Bush Apologizes to Reporter for Sunglasses Joke
By NEDRA PICKLER, AP
WASHINGTON (June 15) - President Bush, who often teases members of the White House press corps, apologized Wednesday after he poked fun at a reporter for wearing sunglasses without realizing they were needed for vision loss.
The exchange occurred at a news conference in the Rose Garden.
Bush called on Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten and asked if he was going to ask his question with his "shades" on.
"For the viewers, there's no sun," Bush said to the television cameras.
But even though the sun was behind the clouds, Wallsten still needs the sunglasses because he has Stargardt's disease, a form of macular degeneration that causes progressive vision loss. The condition causes Wallsten to be sensitive to glare and even on a cloudy day, can cause pain and increase the loss of sight.
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060614202409990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001
Adviser Who Shaped Bush's Speeches Is Leaving
By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: June 15, 2006
WASHINGTON, June 14 — Michael Gerson, the White House speechwriter and policy adviser who shaped nearly every major address of George W. Bush's presidency, said Wednesday that he was leaving the administration to pursue new career options.
Mr. Gerson has been one of Mr. Bush's closest aides and is credited with giving voice to both the "compassionate conservatism" that Mr. Bush espouses and his more hawkish lines, like "axis of evil."
Mr. Gerson follows two other close Bush advisers who have left in recent weeks: Andrew H. Card Jr., the former White House chief of staff, and Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary.
But officials said Mr. Gerson's departure was not part of the staff shakeup instigated by Mr. Card's successor, Joshua B. Bolten, who has tried to invigorate and re-energize Mr. Bush's staff with new faces.
Mr. Gerson, 42, who has worked for Mr. Bush for seven years, said he had been contemplating leaving the administration for some time. Mr. Gerson, who had a heart attack when he was 40, said he told the president four months ago that he was serious about leaving soon. He said he chose now in part because the White House is having a run of good news and the time seemed right. "This was a case where many good things are coming together at the White House," he said. "And it to some extent makes it easier to leave." He said he plans to continue a career in writing.
White House officials said there were no plans to name a successor to Mr. Gerson. "There's no way to replace him — he is a once in a generation," said Karl Rove, a White House deputy chief of staff. "He helped take the president on his best day and represent what was in the president's spirit and soul."
Mr. Gerson was known to have infused Mr. Bush's addresses with the religious allusions for which they became known. It was Mr. Gerson who changed the words "axis of hatred" to the more biblical "axis of evil." Mr. Gerson complained in an interview that the line was often misrepresented to apply directly to Iran, North Korea and Iraq, which were but examples of rogue states.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/15/washington/15gerson.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Former SS officer builds Hitler memorial
SUGAR CREEK, Wis., June 14 (UPI) -- An 87-year-old Wisconsin man has built a memorial to Adolf Hitler, claiming the Fuehrer was misunderstood.
Ted Junker, a retired farmer who says he served as an SS officer during World War II, claims he spent $200,000 to build a concrete memorial next to his home in Sugar Creek, Wis., the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.
Junker said his mission is to clear up what he believes are inaccuracies in the teachings about World War II and Hitler's legacy, the newspaper said.
Kathy Heilbronner, assistant director of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, said Junker is a classic Holocaust denier.
"In making these assertions, he's deliberately choosing to ignore the overwhelming volume of everything that supports every aspect of the Holocaust," Heilbronner told the newspaper.
Junker said most of his four children are opposed to his Hitler memorial. So are people in the town.
"He's just a mixed up old man," Sugar Creek Town Chairman Loren Waite said.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060614-104128-6733r
http://www.thoseshirts.com/tshirts.html
Islamic Group Complains About Derogatory Song
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
June 14, 2006
(1st Add: Includes comments from CAIR and Cpl. Joshua Belile.)
(CNSNews.com) - U.S. Marines should not be singing insensitive songs about Iraqis -- if they are indeed doing that, the Marine Corps said in response to a complaint from an Islamic advocacy group.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations wants the Pentagon and Congress to investigate a four-minute video posted in March on the youtube.com website (the video was pulled after CAIR complained).
