CANBERRA, 14-11-05 (Reuters)
Australia's main trade union body has urged workers to
take to the streets on Tuesday to oppose government workplace reforms,
saying as many as half a million people could join the
nationwide protest.
The new laws are aimed at simplifying Australia's industrial relations
system that has more than 130 different pieces of legislation,
more than 4,000 awards and six different regulation systems as well
as urging workers to sign individual contracts.
Protest rallies have been organised in the national capital Canberra
and the state capitals Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin
and Hobart.
The Australian Industry Group, representing employers, has warned the
rallies would be unlawful and advised its members to take action
against workers who attended the protests.
A poll published in the Australian newspaper this month found that 40
percent of Australians believed the proposed reforms would be
bad for the economy.
"There's no doubt there's growing opposition, there's a deep anger and
concern out there. And this is really the start of a people's
movement against these laws," Australian Council of Trade Unions
President Sharan Burrow told Australian television.
Australia's government wants parliament to pass the labour laws a
centrepiece of Prime Minister John Howard's fourth-term agenda
before Christmas.
The industrial relations reforms were passed by Australian
parliament's lower House of Representatives last week and are expected to be
passed by the upper house Senate, where the government has a one seat
majority, before Christmas.
*********************
Reuters World News November 13
AMMAN - Jordan's King Abdullah said logic dictated that the suicide
bombers who killed dozens at luxury Amman hotels this week must have come from Iraq or Syria and called the act a "fight
inside Islam".
PARIS - French security forces fired tear gas to disperse youths in Lyon in the first sign of unrest in a city centre after
more than two weeks of civil disturbances in outlying suburbs of towns and cities.
BAGHDAD - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, on his first visit to Iraq since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion,
urged Iraqis to embrace a process aiming to reconcile all the country's ethnic and religious groups.
BAGHDAD - Iraq's Baath party supporters confirmed reports of the death of Saddam Hussein's deputy Izzat Ibrahim
al-Douri, seen as a key figure in the insurgency since Saddam's fall in 2003.
DEARBORN, Michigan - The United States and coalition forces are likely to reduce troop numbers in Iraq next year, Iraqi
Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi said.
MONROVIA - Soccer star George Weah's party demanded a rerun of Liberia's presidential runoff vote, saying the poll
he had lost was unfair.
TEHRAN - Iran insisted upon its right to enrich its own uranium, rebuffing a proposal that Russia should perform the
sensitive atomic fuel work to allay fears Tehran is seeking nuclear arms.
WASHINGTON - New evidence suggests Iran has made significant progress in its pursuit of nuclear weapons and that
should strengthen the case for increasing international pressure on Tehran to end the programme, U.S. and European officials
say.
JERUSALEM - New Labour party chief Amir Peretz threatened to bring down Ariel Sharon's coalition government
next week unless the prime minister meets him quickly to agree on a date for an early election.
TEL AVIV - About 200,000 Israelis and foreign dignitaries gathered in Tel Aviv to mark the 10th anniversary of the
assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Israel's biggest peace rally since its Gaza pullout.
DURBAN, South Africa - Sacked South African deputy president Jacob Zuma was formally indicted on corruption
charges in a case that has split the ruling ANC and tested the country's young democracy.
DHAKA - Old rivals India and Pakistan failed to make headway in a slow-moving peace process as talks between the
two prime ministers stuck to entrenched positions in their long-running dispute over Kashmir.
*****************
Police shoot man who rammed car into courthouse in U.S.
state of Oregon 12/11/05 (AP) Police shot a man after he crashed a truck
into a downtown courthouse early Saturday, ending a pursuit that began when he allegedly set fire to several squad cars in a
nearby town and shot at an officer who chased him.
The man drove the pickup through the glass double doors of the Marion County Courthouse and hid inside the building for
about three hours, setting at least one fire before police tracked him down in a stairwell, police Capt. Jeff Kuhns said.
