Sunday, April 10, 2011

Divided Poland marks anniversary of Russia crash

Divided Poland marks anniversary of Russia crash AFP – People waves flags in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw April 10, 2011, to commemorate the first …
WARSAW (AFP) – Poland on Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of a plane crash in Russia that killed president Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other high-profile Poles, amid bitter domestic divisions and a row with Moscow.
At a ceremony in central Warsaw, the late president's identical twin and current conservative opposition leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, lashed out.
He slammed the "weakness of the (Polish) state, which was not up to the task of protecting its own president".
In a stark sign of splits in Poland's establishment, the Kaczynski twins' Law and Justice party (PiS) boycotted official events and organised its own.
Earlier Sunday, at 8:41 am (0641 GMT), the exact time of the April 10, 2010, tragedy in Smolensk, western Russia, a visibly emotional President Bronislaw Komorowski paid silent tribute to his predecessor and the 95 other victims in a Warsaw church.
Bowing before a memorial plaque, Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk -- both from the centre-right Civic Platform (PO), PiS's nemesis -- placed candles, a traditional mourning symbol in deeply Catholic Poland.
Later, in a Warsaw cemetery where many of the victims lie, Komorowski appealed for the tragedy not to be a source of strife.
"A year on, we should see what is great, what is good," he said.
"One of the finest memorials we can build together is to care for the dreams and passion of those who died, so that they find followers who will carry their passion, dreams and hopes into the future," he added.
At the presidential palace, thousands of Kaczynski supporters gathered before a makeshift shrine. At the foot of a birchwood cross was a model of Poland's presidential Tupolev 154 jet broken in two.
Lech Kaczynski's delegation had been bound for a commemoration in the Katyn forest, near Smolensk, for some 22,000 captured Polish officers slain by the Soviet secret police in 1940.
On Saturday and Sunday, Warsaw and Moscow traded barbs over the removal of a Polish-language memorial plaque in Smolensk which stated that the crash victims were heading to Katyn.
The Polish foreign ministry warned that Komorowski may not lay a wreath Monday when he meets with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev there, but PiS demanded he cancel the trip outright.
On Sunday, Russia expressed "bewilderment" at Polish protests, saying Warsaw had been informed in advance about a bilingual plaque that did not mention Katyn.
Poland has also contested Russia's probe of the disaster, which blamed the Polish pilots for trying to land in fog.
Warsaw has complained of a whitewash of the Russian air traffic controllers and the shoddy state of Smolensk airport.
After Russia released its findings in January, Jaroslaw Kaczynski dubbed it a "mockery" and claimed that Tusk's government was being too soft on Russia. Tusk appealed for the issue not to be politicised.
Besides Lech Kaczynski and his wife, the crash victims included other senior politicians, military top brass and -- in a bitter twist -- relatives of those shot at Katyn.
The World War II massacre has remained a thorn in Polish-Russian ties.
Moscow blamed Nazi Germany until 1990, and Poles could not discuss it openly until Warsaw's post-war communist regime fell in 1989.
It has rarely been discussed in Russia since the Soviet Union's 1991 demise.
A year ago, Poles mourned together across party lines, but that unity is long gone.
The Kaczynskis, who clashed frequently with fellow European Union leaders and Moscow, were icons for conservative nationalists but often loathed by opponents.
PiS lost its presidential brake on PO when Komorowski beat Jaroslaw Kaczynski in a snap election after the crash.
The anniversary comes six months before a general election, with PiS trailing PO in polls.

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Siemens 'received $2.35 bn' for Areva NP stake

Siemens 'received $2.35 bn' for Areva NP stake AFP/DDP/File – Siemens has received 1.62 billion euros ($2.35 billion) for the sale of its 34-percent stake in its joint …
BERLIN (AFP) – Siemens has received 1.62 bi
llion euros ($2.35 billion) for the sale of its 34-percent stake in its joint venture with French group Areva, a spokesman for the German industrial giant said on Sunday.
"Areva has paid out the 1.62 billion, that's correct," Alexander Becker told AFP, confirming an earlier report set to appear in the Die Welt daily Monday.
The sum corresponds to the amount established by an independent expert chosen by the two firms for Siemens' share in the Areva NP company.
Nevertheless, the final amount is still subject to a legal battle and could change, added Becker.
"A legal procedure will come to a decision on whether the price is confirmed or goes up or down by 40 percent," Becker said. This could value the deal at anywhere between 972 million euros and 2.27 billion euros.
Siemens has already said it expects the sale to make a significant positive contribution to profit in the second quarter of its fiscal year 2011.
The German group is exercising a put option on its holding after the French government, which is the majority shareholder, rebuffed an attempt to take a direct stake in Areva.
Siemens has since turned towards Russia, and is in talks on the creation of a joint venture with Rosatom, the state-owned nuclear energy agency.
However, after the nuclear crisis in Japan, Siemens is thought to be reconsidering its nuclear strategy.