The video, called "hadji girl," shows a man -- maybe a U.S. Marine in Iraq? -- "singing a song about hadji." (A "Hajji" is a person who has made the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, but the term is often used as a pejorative by U.S. troops in Iraq, CAIR said.)
The video describes the marine's encounter with an Iraqi woman. The lyrics say, "I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally. ...I blew those little ******* to eternity...They should have known they were ****ing with the Marines."
Off-camera, laughs and cheers greet the words, CAIR said.
In a response to CAIR's complaint, the Marine Corps said the video was posted anonymously and "is clearly inappropriate and contrary to the high standards expected of all Marines.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=%5CCulture%5Carchive%5C200606%5CCUL20060614b.html
'Ban junk food adverts before 9pm watershed' BY VALERIE ELLIOTT, CONSUMER EDITORShould advertisements be banned before 9pm? Join the debate
TELEVISION adverts for junk food should be banned before 9pm to help to fight childhood obesity, the food watchdog is expected to urge today. The Food Standards Agency said the pre-watershed ban was needed to improve the diets of children up to the age of 15. The plan cuts across proposals by the communications regulator Ofcom to limit junk food promotions to toddlers and children up the age of nine. A paper to go before the agency’s board today will reject the Ofcom plans which it claims are inadequate to wean young people off a junk food diet high in salt, sugar, fat and saturated fat.
It has the support of the National Consumer Council and leading health campaigners such as the National Heart Forum, an alliance that includes the British Medical Association, the British Heart Foundation and the National Children’s Bureau.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-2226337,00.html
Leavitt in hot seat over use of leased jetCritics say plane must be reserved for emergenciesBy Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - House Democrats on Wednesday demanded that Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt turn over records detailing his use of a leased jet he reportedly flew on 19 times to travel to 99 cities, including a trip to Utah in March. Leavitt, a former three-term governor of Utah, defended his actions. He told the House Ways and Means Committee his use of the leased jet was approved by Congress last year and was essential to his mission of helping prepare for a flu pandemic and encouraging seniors to enroll in a new drug benefit. Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark, D-Calif., said Congress meant for the plane to be used in emergencies, not to shuttle the secretary to public relations events. "What he did is illegal. He was using a plane that was set aside for the Centers for Disease Control to be used as what you and I would think of as a medevac plane for anthrax attacks and that sort of thing," Stark said in an interview. Congress ''certainly did not mention using it on something that would be a public relations trip." Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., sent a letter to Leavitt on Wednesday asking the secretary to provide details of his trips and the department's contract with the Georgia-based charter company. HHS spokeswoman Christina Pearson said Leavitt's use of the plane was in line with Congress' direction and federal travel regulations. "We had pressing health care challenges that had been given to us by the president and Congress and the only way to complete that pressing official business in an efficient and effective fashion in a limited time period was through the use of leased aircraft," she said.
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3938864
US-led troops launch largest assault on Taliban since 2001
· 11,000-strong force tries to cripple militants in south
· Response to increasing violence from insurgents
Declan Walsh in Qalat
Thursday June 15, 2006
The Guardian
An American-led force of 11,000 troops launches the biggest anti-Taliban offensive in Afghanistan since 2001 today, concentrating their firepower on an area under British control.
British, American, Canadian and Afghan troops will sweep across insurgent strongholds in four southern provinces rocked by a wave of Taliban violence in recent months, US officials said.
The ambitious offensive, named Operation Mountain Thrust, aims to cripple the strengthening insurgency before Nato takes command of southern Afghanistan next month.
The heaviest combat is expected in the lawless mountains spanning western Uruzgan province and north-eastern Helmand, where 3,300 British troops are deploying and Britain suffered its first combat fatality last weekend.
Less intensive operations will target pockets of Kandahar and Zabul provinces. US military officials announcing the operation said reconstruction activities would follow in its wake.
"This is not just about killing or capturing extremists," US spokesman Tom Collins said in Kabul. "We are going to go into these areas, take out the security threat and establish conditions where government forces, government institutions [and] humanitarian organisations can move in and begin the real work."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1797859,00.html
Sudan defies world court on Darfur crimes
Nation insists alleged war criminals must be tried in its own courts
Thursday, June 15, 2006 Posted: 1309 GMT (2109 HKT)
Sudanese pump water at rebel-controlled Gallab camp, in Darfur, which houses 9,000 people who fled 32 villages attacked by Arab militias.
HARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Sudan said on Thursday the International Criminal Court did not have jurisdiction over crimes in the violent Darfur region and no officials would be interrogated by the court.
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said he expected to file charges for atrocities in the remote west, where the court had found documentation of mass murders and rapes, adding Sudan's courts were not tackling the same crimes as the ICC.
"If they are here to discuss the progress of trials or the role of national justice then we are ready to give them whatever information they are looking for," said Sudan's Justice Minister Mohammed al-Mardi. "But if the matter is about investigations, then they ... don't have the jurisdiction."
Under the Rome Treaty which formed the court, the ICC cannot indict suspects who have been tried fairly in a competent national court. Sudan signed but has not ratified that treaty.
Human Rights Watch in a report last week alleged Sudan established its own special court for Darfur to offset the work of the ICC and had tried only 13 minor cases since its formation a year ago.
Al-Mardi said national courts were dealing with alleged war crimes and that logistical reasons were slowing them down.
"It is not easy to work in Darfur, he told Reuters. "And I think the ICC will find that too."
Human Rights Watch said the concept of command responsibility for massacres and crimes committed by Sudanese armed forces and allied militia was not present in Sudanese law, requiring the intervention of the ICC.
But Mardi said no Sudanese official would be questioned by the world court. "I don't think that any officials will be interrogated or addressed by the ICC."
Tens of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes in more than three years of rape, pillage and murder called genocide by Washington.
Khartoum denies genocide
Khartoum denies the charge but the U.N. Security Council in an unprecedented move requested the ICC to investigate alleged war crimes in Darfur last year.
Al-Mardi said the ICC was working in a "hasty manner" and warned them against "jumping to conclusions" on the ability of the national judicial system.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/06/15/darfur.court.reut/
HAMAS
Associated Press
Published: Thursday, June 15, 2006
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Hamas said Thursday it is ready to restore its ceasefire with Israel several days after calling it off to protest a deadly explosion on a Gaza beach.
But Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, said the offer was conditional on Israel accepting the Palestinians' demand "to stop their aggression."
"This is very clear for us, ..." Hamad said. "We are ready to do it, but (only) if the Israeli side has a strong intention to respond positively to the call ... to stop their aggression."
Hamas called an end to the February 2005 truce Friday after eight Palestinian beachgoers were killed in an explosion the Palestinians blame on Israel. The Israeli military says it was not involved in the blast.
Hamas fired several dozen rockets toward southern Israel over the weekend, but in recent days there has been a lull.
Israeli officials said Thursday the cessation is due to threats against Hamas. Israeli officials earlier this week threatened to begin killing Hamas leaders, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, if the rocket fire continued.
The Islamic Jihad militant group, which has never accepted the truce, fired five rockets toward Israel on Thursday.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=1cee9d81-6baa-4a92-9c6c-5bc8c24d4f4f&k=43126
14/06/2006 - 5:31:36 PM
'Living fossil' found in Laos
The first pictures showing a live specimen of a rodent species once thought to have been extinct for 11 million years have been taken by a retired Florida State University professor and a Thai wildlife biologist.
They took video and still photographs of the “living fossil,” which looks like a small squirrel or tree shrew, in May during an expedition to central Laos near the Thai border.
Known as Diatomyidae, scientists have nicknamed it the Laotian rock rat. The creature is not really a rat but a member of a rodent family once known only from fossils.
The pictures show a docile, squirrel-sized animal with dark dense fur and a long tail but not as bushy as a squirrel’s. It also shows that the creature waddles like a duck with its hind feet splayed out at an angle – ideal for climbing rocks.
“I hope these pictures will help in some way to prevent the loss of this marvellous animal,” said David Redfield, a science education professor emeritus.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=79534418&p=795347zx&n=79534798
Fewer night flights could cut climate change impact
Wed Jun 14, 2006 1:04pm ET
Top News
Military deaths in Iraq hit 2,500
Military identifies new al Qaeda leader
Hamas govt says it wants ceasefire with Israel
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Cutting the number of flights that take off at night could help to reduce the contribution of aviation to global warming, researchers said on Wednesday.
