 |
 |
|
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2008 US makes show of force at sea in Mideast: US Maintains Ships in Mediterranean
As Regional Tensions Mount-- The U.S. Navy switched out warships patrolling in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, maintaining
a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon. Officials said it was a routine,
planned deployment but it was an action sure to draw attention in the Mideast, where an announcement on U.S. presence last
week caused a political stir in Lebanon. The USS Cole guided missile destroyer and support ships passed through the Suez Canal
at midday Wednesday, heading from the Mediterranean Sea into the Red Sea, canal officials said. In Washington, a Navy official
said the Cole had been relieved by the guided missile destroyer USS Ors and the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea.
Both the canal official and navy official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of talking about ship
movements. "It's a sign of our commitment to stability in the region ... a stabilizing force and commitment to our allies,"
Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wednesday of the U.S. presence. "I think it prevents miscalculations," he
told Pentagon reporters. The deployment of the USS Cole had sparked criticism from Hezbollah and from pro-Syrian groups in
Lebanon, who are locked in a political standoff with the pro-U.S. government. It also sparked criticism from Syria. Lebanese
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has said his government did not ask for the ships and that they were not in territorial waters.
Some in his coalition said they were surprised by the deployment. Syria has said the deployment threatened security in the
region. Syria's foreign minister warned the U.S. it cannot impose its own solutions to the political crisis in Lebanon. Syria's
foreign minister and the pro-Syrian groups in Lebanon also reminded Washington of the bloody consequences of its 1980s intervention
in Lebanon. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe had called the deployment of the Cole "a show of support
for regional stability" and said President Bush is concerned about the situation in Lebanon. http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=72585 Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab Al-Youm reported today, through sources that an American message leaked by Egypt to
Syria shows that the United States is ready to launch a broad military operation against Syria if it insists on its position
on the Lebanese crisis and this is the real reason behind the deployment of “USS Cole” in front of the Syrian
- Lebanese waters The source said that the official announced reason of Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Egypt is to push the Palestinian - Israeli peace process forward but the real reason
is to explain the American military actions and the presence of the American ships to the Egyptian leadership. Update.
This is reported today “US waived congressional restriction on Egypt aid” … which says it all. http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/03/04/egypt-leaks-information-about-an-american-military-campaign-against-syria/ The U.S. Army this week will begin to muster 10,000 Individual Ready Reserve
members at locations across the United States. The muster, which will last through June, is part of a seven-year Army project
to reinvigorate the force, Army Human Resources Command spokesman Ray Gall said. “We’re working on making [the
IRR] a viable force that can be deployed as needed,” he said. “We want to get a better handle on how ready these
people really are, using these musters.” IRR members will be paid $190 to attend a muster, which is taxable, Gall said.
The IRR is made up of servicemembers who have left active duty or active reserve service, but still have time left on their
eight-year obligation. http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53068 ED NOTE> YOU THINK OIL/GAS ARE HIGH NOW? WAIT UNTIL WE GO
INTO SYRIA. Iraq's cabinet has given the green light to the Oil Ministry to sign agreements
with international oil companies to help increase the nation's crude output, a ministry official said Wednesday. The two-year
deals, known as technical support agreements, or TSAs, are designed to develop five producing fields to add 500,000 barrels
per day to the country's current 2.4 million barrels per day output. Last December, Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB), BP PLC (BP),
ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) and Chevron Corp. (CVX) submitted technical and financial proposals for the five oil fields and received
counterproposals from the Iraqi side. In January, representatives from the companies and from Iraq met again in Amman, Jordan,
and they will hold the third round of discussions later this month, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