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Nazi warplane lying off UK coast is intact

Reuters/Port of London/handout
LONDON (Reuters) – A rare World War Two German bomber, shot down over the English Channel in 1940 and hidden for years by shifting sands at the bottom of the sea, is so well preserved a British museum wants to raise it.
The Dornier 17 -- thought to be world's last known example -- was hit as it took part in the Battle of Britain.
It ditched in the sea just off the Kent coast, southeast England, in an area known as the Goodwin Sands.
The plane came to rest upside-down in 50 feet of water and has become partially visible from time to time as the sands retreated before being buried again.
Now a high-tech sonar survey undertaken by the Port of London Authority (PLA) has revealed the aircraft to be in a startling state of preservation.
Ian Thirsk, from the RAF Museum at Hendon in London, told the BBC he was "incredulous" when he first heard of its existence and potential preservation.
"This aircraft is a unique aeroplane and it's linked to an iconic event in British history, so its importance cannot be over-emphasized, nationally and internationally," he said.
"It's one of the most significant aeronautical finds of the century."
Known as "the flying pencil," the Dornier 17 was designed as a passenger plane in 1934 and was later converted for military use as a fast bomber, difficult to hit and theoretically able to outpace enemy fighter aircraft.
Click image to see photos of World War II German bomber

Reuters/Royal Air Force Museum London/handout
In all, some 1,700 were produced but they struggled in the war with a limited range and bomb load capability and many were scrapped afterwards.
Striking high-resolution images appear to show that the Goodwin Sands plane suffered only minor damage, to its forward cockpit and observation windows, on impact.
"The bomb bay doors were open, suggesting the crew jettisoned their cargo," said PLA spokesman Martin Garside.
Two of the crew members died on impact, while two others, including the pilot, were taken prisoner and survived the war.
"The fact that it was almost entirely made of aluminum and produced in one piece may have contributed to its preservation," Garside told Reuters.
The plane is still vulnerable to the area's notorious shifting sands and has become the target of recreational divers hoping to salvage souvenirs.
The RAF museum has launched an appeal to raise funds for the lifting operation.
(Editing by Steve Addison)

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Iceland rejects debt deal to repay UK, Dutch

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Voters in Iceland rejected a government-backed deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands for their citizens' $5 billion worth of deposits in a failed online bank, referendum results showed Sunday — sending the dispute to an international court and plunging the economically fragile country into new uncertainty.
Final results showed the "no" side had just under 60 percent of the votes and the "yes" side about 40 percent.
The result reflects Icelanders' anger at having to pay for the excesses of their bankers, and complicates the country's recovery from economic meltdown.
It is the second time voters have defeated a bid to settle the bitter dispute stemming from the collapse of Iceland's high-flying banking sector in 2008, and the government said it would be the last.
"We are at the end of the road of a negotiated solution," said Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson.
He said Iceland would now opt for "Plan B," with the dispute going to the European Free Trade Association court, which could impose harsher terms on Iceland than those rejected in Saturday's vote.
Britain and the Netherlands said they would fight to get back the money they spent compensating their citizens who had accounts in the failed bank, Icesave.
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said the referendum result "is not good for Iceland and also not good for the Netherlands."
"The time for negotiations has passed," he said. "Iceland still has the obligation to pay us back. This is now a case for the courts."
British Treasury minister Danny Alexander said "we have an obligation to get that money back, and we will continue to pursue that until we do."
"We have a very, very difficult financial position as a country," Alexander told the BBC. "This money, of course, would help."
Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said the results were disappointing but she would try to prevent political and economic chaos ensuing. Sigfusson said the result would have no effect on Iceland's existing debt repayments and would not derail its bid for European Union membership.
A tiny North Atlantic nation with a population of just 320,000, Iceland went from economic wunderkind to financial basket case almost overnight when the credit crunch took hold.
Its major banks — which had expanded to dwarf the rest of Iceland's economy during a decade of credit-fueled boom — collapsed within a week in October 2008, its krona currency plummeted and protests toppled the government.
The savings of Icelandic citizens were protected by an unlimited domestic deposit guarantee, but no such rule applied to the many foreigners attracted to Icelandic banks by their high-interest accounts.
Some 340,000 British and Dutch savers had deposited more than $5 billion in Icesave. After Icesave collapsed, British and Dutch authorities borrowed money to compensate their citizens, then turned to Iceland for repayment.
The dispute has grown acrimonious, with Britain and the Netherlands threatening to block Iceland's bid to join the European Union unless it is resolved.
Failure to approve a deal also stalled installments from a $4.6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.
Sigfusson said the government would hold talks with those who have loaned Iceland money — the IMF, the Nordic nations and Poland — in the wake of the referendum defeat.
"We have made substantial progress moving out of the crisis in 2008, and we intend to keep on doing so despite this outcome," he said.
Icelanders overwhelmingly rejected a previous deal in a referendum last year, but the government had hoped a new agreement on better terms would win approval.
The Icesave debt was initially set at $5.3 billion — a crippling burden for the tiny country — but backers of the rejected deal said it would cost Iceland just under 50 billion kronur ($444 million), with the recovered assets of Icesave's parent bank, Landsbanki, covering the majority of the debt.
The deal was reached in December after long negotiations among the three countries and approved by Iceland's parliament in January. But President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson vetoed it amid strong public opposition.
The president hailed the referendum, and the high voter turnout of 75 percent, as a cathartic step for Iceland.
He said the financial collapse had "paralyzed the nation's will and sapped the courage of our people."
"The two referendums on the Icesave issue have enabled the nation to regain its democratic self-confidence and to express sovereign authority in its own affairs and thus determine the outcome in difficult issues," Grimsson said.
Opposition politicians called on the government to hold new elections, but Sigfusson said the left-of-center coalition would not resign.
"This was a referendum on the Icesave case, not on the government," he said.
___
David MacDougall in Reykjavik, Jill Lawless in London and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS Adds voter turnout, quote from president. Corrects president's name to Grimsson, not Grisson. This story is part of AP's general news and financial services.)