Night flights contribute to climate change because the white streaks of condensation, or contrails, left behind by jets trap energy emitted from the Earth's surface.
Daytime flights have less impact because contrails also reflect some of the sun's energy back into space which has a cooling effect.
"It you wanted to minimize the contrail climate effect you might want to think about rescheduling flights," Dr Nicola Stuber of Reading University said in an interview.
The researchers discovered that although only about 25 percent of flights in Britain take off between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., they account for 60-80 percent of global warming linked with contrails.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-14T170447Z_01_L13678272_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-FLIGHTS.xml&archived=False
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking says pope told him not to study beginning of universe
HONG KONG -- Famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Thursday that the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God.
The British author -- who wrote the best-seller "A Brief History of Time" -- said that the pope made the comments at a cosmology conference at the Vatican.
Hawking, who didn't say when the meeting was held, quoted the pope as saying, "It's OK to study the universe and where it began. But we should not enquire into the beginning itelf because that was the moment of creation and the work of God."
The scientist then joked during a lecture in Hong Kong, "I was glad he didn't realize I had presented a paper at the conference suggesting how the universe began. I didn't fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo."
The church condemned Galileo in the 17th century for supporting Nicholas Copernicus' discovery that Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.
But in 1992, Pope John Paul II issued a declaration saying that the church's denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."
Hawking is one of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation. He has done groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe. He proposes that space and time have no beginning and no end.
His hourlong lecture to a sold-out audience at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was highly theoretical and technical. During the question-and-answer session, Hawking was asked where constants like gravity come from and whether gravity can distort light.
But there were several light, humorous moments.
Hawking -- who must communicate with an electronic speech synthesizer -- said he once considered using a machine that gave him a French accent but he couldn't use it because his wife would divorce him.
The astrophysicist is wheelchair-bound and uses an electronic voice because he has the neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Hawking was asked why his computerized voice has an American accent.
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/news/20060615p2g00m0in039000c.html
By NEDRA PICKLER, AP
WASHINGTON (June 15) - President Bush, who often teases members of the White House press corps, apologized Wednesday after he poked fun at a reporter for wearing sunglasses without realizing they were needed for vision loss.
The exchange occurred at a news conference in the Rose Garden.
Bush called on Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten and asked if he was going to ask his question with his "shades" on.
"For the viewers, there's no sun," Bush said to the television cameras.
But even though the sun was behind the clouds, Wallsten still needs the sunglasses because he has Stargardt's disease, a form of macular degeneration that causes progressive vision loss. The condition causes Wallsten to be sensitive to glare and even on a cloudy day, can cause pain and increase the loss of sight.
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060614202409990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001
Adviser Who Shaped Bush's Speeches Is Leaving
By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: June 15, 2006
WASHINGTON, June 14 — Michael Gerson, the White House speechwriter and policy adviser who shaped nearly every major address of George W. Bush's presidency, said Wednesday that he was leaving the administration to pursue new career options.
Mr. Gerson has been one of Mr. Bush's closest aides and is credited with giving voice to both the "compassionate conservatism" that Mr. Bush espouses and his more hawkish lines, like "axis of evil."
Mr. Gerson follows two other close Bush advisers who have left in recent weeks: Andrew H. Card Jr., the former White House chief of staff, and Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary.
But officials said Mr. Gerson's departure was not part of the staff shakeup instigated by Mr. Card's successor, Joshua B. Bolten, who has tried to invigorate and re-energize Mr. Bush's staff with new faces.
Mr. Gerson, 42, who has worked for Mr. Bush for seven years, said he had been contemplating leaving the administration for some time. Mr. Gerson, who had a heart attack when he was 40, said he told the president four months ago that he was serious about leaving soon. He said he chose now in part because the White House is having a run of good news and the time seemed right. "This was a case where many good things are coming together at the White House," he said. "And it to some extent makes it easier to leave." He said he plans to continue a career in writing.