as he was not authorized to release information. In Vienna, Iraq's Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said that Iraq intends
to compensate these companies with crude oil rather than in cash, the Dow Jones Newswires reported on Wednesday. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/05/africa/ME-FIN-Iraq-Oil-Deals.php The bullets lay on the desk amid Bibles and rosaries. They're for two pistols
owned by Father Ayman Danna. "The only solution left for our people is to bear arms. We either live or die. We must be strong,"
says the Syriac Catholic priest at the Church of Saint George in Bartella, a northern Iraqi town in a swath of fertile land
called the Nineveh Plain that now has the largest concentration of a dwindling Christian community. The Christians who fled
sectarian persecution that followed the US invasion in 2003 are now battling to hold onto one of their final refuges. They
are increasingly besieged by Sunni Arab militants on one side and by Kurdish ultranationalists on the other – both of
whom have different agendas for the area. In a sign of how grim the situation has become, Paulos Faraj Rahho, archbishop of
the Chaldean Catholic Church in nearby Mosul, was kidnapped last Friday and three of his companions were killed. On Tuesday,
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said everything must be done to secure Archbishop Rahho's release, days after Pope Benedict
XVI described his abduction as "abominable." Sources in the Nineveh Plain say the kidnappers are asking for $1 million in
exchange for Rahho's release. Rahho is among nearly a dozen priests who have been kidnapped in Mosul since 2003. Many more
ordinary Christians have been abducted. In most cases, a ransom was paid to free the priests, the sources say. Three priests
were assassinated. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0306/p01s05-wogn.html The Turkish military leadership has rejected a request by Iraq's largely
autonomous Kurdish region to shut down several military bases in northern Iraq, the Turkish daily Vatan reported yesterday,
citing a statement by the Turkish General Staff. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=135688 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, meeting today to consider new strategies
to bring development and peace to increasingly violent Afghanistan, is looking to its old Cold War rival for help. NATO is
seeking assistance from Russia even though Afghans on both sides of the current struggle have bitter memories of the old Soviet
Union's brutal 1979 invasion and decade-long occupation that ended in a humiliating withdrawal of troops by Moscow. The transatlantic
alliance will stop short of asking for Russian troops or the dreaded attack helicopters used in Afghanistan during the 1980s,
since that would represent a huge propaganda coup for the Taliban insurgents. But NATO is interested in Russian help in transporting
equipment and troops into Afghanistan through Russian territory, officials said Wednesday. The Russian government could make
contributions that would include "regular use of Russian transport means to get supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan [and]
possible Russian contributions to the re-equipment of the Afghan army," said Robert Simmons, NATO's special envoy for the
Caucasus and Central Asia, according to a report by Agence France-Presse. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=355034 Russia Pumps Tens of Millions Into Burnishing Image Abroad Uzbekistan may let the United States use a military airbase for operations
in Afghanistan after evicting U.S. troops in 2005, a NATO official and diplomats said on Wednesday. Any move by Washington
to tiptoe back into Uzbekistan is certain to enrage Russia, which has accused NATO of triggering a new arms race by beefing
up its military presence around Russia. Once an ally in the U.S.-declared war against terrorism, Uzbekistan evicted U.S. troops
from Karshi-Khanabad airbase in 2005 when the West condemned it for firing on protesters in the town of Andizhan. Robert Simmons,
NATO's special envoy for the Caucasus and Central Asia, was quoted as saying in Moscow that Tashkent was now willing to let
the United States use Termez, another Uzbek airbase operated by Germany. "We welcome the fact Uzbekistan has shown readiness
to allow other countries to use this airbase," he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. "As far as I understand,
the United States is beginning to use this facility." Uzbekistan's government, accused in the West of suppressing basic freedoms
and tolerating no dissent, has made no public statements pointing to a shift in its position on U.S. troops. http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=72224 Venezuela's justice minister declared that war "has already begun."