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Thursday, October 9, 2008

ATC World News Headlines for october 9, 2008


  • Undated photo of missing American journalist Taylor Luck released Wednesday, Oct. 8. 2008 by the Jordan Times newspaper where he worked as a freelancer reporter, in Amman, Jordan. The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon said two Americans journalists are missing in Lebanon and is appealing for information on their whereabouts. An embassy statement Wednesday says Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23, have not been heard from since Oct. 1 when they reportedly left Beirut en route to the northern port city of Tripoli. Lebanese security officials told The Associated Press they are searching for the two. The pair arrived in Lebanon on Sept. 29 from Amman, Jordan for a vacation and told a friend on Oct. 1 that they were traveling from Beirut to Tripoli that day.(AP Photo/Jordan Times/HO)
    2 missing Americans detained in Syria AP - 9 minutes ago

    DAMASCUS, Syria - Two American journalists whose disappearance prompted a U.S. Embassy alert and a wide search turned up in Syrian custody Thursday after being detained while trying to sneak into the country with smugglers, Syrian officials said.

  • Israelis stand next to a broken shop window following clashes between Israeli Arab and Jewish residents of the mixed city of Acre, northern Israel, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008. Israeli legislator Abbas Zakour, said several cars and shops were damaged in the fighting late Wednesday in Acre, which he says broke out after an Arab family drove in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood after the start of Yom Kippur and Jewish youths attacked the family and beat them. Israel comes to a near complete standstill during Yom Kippur, and driving is frowned upon in most communities. (AP Photo / Tomer Neuberg)
    Clashes erupt in mixed Arab-Jewish city in Israel AP - 19 minutes ago

    ACRE, Israel - Arabs and Jews traded blows and threw rocks in this northern Israeli city on Thursday, in a second day of sectarian violence that marred the somber Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

  • Relatives mourn for Iraqi lawmaker Saleh al-Auqaeili , loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr,  outside his home in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008. Officials say Thursday's explosion occurred as Saleh al-Auqaeili's car passed about 200 yards (meters) away from an Iraqi army checkpoint in a heavily secured area near Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City. (AP Photo / Hadi Mizban)
    Shiite politician assassinated in Baghdad AP - 1 hour, 15 minutes ago

    BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed a prominent member of Muqtada al-Sadr's political movement Thursday, raising fears of new internal Shiite bloodshed ahead of regional elections expected in January.

Europe News

  • Putin: US image damaged forever over economy woes AP - 12 minutes ago

    MOSCOW - The financial crisis has irreparably damaged the image of the U.S. as the leader of the free world and the global economy, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

  • This Aug. 13, 2002 file photo is a  satellite image provided by Space Imaging Asia of the Yongbyon Nuclear Center, located north of Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea announced Thursday Oct. 6, 2008 that it is preparing to restart the facility that produced its atomic bomb, clearly indicating that it plans to completely pull out of an international deal to end its nuclear program. North Korea told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it was stopping the process of disabling its main nuclear site and barring international inspectors from the Yongbyon facility, the agency said. (AP Photo/Space Imaging Asia, File)
    North Korea preparing to restart atomic facility AP - 21 minutes ago

    VIENNA, Austria - North Korea moved closer Thursday to relaunching its nuclear arms program, announcing that it wants to reactivate the facility that produced its atomic bomb and banning U.N. inspectors from the site.