He was in surgery Saturday afternoon, officials said. His condition and the extent of his injuries were not immediately
released.
Authorities weren't releasing the man's identity but had «a few indications of what might have motivated him,» Marion County
District Attorney Walt Beglau said. He declined to elaborate.
«If it is who we believe, he doesn't have a very extensive criminal history,» said Kevin Rau, spokesman for the Marion
County Sheriff's Department.
The pursuit started shortly before dawn when the man allegedly poured a liquid on cars parked at the police department in the
adjacent town of Keizer, Oregon, and set them on fire, authorities said.
An officer spotted him and chased him in her car, but the suspect fired at her, police said. The officer crashed but wasn't
injured.
Shortly afterward, police got calls that someone in the area was firing shots at homes. Then, around 6:30 a.m., Salem Police
got a call that someone had driven up the concrete steps of the courthouse and crashed through the doors.
Officers from several police departments surrounded the building and attempted to negotiate with the man until they
confronted him in the stairwell and shot him.
A bomb squad was called in as a precaution and police searched the five-story courthouse for possible explosives but did
not immediately find any.
******************
Boeing to pay $72.5 million to settle sex-discrimination lawsuit
SEATTLE 12/11/05(AP) The Boeing Co. has agreed to pay
$72.5 million (62 million) to thousands of women to settle a class-action action sex-discrimination lawsuit, according to a local
media report Saturday.
The payout, revealed in documents filed Thursday in U.S.
District Court in Seattle, is the maximum allowed under a settlement agreement that won preliminary approval from a federal
judge last year, The Seattle Times reported.
As part of the deal, Boeing admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to change its hiring, pay, promotion practices and how it
investigates employee complaints.
«We've moved ahead on numerous fronts in making improvements to our work environment,» John Dern, a spokesman at
Boeing's corporate headquarters in Chicago, told The Seattle Times.
If the plaintiffs' motion for speedy payment is granted, checks could be in the mail to some 17,960 current and former female
Boeing employees by Christmas.
Otherwise, the aerospace titan has until Jan. 14 to pay a court administrator, who will then issue checks to class members
according to seniority and position.
The exact amounts to be disbursed are under seal, but range from $500 (¤427) to $26,000 (¤22,228) , Helgren said.
The average pre-tax payout is $3,000 (¤2,565) per employee.
About $15 million (¤12.8 million) will be deducted from the total settlement to cover attorneys' fees and other legal costs.
In all, more than 20,000 current and former female employees out of a potential pool of 29,000 said Boeing discriminated
against them at Seattle-area plants between 1997 and 2000.
Of those claims, nearly 2,400 were thrown out for filing irregularities, including failure to meet a May 3, 2005, deadline.
«It's revealing that over 60 percent of female employees filed claims _ in most class-action suits a 30 percent response rate is
typical,» said Mike Helgren, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit, filed in 2000, alleged a pattern of discrimination at Boeing.
According to company documents obtained by the plaintiffs, women typically earned $1,000 -$2,000 (¤855 -¤1,710) less
each year than men for similar jobs _ a disparity magnified over time by the company's policy of calculating pay raises based
on an employee's salary.
Another discrimination lawsuit, filed on behalf of 15,000 African-American Boeing employees, is scheduled to begin in
federal court on Dec. 5.
That case was originally settled in 1999 for $11.3 million (¤9.7 million), but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted
plaintiffs' request for a retrial because of a dispute over the fairness of the award.
******************
Reuters News 12/11/05
Calif. liver program closed after decertification LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Southern California hospital has suspended its
liver transplant program after the Los Angeles Times reported 32 patients awaiting transplants had died while the facility turned
down scores of donor organs. The University of California at Irvine Medical Center in Orange, south of Los Angeles, issued a
statement late on Thursday saying the U.S.
government had revoked its certification of the liver transplant program, denying further Medicare reimbursements for such
operations.