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa called his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, a "baldfaced liar." Uribe demanded the
International Criminal Court try Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for genocide. President Bush accused Chavez of "provocative
maneuvers." Colombia said documents found at the base showed rebels wanted to make a radioactive dirty bomb. But the documents
it shared with reporters didn't support the allegation, indicating instead that the rebels were trying to buy uranium to resell
at a profit. Uribe said Chavez should be prosecuted for allegedly financing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Uribe
cited documents in a laptop seized in Reyes' jungle camp that he said showed Venezuela made a $300 million payment to the
rebels. Both Venezuela and Ecuador dismissed all the allegations as lies. http://www.nypost.com/seven/03052008/news/worldnews/war_has_begun__says_venezuela_100529.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ National Dragnet Is a Click Away Several thousand law enforcement agencies are creating the foundation of
a domestic intelligence system through computer networks that analyze vast amounts of police information to fight crime and
root out terror plots. As federal authorities struggled to meet information-sharing mandates after
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, police agencies from Alaska and California to the Washington region poured millions of criminal and investigative records
into shared digital repositories called data warehouses, giving investigators and analysts new power to discern links among
people, patterns of behavior and other hidden clues. Those network efforts will begin expanding further this month, as some local
and state agencies connect to a fledgling Justice Department system called the National Data Exchange, or N-DEx. Federal authorities hope
N-DEx will become what one called a "one-stop shop" enabling federal law enforcement, counterterrorism and intelligence analysts
to automatically examine the enormous caches of local and state records for the first time. Although Americans have become accustomed to seeing dazzling examples of
fictional crime-busting gear on television and in movies, law enforcement's search for clues has in reality involved a mundane
mix of disjointed computers, legwork and luck. These new systems are transforming that process. "It's going from the horse-and-buggy
days to the space age, that's what it's like," said Sgt. Chuck Violette of the Tucson police department, one of almost 1,600 law enforcement agencies that uses a
commercial data-mining system called Coplink. With Coplink, police investigators can pinpoint suspects by searching on
scraps of information such as nicknames, height, weight, color of hair and the placement of a tattoo. They can find hidden
relationships among suspects and instantly map links among people, places and events. Searches that might have taken weeks
or months -- or which might not have been attempted, because of the amount of paper and analysis involved -- are now done
in seconds. On one recent day, Tucson detective Cynthia Butierez demonstrated that power
in an office littered with paper and boxes of equipment. Using a regular desktop computer and Web browser, she logged onto
Coplink to search for clues about a fraud suspect. She entered a name the suspect used on a bogus check. A second later, a
list of real names came up, along with five incident reports. She told the system to also search data warehouses built by Coplink in San Diego and Orange County, Calif. -- which have agreements to share with Tucson -- and came up with the
name of a particular suspect, his age and a possible address. She asked the software to find the suspect's links to other
people and incidents, and then to create a visual chart displaying the findings. Up popped a display with the suspect at the
center and cartoon-like images of houses, buildings and people arrayed around him. A final click on one of the houses brought
up the address of an apartment and several new names, leads she could follow. "The power behind what we have discovered, what we can do with Coplink, is
immense," Tucson police Chief Richard Miranda said. "The kinds of things you saw in the movies then, we're actually doing
now." Intelligence-Led Policing The expanding police systems illustrate the prominent roles that private
companies play in homeland security and counterterrorism efforts. They also underscore how the use of new data -- and data
surveillance -- technology to fight crime and terrorism is evolving faster than the public's understanding or the laws intended
to check government power and protect civil liberties, authorities said. Three decades ago, Congress imposed limits on domestic intelligence activity
after revelations that the FBI, Army, local police and others had misused their authority for years to build
troves of personal dossiers and monitor political activists and other law-abiding Americans. Since those reforms, police and federal authorities have observed a wall
between law enforcement information-gathering, relating to crimes and prosecutions, and more open-ended intelligence that
relates to national security and counterterrorism. That wall is fast eroding following the passage of laws expanding surveillance
authorities, the push for information-sharing networks, and the expectation that local and state police will play larger roles
as national security sentinels. Law enforcement and federal security authorities said these developments,
along with a new willingness by police to share information, hold out the promise of fulfilling post-Sept. 11, 2001, mandates
to connect the dots and root out signs of threats before attacks can occur. "A guy that's got a flat tire outside a nuclear facility in one location
means nothing," said Thomas E. Bush III, the FBI's assistant director of the criminal justice information services division.
