A small amount of apparently living tissue on the tips of some branches is orange. Most of the skeleton is bare or covered by brown flocculent material.

Scientists returning from an expedition off the Gulf Coast said Friday they found dead and dying deepwater coral near the BP oil spill site that was covered in a brown substance.



"The compelling evidence that we collected constitutes a smoking gun" that the substance is tied to the BP spill, the chief researcher on the cruise, Penn State biologist Charles Fisher, said in a statement Friday.




"We have never seen anything like this," he added. "The visual data for recent and ongoing death are crystal clear and consistent over at least 30 colonies; the site is close to the Deepwater Horizon; the research site is at the right depth and direction to have been impacted by a deep-water plume, based on NOAA models and empirical data; and the impact was detected only a few months after the spill was contained."



"These kinds of coral are normally beautiful, brightly colored," Fisher said. "What you saw was a field of brown corals with exposed skeleton — white, brittle stars tightly wound around the skeleton, not waving their arms like they usually do."



Fisher described the soft and hard coral they found seven miles southwest of the well as an underwater graveyard. He said oil probably passed over the coral and killed it.



The coral has "been dying for months," he said. "What we are looking at is a combination of dead gooey tissues and sediment. Gunk is a good word for what it is."



The researchers found the evidence at a site 4,600 feet deep.



"Ninety percent of 40 large corals were heavily affected and showed dead and dying parts and discoloration," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement. NOAA sponsored the cruise. "Another site 400 meters (1,200 feet) away had a colony of stony coral similarly affected and partially covered with a similar brown substance."

"The compelling evidence that we collected constitutes a smoking gun" that the substance is tied to the BP spill, the chief researcher on the cruise, Penn State biologist Charles Fisher, said in a statement Friday.




"We have never seen anything like this," he added. "The visual data for recent and ongoing death are crystal clear and consistent over at least 30 colonies; the site is close to the Deepwater Horizon; the research site is at the right depth and direction to have been impacted by a deep-water plume, based on NOAA models and empirical data; and the impact was detected only a few months after the spill was contained."



"These kinds of coral are normally beautiful, brightly colored," Fisher said. "What you saw was a field of brown corals with exposed skeleton — white, brittle stars tightly wound around the skeleton, not waving their arms like they usually do."



Fisher described the soft and hard coral they found seven miles southwest of the well as an underwater graveyard. He said oil probably passed over the coral and killed it.



The coral has "been dying for months," he said. "What we are looking at is a combination of dead gooey tissues and sediment. Gunk is a good word for what it is."



The researchers found the evidence at a site 4,600 feet deep.



"Ninety percent of 40 large corals were heavily affected and showed dead and dying parts and discoloration," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement. NOAA sponsored the cruise. "Another site 400 meters (1,200 feet) away had a colony of stony coral similarly affected and partially covered with a similar brown substance."

One of the impacted corals with attached brittle starfish. Although the orange tips on some branches of the coral is the color of living tissue, it is unlikely that any living tissue remains on this animal

 
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40029074/ns/us_news-environment/

Costco: Cheese sold in 5 states linked to E. coli

ISSAQUAH, Wash. — A cheese sold recently at Costco Wholesale Corp. outlets in five states has been preliminarily linked to an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 25 people, Costco and federal health officials warned consumers Thursday.




The Bravo Farms Dutch Style Raw Milk Gouda Cheese was offered for sale and for in-store tasting between Oct. 5 and Nov. 1 at Costco stores in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and the San Diego, Calif., area.



The Issaquah-Wash.-based company said the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 25 cases of people sickened by E. coli O157:H7 in those states during that time.



In its own statement, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the illnesses include 11 in Arizona, eight in Colorado, three in New Mexico, two in Nevada and one in California.



Symptoms of E. coli infection include bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps, dehydration and in severe cases, kidney failure. The FDA advised anyone experiencing those symptoms to contact a health care provider.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40025070/ns/health-food_safety/

Gaza surfer girls find freedom on the waves

Ismail Zaydah / Reuters Shorouq Abu Ghanem gets set to ride a wave Friday off the coast of Gaza City.
Behind her is her father, Rajab Abu Ghanem.

Sabah Abu Ghanem surfs off the coast of Gaza City on Friday

The two girls, 13 and 12, learned how to swim at the age of three thanks to their lifeguard father.

They can swim up to 6 miles, dive to 25 feet and surf on plastic boards that they hope one day to trade in for competition-grade models.


"In the sea I find my freedom. I feel free of everything I leave behind on land," said 13-year-old Shorouq.


"Gaza is under blockade. We lack surfboards, we lack diving gear. We lack many things. But out in the sea it doesn't matter."


During this year's heat wave the shallow waters off the beach were no escape to Gaza residents. It is polluted in several spots because of insufficient sanitation and a crippled sewage treatment plant.


But the daughters of Rajab Abu Ghanem swim confidently out to the clean waves beyond the shoreline

"My girls are like sea beasts. They are excellent swimmers and surfers," says the father of seven, who has been surfing for 15 years and has won prizes in long-distance swimming events.
The Mediterranean waves are fickle and often modest, and surfing has never been a popular sport here

But in 2007, Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, a Jewish surfing legend, brought 15 surfboards to Gaza after he saw a video of two Palestinians practicing on a shared, makeshift board.


Those boards quickly disappeared among the young men of Gaza's Beach Refugee Camp and the girls never got a chance to try them.
Gaza Palestinians on the beach or at open-air restaurants by the seaside are surprised to see the two girls and their female cousins Kholoud and Rawand paddling out into the surf.
"Some people tell us we could drown, but we tell them they know nothing about us," said 12-year-old Sabah. "When they watch us paddle right out of sight, they change their minds."
Many Palestinian women in conservative Gaza, which is under the control of the Islamist movement, Hamas, are accustomed to bathe clothed, and find it offensive for girls to go surfing.
"They don't deter us," Shorouq said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40029991/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

British cleric wins round on extradition

Radical Muslim leader Sheikh Abu Hamza delivers his Islamic message at traditional Friday prayers on the street outside London's Finsbury Mosque on April 16, 2004. Abu Hamza is fighting to remain in the country after having his citizenship revoked by Britain's Home Secretary last year on the grounds of incitig racial hatred. (UPI Photo/Hugo Philpott)

LONDON, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- A jailed extremist Muslim cleric Friday won an appeal to keep his British passport and delay extradition to the United States.



The Special Immigration Appeals Commission agreed that revoking the passport of Abu Hamza, former imam of the Finsbury Park mosque in London, would make him stateless since he had already been stripped of his Egyptian citizenship, The Guardian reported. The ruling puts more obstacles before U.S. authorities who want to try him on terrorism charges.



Hamza, 52, was sentenced to seven years in Britain in February 2006 for inciting murder and racial hatred.



He is in a London prison as he fights the extradition on charges of collaborating with Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists, assisting the kidnapping of 16 tourists in Yemen in 1998 and trying to establish a jihadist training camp in Oregon in 1999.



In July, the European Court of Human Rights demanded more information on the length of his sentence and the conditions he would experience if sent to a U.S. "supermax" prison in Colorado.



The previous British government tried to send him to the United States before his term was over, but the extradition was halted after his lawyers went to the European court.


http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2010/11/05/British-cleric-wins-round-on-extradition/UPI-81691288978420/