Smarter kids may live longer: study NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Smarter children may enjoy longer lives, the results of a
new study suggest. The study, which followed elderly adults deemed gifted by childhood IQ tests, found that the higher their
early IQs were, the longer they lived -- up to a point, at least. The survival advantage began to plateau after a childhood IQ of
163, an intelligence level few people reach.
Insomnia may increase diabetes risk for men NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Sleep disturbances appear to increase the risk
of developing diabetes in men but not in women, according to a Swedish study. Dr. Lena Mallon, from University Hospital in
Uppsala and her associates sent questionnaires regarding sleep complaints and other possible risk factors for diabetes to a
random sample of subjects who were 45 to 65 years old in 1983, and again in 1995. A total of 1187 subjects completed both
questionnaires.
Sleep pills may do more harm than good in elderly NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While sedative drugs, such as Restoril
and Ambien, may improve sleep in older people with insomnia, the risks of such therapy may outweigh the benefits, according
to investigators in Canada. The findings are based on a review of 24 trials that included 2417 subjects aged 60 or older who
were treated with so-called sedative hypnotic pills or inactive placebo pills for insomnia. The subjects received the assigned
pills for at least five consecutive nights.
Parents of cancer patients face traumatic stress NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Most parents of children undergoing cancer
treatment report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a new report. PTSD can arise when
someone experiences intensely stressful events, and symptoms may include chronic anxiety, vivid flashbacks, and difficulties
with sleeping and concentrating.
Bone marrow cells regenerate heart muscle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Bone marrow cells (BMCs) transplanted into
damaged areas of the heart reduce the amount of damage and improve heart performance, physicians in Germany report.
Previous studies have suggested that BMCs may regenerate damaged heart muscle when given soon after a heart attack.
However, this is the first study to examine the cells' potential in hearts damaged further in the past.
Physiotherapy good for spinal arthritis NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Exercise programs are beneficial for people with a
type of arthritis affecting the spine -- ankylosing spondylitis (AS) -- Norwegian researchers report, although it is not clear which
type of protocol is best. Dr. Hanne Dagfinrud of the University of Oslo and colleagues reviewed of 43 studies involving
exercise and AS and eventually scrutinized data on a total of 561 patients in six trials. The results are published in the Journal of
Rheumatology.
Exercise helps bone mass post stroke NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older adults who've suffered a stroke may be able to
improve their fitness and protect their bone mass with specially designed exercise classes, according to Canadian researchers.
Their study of 63 stroke survivors found that those who took part in a supervised exercise program became more fit, stronger
and more mobile than those who participated in limited physical activity.
Chocolate is hot - and it's not just the curry NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chocolate today has bite -- a kick from curry, a jolt of
cumin or a crunch from sesame. And while boutique chocolatiers experiment with exotic infusions, the industry is enjoying
upbeat news on health benefits. In a word, chocolate is hot.
Proposed condom labels warn against spermicide WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New draft guidelines for male latex condoms
published on Thursday call for packaging to include information they reduce, but do not eliminate, the risk of pregnancy and
sexually transmitted diseases. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines also specifically say condoms that contain
the spermicide nonoxynol-9 must specify that they can cause irritation and increase the risk of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
******************
Six workers die in Spanish road collapse
MADRID, November 7 (Reuters) A platform fell from a motorway viaduct being built in southern Spain on
Monday, killing six construction workers, officials said.
"The news we have is that there are six dead, five of them Portuguese and one Spanish," Juan
Jose Lopez, the Madrid government's top representative in the southern region of Andalucia, told
state radio.
Three injured workers were being treated at a local hospital, according to media reports.
The metal platform, 60 metres long by 12 metres wide, served as a framework for a concrete
section of the Mediterranean Motorway being built near Almunecar on the southern Mediterranean
coast.
The platform fell from a height of 50 metres on workers below.
Initially there had been fears that up to 20 workers might have been killed but the other workers
escaped the collapse.