"Run the guy and he's had a flat tire outside of five nuclear facilities and you have a clue." In a paper called "Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture,"
law enforcement authorities working with the Justice Department said officers " 'on the beat' are an excellent resource for
gathering information on all kinds of potential threats and vulnerabilities." "Despite the many definitions of 'intelligence' that have been promulgated
over the years, the simplest and clearest of these is 'information plus analysis equals intelligence,' " the paper said. Efforts by federal authorities to create national networks have had mixed
success. The federal government has long successfully operated programs such as the
Regional Information Sharing System, which enables law enforcement agencies to communicate, and the National Crime Information
Center, an index of criminal justice information that police across the country can access. Though successful, those systems
offer a relatively limited look at existing records. A Department of Homeland Security project to expand sharing substantially, called the Information Network, has
been bedeviled by cost overruns, poor planning and ambivalence on the part of local and state authorities, according to the
Government Accountability Office. Almost every state has established organizations known as intelligence fusion
centers to collect, analyze and share information about possible leads. But many of those centers are underfunded and undermanned,
and some of the analysts are not properly trained, the GAO said last year. Federal authorities have high hopes for the N-DEx system, which is to begin
phasing in as early as this month. They envision a time when N-DEx, developed by Raytheon for $85 million, will enable 200,000 state and local investigators, as well
as federal counterterrorism investigators, to search across millions of police reports, in some 15,000 state and local agencies,
with a few clicks of a computer mouse. Those reports will include names of suspects, associates, victims, persons of interest,
witnesses and any other person named in an incident, arrest, booking, parole or probation report. The system will be accessible to federal law-enforcement agencies, such as
the FBI, and state fusion centers. Intelligence analysts at the National Counterterrorism Center and FBI's Foreign Terrorist
Tracking Center likely will have access to the system as well. "The goal is to create a one-stop shop for criminal justice information,"
the FBI's Bush said. In the meantime, local and state authorities have charged ahead with their
own networks, sometimes called "nodes," and begun stitching them together through legal agreements and electronic links. At least 1,550 jurisdictions across the country use Coplink systems, through
some three dozen nodes. That's a huge increase from 2002, when Coplink was first available commercially. At least 400 other agencies are sharing information and doing link analysis
through the Law Enforcement Information Exchange, or Linx, a Navy Criminal Investigative Service project built by Northrop Grumman using commercial technology. Linx users include more than 100 police forces
in the District, Virginia and Maryland. Hundreds of other police agencies across the country are using different
information-sharing systems with varying capabilities. Officials in Ohio have created a data warehouse containing the police records of nearly 800 jurisdictions,
while leaving it to local departments to provide analytical tools. Same Data, New Results Authorities are aware that all of this is unsettling to people worried about
privacy and civil liberties. Mark D. Rasch, a former federal prosecutor who is now a security consultant for FTI Consulting, said that the mining of police information by intelligence agencies could
lead to improper targeting of U.S. citizens even when they've done nothing wrong. Some officials avoid using the term intelligence because of those sensitivities.
Others are open about their aim to use information and technology in new ways. One widely used Coplink product is called Intel Lead. It enables agencies
to enter new information, tips or observations into the data warehouses, which can then be accessed by people with proper
authority. Another service under development, called "predictor," would use data and software to make educated guesses about
what could happen. "Intel Lead is particularly applicable to the needs of statewide criminal
intelligence and antiterrorism fusion centers as well as federal agencies who need to bridge the intelligence gap," said a
news release by Knowledge Computing, the company that makes Coplink. Robert Griffin, the chief executive of Knowledge Computing, said Coplink
yields clues and patterns they otherwise would not see. "It's de facto intelligence that's actionable," Griffin said. Managers of Linx are eager to distinguish their system from the commercial
Coplink and its more extensive capabilities. They acknowledge their system includes data-analysis capabilities, and it will
feed information to counterterrorism and intelligence authorities. In fact, the system is designed to serve as a bridge between
law enforcement and intelligence. But they said Linx is not an intelligence system under federal laws, because
it relies on records police have always kept. "It does not create intelligence," said Michael Dorsey, the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service special agent in charge. "It creates knowledge." To allay the public's fears, many police agencies segregate information collected
in the process of enforcing the law from intelligence gathered on gangs, drug dealers and the like. Projects receiving federal