White House officials said there were no plans to name a successor to Mr. Gerson. "There's no way to replace him — he is a once in a generation," said Karl Rove, a White House deputy chief of staff. "He helped take the president on his best day and represent what was in the president's spirit and soul."
Mr. Gerson was known to have infused Mr. Bush's addresses with the religious allusions for which they became known. It was Mr. Gerson who changed the words "axis of hatred" to the more biblical "axis of evil." Mr. Gerson complained in an interview that the line was often misrepresented to apply directly to Iran, North Korea and Iraq, which were but examples of rogue states.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/15/washington/15gerson.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Former SS officer builds Hitler memorial
SUGAR CREEK, Wis., June 14 (UPI) -- An 87-year-old Wisconsin man has built a memorial to Adolf Hitler, claiming the Fuehrer was misunderstood.
Ted Junker, a retired farmer who says he served as an SS officer during World War II, claims he spent $200,000 to build a concrete memorial next to his home in Sugar Creek, Wis., the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.
Junker said his mission is to clear up what he believes are inaccuracies in the teachings about World War II and Hitler's legacy, the newspaper said.
Kathy Heilbronner, assistant director of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, said Junker is a classic Holocaust denier.
"In making these assertions, he's deliberately choosing to ignore the overwhelming volume of everything that supports every aspect of the Holocaust," Heilbronner told the newspaper.
Junker said most of his four children are opposed to his Hitler memorial. So are people in the town.
"He's just a mixed up old man," Sugar Creek Town Chairman Loren Waite said.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060614-104128-6733r
http://www.thoseshirts.com/tshirts.html
Islamic Group Complains About Derogatory Song
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
June 14, 2006
(1st Add: Includes comments from CAIR and Cpl. Joshua Belile.)
(CNSNews.com) - U.S. Marines should not be singing insensitive songs about Iraqis -- if they are indeed doing that, the Marine Corps said in response to a complaint from an Islamic advocacy group.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations wants the Pentagon and Congress to investigate a four-minute video posted in March on the youtube.com website (the video was pulled after CAIR complained).
The video, called "hadji girl," shows a man -- maybe a U.S. Marine in Iraq? -- "singing a song about hadji." (A "Hajji" is a person who has made the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, but the term is often used as a pejorative by U.S. troops in Iraq, CAIR said.)
The video describes the marine's encounter with an Iraqi woman. The lyrics say, "I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally. ...I blew those little ******* to eternity...They should have known they were ****ing with the Marines."
Off-camera, laughs and cheers greet the words, CAIR said.
In a response to CAIR's complaint, the Marine Corps said the video was posted anonymously and "is clearly inappropriate and contrary to the high standards expected of all Marines.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=%5CCulture%5Carchive%5C200606%5CCUL20060614b.html
'Ban junk food adverts before 9pm watershed' BY VALERIE ELLIOTT, CONSUMER EDITORShould advertisements be banned before 9pm? Join the debate
TELEVISION adverts for junk food should be banned before 9pm to help to fight childhood obesity, the food watchdog is expected to urge today. The Food Standards Agency said the pre-watershed ban was needed to improve the diets of children up to the age of 15. The plan cuts across proposals by the communications regulator Ofcom to limit junk food promotions to toddlers and children up the age of nine. A paper to go before the agency’s board today will reject the Ofcom plans which it claims are inadequate to wean young people off a junk food diet high in salt, sugar, fat and saturated fat.