Nigeria says to blacklist corrupt contractors
ABUJA, November 7 (Reuters) Nigeria, ranked among the
world's most corrupt countries by the watchdog group Transparency International, said on Monday
it planned to blacklist corrupt contractors and bar them from future work.
All state bodies have been instructed to draw up a list of firms that have engaged in corruption or
fraud, such as "the offering of inducements of any type, failure to perform or shoddy performance
of the relevant contracts", an official statement said.
Lists providing details of unfulfilled contracts and the names of the company executives involved
are to be submitted by Nov. 25. to the office of the secretary of the federation.
Kickbacks, contracts presenting grossly inflated costs and contracts for bogus works are among
common forms of graft in Nigeria, ranked sixth from bottom in a perceptions of corruption index
published by Transparency International.
Africa's most populous country is also its top oil producer but corruption has stunted growth
since independence from Britain in 1960 and billions of dollars in public funds have ended up in
private bank accounts.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has been in power since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in
1999 after 15 years of military dictatorship, launched an anti-corruption campaign in 2003 in a blaze
of publicity.
A former police chief is now facing prosecution, two ministers and the president of the senate
were sacked earlier this year, and more than a dozen state governors are being investigated --
although they have immunity from prosecution.
However, no senior official has been convicted and critics accuse Obasanjo of targeting only
political opponents while allowing allies to go undisturbed.
Five-month Florida Jihad trial nears end
By Robert Green TAMPA, Fla., November 7 (Reuters) A fired
Florida university professor and three other Palestinians sent money to a group that they knew had
killed Israelis and Americans, a prosecutor said on Monday in closing arguments.
The prosecutor's statement came at the end of a five-month trial in one of the most important
cases to go before a U.S.
court since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
Palestinian academic Sami al-Arian was arrested in February 2003, along with Sameeh
Hammoudeh, Hatem Fariz and Ghassan Ballut on charges they helped the Palestinian group Islamic
Jihad, named by Washington as a terrorist organization.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cherie Krigsman told jurors that evidence indicated the four men raised
and sent money to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad "when they knew the PIJ murdered people." "The
evidence has shown time and time again that the defendants acted to further the goals of the PIJ,"
she said.
Al-Arian, a former professor at the University of South Florida, and the others were charged in a
53-count indictment with conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering, money laundering,
immigration fraud and obstruction of justice. If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison.
The defendants have said any funds they sent to the Islamic Jihad was for charitable activities.
Al-Arian said he was being persecuted for his outspoken support of Palestinian causes.
At the time of the indictment, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Al-Arian was the
Islamic Jihad's North American leader. The United States designated the Islamic Jihad a terrorist
organization in 1997 and said it was responsible for killing more than 100 people in Israel, including
three Americans.
But Krigsman disagreed. "When you support a terrorist group, you support a terrorist group," she
said.
Krigsman said there was no direct evidence that the defendants committed any murders. But she
told jurors they could use circumstantial evidence and their common sense to find that the
defendants were acting to further the goals of the Islamic Jihad.
None of the defendants testified at the trial. Al-Arian and Ballut did not call any witnesses.
Most of the government's evidence was based on thousands of hours of wiretapped telephone
calls along with intercepted e-mails and faxes and bank records.
Al-Arian founded the Tampa-based Islamic Committee for Palestine and the World and Islam
Studies Enterprise.
Attorneys for the defendants will make their closing arguments on Tuesday and Wednesday
before the case goes to the jury.
********************
Bombs rock Indonesian resort island of Bali, killing at
least 25
BALI, Indonesia (AP) Powerful bombs ripped through three
crowded restaurants on the Indonesian resort island of Bali
Saturday, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than
100 _ the second time terrorists have brought carnage to
the tropical paradise in three years.
Witnesses reported seeing dismembered bodies at the scene,
many of them foreigners.
No one claimed responsibility for the bombings in the
world's most populous Muslim nation, but suspicion
immediately fell on the al-Qaida linked militant group
Jemaah Islamiyah.