  • Russia official blasts "secretive" UN-NATO deal AP - 58 minutes ago

    MOSCOW - Moscow on Thursday accused NATO and the United Nations of secretly forging an agreement that tightens their cooperation without informing Russia, a U.N. Security Council member whose relations with NATO are badly strained.

Latin America

  • File photo shows a detainee at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay being escorted by two US Army military police officers. A US federal judge has ordered a group of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs held at the Guantanamo Bay military jail in Cuba to be released in the United States, officials have said.(AFP/File/Peter Muhly)
    AP Enterprise: Some at Gitmo see US as ally AP - 57 minutes ago

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A Chinese Muslim locked up at Guantanamo Bay may soon be granted an improbable wish: To move to the United States.

  • Mexico's President Felipe Calderon speaks at the Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, Wednesday Oct. 8, 2008. Calderon is proposing $4.4 billion in emergency spending next year to boost growth and jobs despite the world financial crisis. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
    Mexico unveils emergency spending to combat crisis AP - Thu Oct 9, 12:47 AM ET

    MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon on Wednesday unveiled plans for 53 billion pesos ($4.4 billion) in emergency spending on roads, schools, hospitals and an oil refinery next year to help Mexico combat the world financial crisis.

  • Forensics carry the body of a dead man at the crime scene where two men were shoot in Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008. The Baja California state prosecutor's office said seven people were shot to death in the border city of Tijuana in four separate gunbattles. Another man was found handcuffed with a bag over his head and two other bodies wrapped in blankets were dumped in a residential neighborhood. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)
    Mexico: 16 killed in rough border state AP - Thu Oct 9, 12:05 AM ET

    TIJUANA, Mexico - Mexican authorities said Wednesday that 16 people were killed in 24 hours in the northern state across the U.S. border from California.

Africa News

  • Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir speaks during a press conference in September 2008. Beshir rejected the allegations of war crimes against him as "made up" and said mass rape "does not exist" in Darfur, in an interview broadcast here Thursday.(AFP/File/Ashraf Shazly)
    Sudan's Beshir rejects 'made up' warcrimes claims AFP - 19 minutes ago

    LONDON (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir rejected the allegations of war crimes against him as "made up" and said mass rape "does not exist" in Darfur, in an interview broadcast here Thursday.

  • Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, pictured in September 2008, current chairman of the African Union, expressed concern Thursday that the global financial crisis may curtail foreign aid to the continent.(AFP/Ashraf Shazly)
    AU chairman worried financial crisis could curb aid to Africa AFP - 44 minutes ago

    DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) - Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, current chairman of the African Union, expressed concern Thursday that the global financial crisis may curtail foreign aid to the continent.

  • Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir addresses representatives of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) during a visit at the South Sudan Legislative Assembly in Juba August 27, 2008. (Tim McKulka/UNMIS/Handout/Reuters)
    Sudan leader says allegations against him "fabricated" Reuters - 53 minutes ago

    LONDON (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said Thursday that war crimes allegations against him were fabricated and the people would decide in elections next year if the country's rulers were criminals.

Asia News

  • Dalai Lama hospitalized following checkup AP - 4 minutes ago

    NEW DELHI - The Dalai Lama's spokesman says the Tibetan spiritual leader has been hospitalized in New Delhi.

  • South Korean Marine Corps' amphibious vehicles take part in a re-enactment of the Incheon Landing in September 2008. US officials on Thursday urged North Korea to avoid missile launches and other acts that could raise tension with South Korea, amid deadlocked negotiations for Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament.(AFP/File/Won Dai-Yeon)
    North Korea preparing to restart atomic facility AP - 21 minutes ago

    VIENNA, Austria - North Korea moved closer Thursday to relaunching its nuclear arms program, announcing that it wants to reactivate the facility that produced its atomic bomb and banning U.N. inspectors from the site.

  • An electoral comission officer calls a person to vote in a polling station in Male on October 8. The first-ever democratic presidential battle in the Maldives is to go into a second round after Asia's longest-serving leader failed to deliver a knock-out blow to his rivals, officials said Thursday.(AFP/Pedro Ugarte)
    Maldives leader faces runoff in 1st free election AP - 36 minutes ago

    MALE, Maldives - Maumoon Abdul Gayoom celebrated his top showing Thursday in the Maldives' first democratic election, but the nation's longtime ruler failed to win a majority and will now face his chief nemesis in a runoff.

Canada

  • Toronto stocks plunge as confidence fades anew Reuters - 11 minutes ago

    TORONTO (Reuters) - The main index of the Toronto Stock Exchange plunged almost 5 percent on Thursday as mounting gloom over the state of the economy and the U.S. financial sector sent investors fleeing the market in a broad rout.