It has the support of the National Consumer Council and leading health campaigners such as the National Heart Forum, an alliance that includes the British Medical Association, the British Heart Foundation and the National Children’s Bureau.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-2226337,00.html
Leavitt in hot seat over use of leased jetCritics say plane must be reserved for emergenciesBy Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - House Democrats on Wednesday demanded that Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt turn over records detailing his use of a leased jet he reportedly flew on 19 times to travel to 99 cities, including a trip to Utah in March. Leavitt, a former three-term governor of Utah, defended his actions. He told the House Ways and Means Committee his use of the leased jet was approved by Congress last year and was essential to his mission of helping prepare for a flu pandemic and encouraging seniors to enroll in a new drug benefit. Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark, D-Calif., said Congress meant for the plane to be used in emergencies, not to shuttle the secretary to public relations events. "What he did is illegal. He was using a plane that was set aside for the Centers for Disease Control to be used as what you and I would think of as a medevac plane for anthrax attacks and that sort of thing," Stark said in an interview. Congress ''certainly did not mention using it on something that would be a public relations trip." Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., sent a letter to Leavitt on Wednesday asking the secretary to provide details of his trips and the department's contract with the Georgia-based charter company. HHS spokeswoman Christina Pearson said Leavitt's use of the plane was in line with Congress' direction and federal travel regulations. "We had pressing health care challenges that had been given to us by the president and Congress and the only way to complete that pressing official business in an efficient and effective fashion in a limited time period was through the use of leased aircraft," she said.
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3938864
US-led troops launch largest assault on Taliban since 2001
· 11,000-strong force tries to cripple militants in south
· Response to increasing violence from insurgents
Declan Walsh in Qalat
Thursday June 15, 2006
The Guardian
An American-led force of 11,000 troops launches the biggest anti-Taliban offensive in Afghanistan since 2001 today, concentrating their firepower on an area under British control.
British, American, Canadian and Afghan troops will sweep across insurgent strongholds in four southern provinces rocked by a wave of Taliban violence in recent months, US officials said.
The ambitious offensive, named Operation Mountain Thrust, aims to cripple the strengthening insurgency before Nato takes command of southern Afghanistan next month.
The heaviest combat is expected in the lawless mountains spanning western Uruzgan province and north-eastern Helmand, where 3,300 British troops are deploying and Britain suffered its first combat fatality last weekend.
Less intensive operations will target pockets of Kandahar and Zabul provinces. US military officials announcing the operation said reconstruction activities would follow in its wake.
"This is not just about killing or capturing extremists," US spokesman Tom Collins said in Kabul. "We are going to go into these areas, take out the security threat and establish conditions where government forces, government institutions [and] humanitarian organisations can move in and begin the real work."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1797859,00.html
Sudan defies world court on Darfur crimes
Nation insists alleged war criminals must be tried in its own courts
Thursday, June 15, 2006 Posted: 1309 GMT (2109 HKT)
Sudanese pump water at rebel-controlled Gallab camp, in Darfur, which houses 9,000 people who fled 32 villages attacked by Arab militias.
HARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Sudan said on Thursday the International Criminal Court did not have jurisdiction over crimes in the violent Darfur region and no officials would be interrogated by the court.
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said he expected to file charges for atrocities in the remote west, where the court had found documentation of mass murders and rapes, adding Sudan's courts were not tackling the same crimes as the ICC.
"If they are here to discuss the progress of trials or the role of national justice then we are ready to give them whatever information they are looking for," said Sudan's Justice Minister Mohammed al-Mardi. "But if the matter is about investigations, then they ... don't have the jurisdiction."
Under the Rome Treaty which formed the court, the ICC cannot indict suspects who have been tried fairly in a competent national court. Sudan signed but has not ratified that treaty.
Human Rights Watch in a report last week alleged Sudan established its own special court for Darfur to offset the work of the ICC and had tried only 13 minor cases since its formation a year ago.
Al-Mardi said national courts were dealing with alleged war crimes and that logistical reasons were slowing them down.
"It is not easy to work in Darfur, he told Reuters. "And I think the ICC will find that too."
Human Rights Watch said the concept of command responsibility for massacres and crimes committed by Sudanese armed forces and allied militia was not present in Sudanese law, requiring the intervention of the ICC.
But Mardi said no Sudanese official would be questioned by the world court. "I don't think that any officials will be interrogated or addressed by the ICC."
Tens of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes in more than three years of rape, pillage and murder called genocide by Washington.
Khartoum denies genocide
Khartoum denies the charge but the U.N. Security Council in an unprecedented move requested the ICC to investigate alleged war crimes in Darfur last year.
Al-Mardi said the ICC was working in a "hasty manner" and warned them against "jumping to conclusions" on the ability of the national judicial system.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/06/15/darfur.court.reut/
HAMAS
Associated Press
Published: Thursday, June 15, 2006
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Hamas said Thursday it is ready to restore its ceasefire with Israel several days after calling it off to protest a deadly explosion on a Gaza beach.
But Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, said the offer was conditional on Israel accepting the Palestinians' demand "to stop their aggression."
"This is very clear for us, ..." Hamad said. "We are ready to do it, but (only) if the Israeli side has a strong intention to respond positively to the call ... to stop their aggression."
Hamas called an end to the February 2005 truce Friday after eight Palestinian beachgoers were killed in an explosion the Palestinians blame on Israel. The Israeli military says it was not involved in the blast.
Hamas fired several dozen rockets toward southern Israel over the weekend, but in recent days there has been a lull.
Israeli officials said Thursday the cessation is due to threats against Hamas. Israeli officials earlier this week threatened to begin killing Hamas leaders, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, if the rocket fire continued.
The Islamic Jihad militant group, which has never accepted the truce, fired five rockets toward Israel on Thursday.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=1cee9d81-6baa-4a92-9c6c-5bc8c24d4f4f&k=43126
14/06/2006 - 5:31:36 PM
'Living fossil' found in Laos
The first pictures showing a live specimen of a rodent species once thought to have been extinct for 11 million years have been taken by a retired Florida State University professor and a Thai wildlife biologist.
They took video and still photographs of the “living fossil,” which looks like a small squirrel or tree shrew, in May during an expedition to central Laos near the Thai border.
Known as Diatomyidae, scientists have nicknamed it the Laotian rock rat. The creature is not really a rat but a member of a rodent family once known only from fossils.
The pictures show a docile, squirrel-sized animal with dark dense fur and a long tail but not as bushy as a squirrel’s. It also shows that the creature waddles like a duck with its hind feet splayed out at an angle – ideal for climbing rocks.
“I hope these pictures will help in some way to prevent the loss of this marvellous animal,” said David Redfield, a science education professor emeritus.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=79534418&p=795347zx&n=79534798
Fewer night flights could cut climate change impact
Wed Jun 14, 2006 1:04pm ET
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By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Cutting the number of flights that take off at night could help to reduce the contribution of aviation to global warming, researchers said on Wednesday.
Night flights contribute to climate change because the white streaks of condensation, or contrails, left behind by jets trap energy emitted from the Earth's surface.
Daytime flights have less impact because contrails also reflect some of the sun's energy back into space which has a cooling effect.
"It you wanted to minimize the contrail climate effect you might want to think about rescheduling flights," Dr Nicola Stuber of Reading University said in an interview.
The researchers discovered that although only about 25 percent of flights in Britain take off between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., they account for 60-80 percent of global warming linked with contrails.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-14T170447Z_01_L13678272_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-FLIGHTS.xml&archived=False
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking says pope told him not to study beginning of universe
HONG KONG -- Famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Thursday that the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God.
The British author -- who wrote the best-seller "A Brief History of Time" -- said that the pope made the comments at a cosmology conference at the Vatican.
Hawking, who didn't say when the meeting was held, quoted the pope as saying, "It's OK to study the universe and where it began. But we should not enquire into the beginning itelf because that was the moment of creation and the work of God."
The scientist then joked during a lecture in Hong Kong, "I was glad he didn't realize I had presented a paper at the conference suggesting how the universe began. I didn't fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo."
The church condemned Galileo in the 17th century for supporting Nicholas Copernicus' discovery that Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.
But in 1992, Pope John Paul II issued a declaration saying that the church's denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."
Hawking is one of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation. He has done groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe. He proposes that space and time have no beginning and no end.
His hourlong lecture to a sold-out audience at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was highly theoretical and technical. During the question-and-answer session, Hawking was asked where constants like gravity come from and whether gravity can distort light.
But there were several light, humorous moments.
Hawking -- who must communicate with an electronic speech synthesizer -- said he once considered using a machine that gave him a French accent but he couldn't use it because his wife would divorce him.
The astrophysicist is wheelchair-bound and uses an electronic voice because he has the neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Hawking was asked why his computerized voice has an American accent.
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/news/20060615p2g00m0in039000c.html
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