Indonesian President Suslio Bambang Yudhyono said
terrorists were to blame and warned more attacks were
possible.
«We will hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to
justice,» he said, calling on people «to be on the
alert.»
The near simultaneous blasts at two packed seafood cafes
on Jimbaran beach and a three-story noodle and steak house
in downtown Kuta occurred days before the anniversary of
the Oct. 12, 2002 bombings that killed 202 people at two
nightclubs also in Kuta, just a short walk away.
Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed for those attacks and
subsequent deadly bombings in the capital in 2003 and 2004.
Western and Indonesian intelligence agencies have
repeatedly warned the group was plotting more attacks
despite a string of arrests. Last month, Yudhoyono said he
was especially worried the extremist network was about to
strike.
«I received information at the time that terrorists were
planning an action in Jakarta and that explosives were
ready,» said the president, who was scheduled to go to
Bali on Sunday to look at the devastation first hand.
Sanglah Hospital, near the island's capital Denpasar,
which took over the task of identifying victims, said 25
people were killed and 101 others were being treated at six
hospitals.
Among the injured were 49 Indonesians, 17 Australians, six
Koreans, three Japanese and two Americans, a hospital
official said, adding that the others had yet to been
identified.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told the
Australian Broadcasting Corp. that at least one Australian
was killed. Metro TV said a Japanese citizen also died.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice condemned the
bombings in a statement. «The United States stands with
the people and government of Indonesia as they work to
bring to justice those responsible for these acts of
terrorism. We will continue to work together in our common
fight against terror,» Rice said.
The latest bombs went off at about 8 p.m. as thousands of
diners flocked to restaurants on the bustling tourist
island that was just starting to recover from the 2002
blasts, when the number of visitors plummeted.
At Sanglah Hospital, dozens of doctors assisted by
officials from police's forensics department are trying to
identify the 25 victims' remains, which include three
heads. The heads were believed to be from two foreigners
and one Indonesian, but they hadn't been identified, a
doctor said on condition of anonymity.
In the emergency unit, some injured victims screamed as
they are were treated. Many were wounded with scratches on
their faces. Dozens of volunteers bustled through with
injured people on stretchers from one room to another for
treatment.
Baradita Katoppo, an Indonesian tourist from Jakarta, said
one of the bombs on Jimbaran beach went off in the Nyoman
Cafe, where he was eating with friends. Five minutes later
another explosion rocked a neighboring seafood restaurant.
«I could see other people sustained injuries,» he said.
«There was blood on their faces and their bodies. It was
very chaotic and confusing, we didn't know what to do.»
Witness, I Wayan Kresna, told the private El Shinta radio
station he counted at least two dead and that many others
were brought to a hospital.
«I helped lift up the bodies,» he said, adding that many
of the victims were foreigners. «There was blood
everywhere.»
About 30 kilometers (18 miles) away in Kuta, at almost
exactly the same time, an explosion hit the three-story
Raja noodle and steakhouse in a bustling outdoor shopping
center. Smoke poured from the badly damaged building.
The bomb apparently went off on the restaurant's second
floor, and an Associated Press reporter saw at least three
bodies and five wounded people there. There was no crater
outside the building, indicating the blast was not caused
by a car bomb.
Saturday's attacks threaten to ruin a tourist boom on the
mostly Hindu island, where hotels and restaurants have in
the last 18 months reported that business had exceeded
pre-2002 levels and that they were looking forward to a
busy Christmas and New Year.
Tourism Minister Jero Wacik predicted a sharp drop in
numbers, but said he hoped the island would bounce back.
Since the 2002 Bali blasts, Jemaah Islamiyah has been tied
to at least two other bombings in Indonesia, both in the
capital, Jakarta. Those blasts, one at the J.W. Marriott
hotel in 2003 and the other outside the Australian Embassy
in 2004, killed at least 23.