  • Prime Minister Stephen Harper address the media following the French language debate at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, October 1, 2008. Routing out insurgents from Afghanistan and rebuilding the war-torn nation has so far cost Canada up to an estimated 10.5 billion dollars (Canadian), an official said Thursday.(AFP/File/Geoff Robins)
    Canada's Afghan war costs higher than estimated Reuters - 2 hours, 31 minutes ago

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canada's Afghanistan mission has cost much more than publicly stated, a government report estimated on Thursday, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged troops will stay until 2011 no matter who wins next week's Canadian election.

  • Liberal leader Stephane Dion speaks during the French language debate at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, October 1, 2008. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged Thursday his Conservatives could lose next Monday's parliamentary election, in the face of global financial turmoil and the cross-border impact of the US economic downturn.(AFP/Pool/File/Tom Hanson)
    Harper says he could lose election Reuters - 1 hour, 59 minutes ago

    RICHMOND, British Columbia (Reuters) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper, battered over his response to the worldwide financial crisis, acknowledged on Thursday he could lose the October 14 election that he had seemed set to win handily only two weeks ago.

Australia/Antarctica News

  • A Qantas aircraft at Sydney International Airport. A computer glitch may have caused a Qantas jet to plunge mid-flight, an investigator said Wednesday as passengers told how they were slammed against the cabin roof in the terrifying drama.(AFP/File/Torsten Blackwood)
    Qantas plane had glitch before altitude plunge AP - Thu Oct 9, 5:29 AM ET

    SYDNEY, Australia - Qantas Airways said Thursday it will financially compensate all passengers who were on board a plane that made a terrifying plunge this week, tossing people around the cabin and injuring dozens.

  • A map locating Learmonth airbase in Western Australia where a Qantas jetliner made an emergency landing following a mid-air incident that caused injury to 36 passengers and crew members. A computer glitch may have caused a Qantas jet to plunge mid-flight, an investigator said Wednesday as passengers told how they were slammed against the cabin roof in the terrifying drama.(AFP/Graphic/Martin Megino)
    Computer glitch may have caused Qantas plunge: investigator AFP - Wed Oct 8, 9:23 AM ET

    PERTH, Australia (AFP) - A computer glitch may have caused a Qantas jet to plunge mid-flight, an investigator said Wednesday as passengers told how they were slammed against the cabin roof in the terrifying drama.

  • File photo shows asylum seekers on board their boat near East Timor where many people pass en route to Australia. The Australian Navy has detained 17 suspected asylum seekers at sea, officials have said.(AFP/File/Antonio Dasiparu)
    Australia intercepts 17 more suspected asylum seekers at sea AFP - Tue Oct 7, 2:57 AM ET

    SYDNEY (AFP) - The Australian Navy has detained 17 suspected asylum seekers at sea just a week after a boatload of Afghans, Iranians and Indonesians was intercepted off the country's coast, officials said Tuesday.

Most Popular World News

  • A man walks out of a branch  of Landsbanki in Reykjavik, Iceland Tuesday Oct. 7, 2008 . Iceland nationalized its second-largest bank Landsbanki  on Tuesday under day-old legislation and negotiated a euro4 billion (US$5.4 billion) loan from Russia to shore up the nation's finances amid a full-blown financial crisis. The moves came a day after trading in shares of major banks was suspended, the Icelandic krona lost a quarter of its value against the euro, and the government rushed through emergency legislation giving it new powers to deal with the financial meltdown.  Prime Minister Haarde warned late Monday that the heavy exposure of the tiny country's banking sector to the global financial turmoil raised the spectre of 'national bankruptcy.'  (AP Photo/Arni Torfason)
    Iceland teeters on the brink of bankruptcy AP - Tue Oct 7, 3:40 PM ET

    REYKJAVIK, Iceland - This volcanic island near the Arctic Circle is on the brink of becoming the first "national bankruptcy" of the global financial meltdown.

  • This is a Feb. 2008 file photo of French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio who won the 2008 Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Jessica Gow/file)
    France's Le Clezio wins Nobel literature prize AP - Thu Oct 9, 7:26 AM ET

    STOCKHOLM, Sweden - French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio won the 2008 Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for his poetic adventure and "sensual ecstasy."

  • A combination photo of handout photographs released by the U.S. embassy in Beirut October 8, 2008 shows U.S. Citizens Holli Chmela (L) and Taylor Luck. (Handout/Reuters)

    DAMASCUS, Syria - Two American journalists whose disappearance prompted a U.S. Embassy alert and a wide search turned up in Syrian custody Thursday after being detained while trying to sneak into the country with smugglers, Syrian officials said...