Ken Conboy, author of an upcoming book on Southeast Asian
terrorism, said Saturday's bombings had all the hallmarks
of Jemaah Islamiyah. «They saw the 2002 Bali bombing as
their only true success because it inflicted foreign
casualties, and the collateral damage weren't Muslims,» he
said.
**************************
1-9-2005, GENEVA (Reuters)
- The World Health Organization (WHO) saidon Friday 2-7.4 million deaths was a reasonable working
forecast for a global influenza pandemic -- distancing itself
from a top U.N. official's figure of up to 150 million. Dr.
David Nabarro, named on Thursday as the U.N. coordinator for
global readiness against an outbreak, had said that the world
response would determine whether a flu virus ends up killing 5
million or as many as 150 million.
US FDA head gives up cancer duties after criticism
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - National Cancer Institute Director
Andrew von Eschenbach will give up his daily duties there to
focus on his new job as acting Food and Drug Administration
commissioner, he told FDA staff on Friday. Von Eschenbach also
said he will recuse himself from certain FDA business that
involves NCI research.
Health services not meeting obesity challenge-experts
LONDON (Reuters) - Healthcare systems have failed to come
to grips with the global obesity epidemic and its serious
health consequences, leading experts said on Friday. More than
a billion people, 10 percent of whom are children, worldwide
are obese or overweight. It is the sixth most important risk
factor in the overall burden of disease.
PDAs expected to change healthcare in future
LONDON (Reuters) - Personal digital assistants (PDAs) could
change the way healthcare is delivered in the future by
providing doctors with easy access to patient data and the
latest information on treatment. Palm pilots and other
hand-held computers were originally designed as personal
organizers but they are becoming increasingly popular with
doctors, medical students and even patients to improve the
quality of care and safety.
1.4 million children could be saved with vaccines
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - An estimated 1.4 children under
five years of age die unnecessarily each year from measles,
whooping cough or tetanus, all of them preventable with
vaccines, the U.N. Children's Fund, UNICEF, reported on
Thursday. The worst affected areas are in west and central
Africa, in countries of conflict but also in Nigeria, said a
new UNICEF report.
Urine test spots chlamydia in male teens
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Sexually active male
adolescents quite often have the sexually transmitted infection
Chlamydia trachomatis but don't know it. Investigators in
California have found that routine urine screening for
chlamydia is an effective means of diagnosing these infections
in sexually active young men. In men, chlamydia can lead to
inflammation of the urethra and structures of the testes. Men
can pass the infection to their female sex partners whose
fertility could become compromised, Dr. Kathleen P. Tebb of the
University of California, San Francisco and associates note in
the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Computer games help diagnose young kids' asthma
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Interactive computer games can
help identify asthma in children as young as 2 years old,
according to a new study. Researchers in Israel found that
animated computer games were useful in teaching young children
how to use a spirometer, an instrument that measures lung
capacity and helps diagnosed asthma.
Rothmans sinks on Canada tobacco ruling, rivals up
TORONTO (Reuters) - Rothmans Inc. stock sank as
much as 11 percent on Friday after Canada's top court cleared
the way for provinces to sue the tobacco industry, but shares
of foreign-owned tobacco firms shrugged off the ruling. The
unanimous Supreme Court ruling, announced Thursday, will allow
Canadian provinces to make claims for health costs of smoking
that could total tens of billions of dollars.
Britain faces growing hepatitis C crisis-report
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has the worst record in Europe
for dealing with the hepatitis C virus, according to a new
report released on Friday. While cases of the chronic liver
disease are falling in France, Britain is facing a hepatitis C
time bomb because not enough people with the illness are
diagnosed and treated.
REUTERS
*****************
REUTERS NEWS 6-9-05
12 parliamentary election, expected to result in the defeat of the centre-right government. The first story on Monday, Sept. 5,
looked at the Progress Party and its use of an anti-immigration message to woo voters. This story examines why the incumbent centre-right prime
minister could lose despite an oil-based economic boom.
OSLO - It should be a prime minister's dream re-election scenario -- strong oil-based economic growth, low unemployment and the kudos of
seeing your country rated best place to live in the world by the United Nations.
It's all come true for Norway's centre-right Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, but he still looks headed for defeat in a Sept. 12 parliamentary
election.
The winners are likely to be members of a "Red-Green" alliance, dominated by the opposition Labour Party which accuses Bondevik of handing
tax cuts to the rich and doing too little to help education, care for the elderly and create jobs.
Many voters also give Bondevik scant credit for the economic upturn, reckoning it is caused by record high world oil prices out of the
government's control.
NEW YORK - Packing just
a few T-shirts and some shorts, Jenny Bagert joined the hordes fleeing New Orleans after a warning that one of the fiercest hurricanes in U.S.
history was about to hit the low-lying southern city.
Her lack of preparation was fairly typical for New Orleans residents who had grown increasingly complacent about hurricane warnings and
evacuation plans.
"We evacuate so often we know what and how we should prepare, but you just get used to it," Bagert told Reuters.
But Bagert's family is among the lucky ones. They took out flood insurance, well aware of the risks in New Orleans, which is below sea level and
encircled by levees.
Only about 40 percent of New Orleans homeowners have flood insurance, which is provided in the United States under a government
programme, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Early estimates expect Katrina to be the most costly U.S.
storm, with insured losses of more than $25 billion -- topping insured losses of $21 billion from Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
(US-KATRINA-HOMEOWNERS, BY BELINDA GOLDSMITH, BUSINESS FEATURE, 890 WORDS) TAIPEI - When the tsunami hit
the Indian Ocean region last year, Taiwan's television news channels, like networks around the world, scrambled for the most dramatic footage.
One station was so desperate it showed the soaring tide of China's famous Qiantang River instead. When viewers found out and complained, the
station apologised saying it had made a mistake.
Even for Taiwan, where news channels are notorious for sensationalist and exaggerated stories, either poorly sourced or just blatantly faked, this
was considered too much.
With eight around-the-clock cable news stations and a dozen others offering regular news programmes on an island of 23 million people,
competition is fierce. And this results in irresponsible journalism, industry experts say.
"It's a vicious circle," said Wei Ti from the Campaign for Media Reform, a private body, who teaches mass communication at the Tamkang
University.
"There is no genuine competition. Everyone is going after what they see as the most sensational story of the day and broadcasting it over and over
again." ZAVALA, Bosnia - Legend says fairies used to
dance in the large chambers of the Vjetrenica cave, in southern Bosnia. The dancers were beautiful, but traces on the ground betrayed their cloven
feet, the story goes.
Today, the cave is praised by scientists as one of the richest in the world for underground biological life, but war and neglect have hindered efforts
to shine the light of international acclaim on its treasures.
Located in the south of Bosnia, about 25 km (15 miles) north of the ancient Adriatic town of Dubrovnik, the cave was put on the United Nations
preliminary list for World Heritage sites last December - the first step in a complex process to win an official nomination to the list.
"Our goal is to prove that Vjetrenica is the world's single richest cave in underground fauna," said research coordinator Jana Bodek of the
Croatian Bio-Speleological Association.
It
has spiced up many a meal but now the fiery chilli pepper is being used to cool an ancient feud between farmers and wild elephants in Africa.
In the Zambezi valley in southern Zambia, small-scale farmers are growing chilli peppers as a deterrent against elephants that raid their crops and marketing the end result as an eco-friendly product.
"Elephants simply don't like the smell of chilli," said Nina Gibson, project coordinator for the Elephant Pepper Development Trust. "The farmers
crush the chillies they grow and mix them with old engine oil. They smear that paste onto a simple string fence around their field, protecting their
other crops."