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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

World News Headlines for october 7, 2008



Middle East News
  • US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte speaks during a joint news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, right, n the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008.  (AP Photo/Ali Abbas, Pool)
    Iraq's FM: 'Bold' decisions needed on bases deal AP - 59 minutes ago

    BAGHDAD - The Iraqi foreign minister said Tuesday it will require "bold political decisions" to resolve the major issue standing in the way of a deal allowing American troops to remain here next year — who would try U.S. troops accused of crimes.

  • Iran's Mig-29 fighter jets fly during the annual army day military parade in Tehran in April 2008. Iran has said that an aircraft forced down in its territory was a Hungarian aid plane with no Americans aboard, contradicting earlier reports it was carrying US soldiers.(AFP/File/Behrouz Mehri)
    Iran forces down Hungarian flight AP - 1 hour, 24 minutes ago

    TEHRAN, Iran - Iran forced an aircraft carrying Hungarian military officials to land after it entered its airspace, Hungary's Defense Ministry said Tuesday. The plane was allowed to continue to Afghanistan after it was determined the entry was accidental.

  • Military officers pray on October 5, during a funeral ceremony for two Turkish soldiers killed in clashes with Kurdish separatist PKK rebels in southeast Turkey on October 3, in Istanbul. The Turkish army on Monday stepped up operations against Kurdish rebels, bombing their hideouts both in neighbouring Iraq and inside Turkey after 17 soldiers were killed in a rebel attack last week.(AFP/File/Bulent Kilic)
    Turkish jets bomb Kurdish targets in Iraq, Turkey AP - 2 hours, 52 minutes ago

    ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey early Tuesday in retaliation for an attack that killed 17 soldiers, the Turkish military said.

Europe News

  • Pedestrians walk past a Royal Bank of Scotland branch in central London October 7, 2008. (Alessia Pierdomenico/Reuters)
    UK set to launch bank rescue deal Reuters - 23 minutes ago

    LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Finance Minister Alistair Darling will announce a rescue package for the UK banking system on Wednesday and a government source said it was likely to include public money being injected into banks.

  • Far-right Austria governor isolates asylum seekers AP - 29 minutes ago

    VIENNA, Austria - Powerful far-right politician Joerg Haider has set up a holding facility in the remote mountains of southern Austria for asylum seekers suspected as criminals, saying they need to be isolated to protect the people in the area.

  • Europe Struggles for a Response to the Bank Crisis Time.com - 48 minutes ago

    Some analysts say the case-by-case approach of national governments is undermining confidence rather than bolstering it

Latin America

  • This NOAA satellite image show Tropical Storm Marco (lower-L) as it approaches the eastern coast of Mexico. Marco made landfall in Mexico Tuesday, crashing ashore as the latest in a series of powerful storms to strike the region this hurricane season, US forecasters said.(AFP/NOAA-HO)
    Tropical Storm Marco hits Mexico's Gulf coast AP - 2 hours, 1 minute ago

    VERACRUZ, Mexico - Tropical Storm Marco roared ashore on Mexico's Gulf coast with near-hurricane force winds on Tuesday, prompting a shutdown of some oil platforms.

  • Mexico's Attorney General Eduardo Medina, right, shakes hands with U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey in Mexico City, Monday, Oct. 6, 2008. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
    Official links Mexican drug gangs, Colombia rebels AP - 2 hours, 53 minutes ago

    MEXICO CITY - Mexico's powerful drug cartels are buying drugs directly from Colombia's main rebel group, a senior Colombian defense official said Tuesday at a hemispheric meeting on crime.

  • UPDATES storm path; Map shows the projected path of Tropical Storm Marco;
    Tropical Storm Marco roars ashore on Mexico's Gulf AP - Tue Oct 7, 10:59 AM ET

    MEXICO CITY - The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Marco is hitting land north of Mexico's Veracruz port on the Gulf coast.

Africa News

  • The UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, seen here in September 2008, Tuesday urged South Africa to do more to stop xenophobic violence, as Amnesty International said officials had failed to help foreigners displaced by the attacks.(AFP/File/Fabrice Coffrini)
    UN rights chief, Amnesty, criticise SAfrica over xenophobia AFP - 11 minutes ago

    JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - The UN human rights chief Tuesday urged South Africa to do more to stop xenophobic violence, as Amnesty International said officials had failed to help foreigners displaced by the attacks.

  • UN calls for action to fight pirates off Somalia AP - 27 minutes ago

    UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling on all countries with a stake in maritime safety off Somalia to send naval ships and military aircraft to confront growing piracy there.