***************************
Rural Japan voters eye Internet CEO with hopes,doubts By Masayuki Kitano ONOMICHI
Japan, 28-8-05 (Reuters) - From kids eager to
shake his hand to curious elderly citizens and sceptics quick to dismiss him as an outsider, maverick Internet CEO Takafumi Horie is the
talk of the town in sleepy Onimichi in western Japan.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi tapped Horie to run in the Sept. 11 general election as a de-facto Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
candidate against local political baron Shizuka Kamei, a former ruling party heavyweight who helped vote down bills to privatise the
postal system, the core of Koizumi's reforms.
Koizumi wants to make the election a referendum on postal reform, and has sent what the media call "assassin" candidates, including
Horie, to challenge LDP rebels on their home ground.
"Onomichi has been caught up in a fever," said Hiroko Goto, 72, who helps run a family-owned seafood restaurant in Onomichi, a port
city of 117,000 in Hiroshima prefecture.
The city -- the southern island portion of which is separated from the mainland by a narrow sea channel -- is a key battleground in
the single-seat Hiroshima No.6 constituency.
Horie, 32-year-old CEO of Internet firm Livedoor Co., is running as an independent against Kamei, 68, who has split ranks with the LDP
to form a new party, and Koji Sato, 46, a candidate from the main opposition Democratic Party.
A Horie win would be a symbolic victory for Koizumi.
Analysts question whether Horie -- who made headlines this year when he launched a fierce takeover battle for a major Japanese
private broadcaster -- can succeed in his latest gambit.
But Horie has stirred hopes among some voters.
"I hope Mr. Horie does well and so do my parents," said Harukuni Mori, 30, as he waited among a crowd of around 40 -- many of them
children and teenagers -- gathered outside Horie's newly opened election office, hoping to catch a glimpse of him.
"I hope he'll think first about ways to revitalise the town and create an environment where young people can work with more
enthusiasm," said Mori, outside the oceanside office. A framed picture of Horie shaking hands with Koizumi was displayed inside.
CROWD-PLEASER, OUTSIDER Minutes later, a smiling Horie emerged.
Wearing a trademark black T-shirt -- this one with the Japanese word for "reform" emblazoned in white on the front -- Horie was
mobbed by schoolgirls snapping pictures with mobile phones and people rushing to shake his hand.
Not all onlookers were as enthusiastic.
"He has absolutely no links or relations to the region," said Koichi Iwata, 34, who works for a local IT-related company.
"He's interesting, but I don't know if I'll vote for him," said Iwata, who watched as Horie -- nicknamed "Horie-mon" due to his
resemblance to a roly-poly Japanese cartoon cat called Doraemon -- sat down in a public square to chat with a group of teenagers.
A day later, he visited a convenience store in Fuchu, a rural city to the north where support for Kamei has been strong, to make a
pitch for reforms and his own expertise.
"I think the know-how of running a company -- I created 500 billion yen in value from zero -- will definitely help if I become a
politician," Horie told a crowd gathered outside.
WORRIED OPPONENTS Supporters of his rivals are wary of Horie's popularity among the younger generation.
"I can't help thinking that Prime Minister Koizumi and the LDP leadership is using the word 'reform' ... to conduct politics that is akin to
cheating and tricking the public," Sato told a room full of elderly supporters on Saturday.
Sato, whose late father was an LDP lawmaker whom many residents still recall fondly, lost the last election to Kamei by a mere 17,000
votes in the single-member district, but managed to obtain a seat from a proportional representation bloc.
A longtime Sato supporter said he was worried that Horie could take unaffiliated voters away from his candidate.
"I feel that he is very much a threat," said 80-year-old Yutaka Kajihara, vice chairman of a Sato support group.
Onomichi city assemblyman Seiki Kanda, who is backing Kamei, had similar concerns.
"Horie is not welcome. He is being sent to take down Kamei," Kanda said. "There's no one who has done so much for the region ... The
public works that Kamei has done are wonderful." Speaking to about 150 mostly middle-aged and older women supporters in nearby
Mihara, the gravelly voiced Kamei said he was in a tough spot, but would persevere.
"It is now the darkness before the dawn," he said.