  • Policemen disperse protesters in a street of Nouakchott on October 5, 2008. Police in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott on Tuesday clashed with protesters supporting president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who was ousted by a military junta in August.(AFP/File/Seyllou)
    Anti-coup protesters clash with police in Mauritania AFP - 40 minutes ago

    NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) - Police in military-ruled Mauritania clashed Tuesday with protesters supporting ousted president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, as the African Union urged the junta to reinstate the elected leader.

Asia News

  • NKorea reportedly fires missile into Yellow Sea AP - 46 minutes ago

    TOKYO - North Korea has fired a short-range missile into the Yellow Sea, media reports said Tuesday.

  • A pedestrian walks past a billboard advertising White Rabbit candies Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 in Shanghai, China. China's iconic White Rabbit candy is back in production after being pulled out of stores around the world last month in the wake of the country's tainted milk scandal, a state-run newspaper reports. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
    Chinese lawyers face pressure to drop milk cases AP - 1 hour, 22 minutes ago

    BEIJING - Lawyers advising the families of children sickened in China's tainted milk scandal said Tuesday they are facing growing official pressure to withdraw from the cases.

  • This picture released by the Korean Central News Agency in September 2008 shows a military parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the country at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang. North Korea has fired two short-range missiles into international waters in the Yellow Sea as part of a routine military drill, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, quoting a defence source.(AFP/KCNA/File/Kcna Via Korean News Service)
    NKorea fires short-range missiles: Yonhap AFP - 1 hour, 28 minutes ago

    SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea has fired two short-range missiles into international waters in the Yellow Sea as part of a routine military drill, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said early Wednesday, quoting a defence source.

Canada

  • Liberal Leader Stephane Dion gives the thumbs up as Justin Trudeau (back), Montreal candidate and son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, looks on following a campaign rally in Vancouver, British Columbia October 7, 2008. Canadians go to the polls in a federal election October 14.      REUTERS/Andy Clark     (CANADA)
    Liberals mull higher deposit insurance Reuters - 5 minutes ago

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - The leader of Canada's main opposition party, Stephane Dion, said on Tuesday he would consider following the lead of other countries in raising the insurance limit on banking deposits.

  • Harper says Afghan mission can't last indefinitely Reuters - 43 minutes ago

    OTTAWA (Reuters) - The history of Afghanistan demonstrates that foreign troops cannot stay there indefinitely in an attempt to completely suppress all insurgency, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Tuesday.

  • Conservative leader and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper gestures after delivering a speech to the Canadian Club of Toronto October 7, 2008. Canadians will head to the polls in a federal election October 14.       REUTERS/Chris Wattie       (CANADA)
    Economy might just cost Tories the election Reuters - 2 hours, 8 minutes ago

    OTTAWA (Reuters) - The slide in the polls for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives has been so steep as voter worry over the state of the economy has heightened that the possibility of his losing the upcoming general election is now being raised.

Australia/Antarctica News

  • Map locating Learmonth airbase in Western Australia where a Qantas jetliner made an emergency landing following a mid-air incident that caused injury to 36 passengers and crew members.(AFP Graphic/Martin Megino)
    Dozens injured in Qantas mid-air jet drama AFP - Tue Oct 7, 7:44 AM ET

    PERTH, Australia (AFP) - Thirty-six passengers and crew were injured, some seriously, in a mid-air drama that forced a Qantas jetliner to make an emergency landing, the Australian carrier and police said on Tuesday.

  • File photo shows asylum seekers on board their boat near East Timor where many people pass en route to Australia. The Australian Navy has detained 17 suspected asylum seekers at sea, officials have said.(AFP/File/Antonio Dasiparu)
    Australia intercepts 17 more suspected asylum seekers at sea AFP - Tue Oct 7, 2:57 AM ET

    SYDNEY (AFP) - The Australian Navy has detained 17 suspected asylum seekers at sea just a week after a boatload of Afghans, Iranians and Indonesians was intercepted off the country's coast, officials said Tuesday.

  • Australians who sound like crocodile hunter Steve Irwin or Crocodile Dundee actor Paul Hogan could soon be a relic of the past, a report has found.(AFP/File/Yoshikatsu Tsuno)
    Australians bid farewell to 'g'day mate': report AFP - Sun Oct 5, 11:14 AM ET

    SYDNEY (AFP) - Australians who sound like crocodile hunter Steve Irwin or Crocodile Dundee actor Paul Hogan could soon be a relic of the past, a report said on Sunday.

Most Popular World News

  • Matani Shakya, 3, newly appointed 'kumari,' or living goddess in Nepal, looks on as farewell rituals are performed before taking her to kumari house in Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008. Selected between the ages of 2 and 4, living goddesses are worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists. Devotees touch the girls' feet with their foreheads, the highest sign of respect among Hindus in Nepal. During religious festivals the girls are wheeled around on a chariot pulled by devotees. (AP Photo/Binod Joshi)
    Nepal appoints 3-year-old as new living goddess AP - Tue Oct 7, 9:59 AM ET

    KATMANDU, Nepal - Hindu and Buddhist priests chanted sacred hymns and cascaded flowers and grains of rice over a 3-year-old girl who was appointed a living goddess in Nepal on Tuesday.

  • Jerome Corsi, CENTRE, who wrote 'The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, follows an immigration department officer holding his passport, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 as he arrives at the immigration department in Nairobi, Kenya.  Corsi, was picked up at his hotel in Nairobi on Tuesday morning. He was briefly detained before being brought to the airport for deportation, said Joseph Mumira, head of criminal investigations at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. (AP Photo)
    Kenya deports US author of anti-Obama book AP - 2 hours, 23 minutes ago

    NAIROBI, Kenya - The American author of a controversial book accusing Barack Obama of seething with "black rage" and of being unfit for the U.S. presidency was kicked out of Kenya on Tuesday.

  • Israelis walk at Sergei's Courtyard in Jerusalem, in this Monday, Oct. 6, 2008. Russia is to take-over the small tract of land known as Sergei's Courtyard, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Cabinet agreeing to the hand over Sunday Oct. 5, 2008, amid serious policy differences that have sprung up between the two countries. The Russians are to take ownership of the property which once accommodated Russian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land and now houses offices of Israel's Agriculture Ministry and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)
    Russia's Jerusalem land claim worries Israelis AP - Tue Oct 7, 6:59 AM ET

    JERUSALEM - The Russians are coming to downtown Jerusalem, reclaiming ownership of a landmark with the approval of the Israeli government, just as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visits Moscow to try to iron out serious policy differences between the two countries.

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Thursday, October 2, 2008

AMY GOODMAN, HOST OF DEMOCRACY NOW!, FIRST JOURNALIST TO WIN




New York City, NY –
Award-winning journalist and host of Democracy Now! Amy Goodman is the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, widely recognized as the world's premier award for personal courage and social transformation. The annual prize, also known as the Alternative Nobel, will be awarded in the Swedish Parliament on December 8, 2008.

The Right Livelihood Award was established in 1980 to honor and support those "offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today". Goodman has been selected for “developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media.”

Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the country, Democracy Now! is a daily grassroots, global TV/radio/internet news hour airing on more than 750 public radio and television stations and at http://www.democracynow.org.

Goodman said, “I am deeply honored that grassroots, independent journalism and the hard work of my colleagues at Democracy Now! are being recognized in these critical times. I strongly believe that media can be a force for peace. It is the responsibility of journalists to give voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken and beaten down by the powerful. It is the best reason I know to carry our pens, cameras and microphones out into the world. The media should be a sanctuary for dissent. It is our job to go to where the silence is.”

Goodman and two Democracy Now! producers were arrested last month at the Republican National Convention while reporting on street demonstrations. Charges were dropped after widespread public outcry. The video of Goodman's arrest was among the most watched YouTube video's during the convention week. It has now been viewed over 860,000 times.

Amy Goodman writes a weekly syndicated column with King Features which runs in major newspapers throughout North and South America. She is co-author with her brother, journalist David Goodman, of three New York Times bestsellers: Standing Up To the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times; Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back; and The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them.

Goodman’s reporting on East Timor and Nigeria won the George Polk Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award. Her other awards include the first ever Communication for Peace Award presented by the World Association of Christian Communication, the Puffin/Nation Institute Award for Creative Citizenship, The Paley Center for Media “She Made It” Award, and the Gracie Award for American Women in Radio and Television Public Broadcasting. Goodman has also received awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Goodman shares the 2008 Right Livelihood Award with Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan of India, and their organisation, Land for the Tillers’ Freedom, for their work dedicated to realising in practice the Gandhian vision of social justice and sustainable human development; Asha Hagi of Somalia “for continuing to lead at great personal risk the female participation in the peace and reconciliation process in her war-ravaged country.”; and Monika Hauser of Germany, gynaecologist and founder of medica mondiale, “for her tireless commitment to working with women who have experienced the most horrific sexualised violence in some of the most dangerous countries in the world, and campaigning for them to receive social recognition and compensation.”

For more information about the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, please visit
http://www.rightlivelihood.org.
International Herald Tribune Article:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/01/europe/EU-Sweden-Alternative-Nobel.php
Editor and Publisher Article:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003857765
Right Livelihood Press Release:
http://www.rightlivelihood.org/1317.html
Democracy Now!:
http://www.democracynow.org/
Video of Goodman Arrest at RNC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

ATC Journal. ¡Llevamos la información!

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