funding must do so. Nearly every state and local jurisdiction has its own guides for these new
systems, rules that include restrictions intended to protect against police intrusiveness, authorities said. The systems also
automatically keep track of how police use them. N-DEx, too, will have restrictions aimed at preventing the abuse of the data
it gathers. FBI officials said that agencies seeking access to N-DEx would be vetted, and that only authorized individuals
would have access. Audit trails on whoever touches a piece of data would be kept. And no investigator would be allowed to
take action -- make an arrest, for instance -- based on another agency's data without first checking with that agency. But even some advocates of information-sharing technology worry that without
proper oversight and enforceable restrictions the new networks pose a threat to basic American values by giving police too
much power over information. Timothy Sample, a former intelligence official who runs the Intelligence and National Security
Alliance, is among those who think computerized information-sharing is critical to national security but fraught with risks. "As a nation, our laws have not kept up," said Sample, whose group serves
as a professional association of intelligence officials in the government and intelligence contracting executives in the private
sector. Thomas McNamara, chief of the federal Information Sharing Environment office,
said a top goal of federal officials is persuading regional systems to adopt most of the federal rules, both for privacy and
to build a sense of confidence among law enforcement authorities who might be reluctant to share widely because of security
concerns. "Part of the challenge is to leverage these cutting-edge tools so we can
securely and appropriately share that information which supports efforts to protect our communities from future terrorist
attacks," McNamara said. "Equally important is that we do so in a manner that fully protects the information privacy and legal
rights of all Americans." Miranda, the Tucson police chief, said there's no overstating the utility
of Coplink for his force. But he too acknowledges that such power raises new questions about how to keep it in check and ensure
that the trust people place in law enforcement is not misplaced. "I don't want the people in my community to feel we're behind every little
tree and surveilling them," he said. "If there's any kind of inkling that we're misusing our power and our technology, that
trust will be destroyed." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030503656_pf.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Global wheat production, after failing to keep pace with demand the past
three years, may be hurt again in 2008 by dry weather in the U.S., Canada and Russia, the three largest exporters of the grain.
A moderate drought in the southern Great Plains, where most U.S. winter wheat is grown, has slowed development of plants starting
to emerge from dormancy, the Canadian Wheat Board said today in a report. Russian crops need rain and soil moisture in the Canadian Prairies is ``poor''
for crops that will be planted in May, according to the CWB, Canada's biggest wheat marketer. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aBXqreFosK5Y&refer=australia The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has asked
the authorities of Pakistan and five other wheat-producing countries, located east of Iran, to be on high alert, following
a report that a new and virulent wheat fungus has moved to major wheat-growing areas in Iran. The FAO says the detection of
the wheat-rust fungus in Iran is extremely worrisome. The fungus is spreading rapidly and could seriously lower wheat production
in countries at direct risk. Affected countries and the international community have to ensure that the spread of the disease
is checked in order to reduce the risk to countries that are already hit by high food prices, the UN agency announced in Rome
on Wednesday. The fungus, previously found in East Africa and Yemen, is capable of wreaking havoc to wheat production by destroying
entire fields, FAO says. According to FAO, countries in the predicted, immediate pathway grow more than 65 million hectares
of wheat, accounting for 25 per cent of the global wheat harvest. Quoting M. E. Tasneem, Chairman of the Pakistan Agriculture
Research Council, the FAO said: “If we don’t control this stem rust threat, it will have a major impact on food
security, especially since global wheat stocks are at a historic low”. “If we fail to contain Ug99 it could bring
calamity to tens of millions of farmers and hundreds of millions of consumers,” says Nobel Laureate Borlaug. “We
know what to do and how to do it. All we need are the financial resources, scientific cooperation and political will to contain
this threat to world food security.” The FAO estimated that as much as 80 per cent of all wheat varieties planted
in Asia and Africa were susceptible to the wheat stem rust, Puccinia graminis. The spores of wheat rust are mostly carried
by wind over long distances and across continents. The Iranian government has informed the FAO that the fungus has been
detected in some localities in Broujerd and Hamedan in western Iran. Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the fungus.
Iran said it would enhance its research capacity to face the new infection and develop new wheat varieties resistant to the
disease. The wheat fungus first emerged in Uganda in 1999 and is, therefore, called Ug99. The wind-borne trans-boundary pest
subsequently spread to Kenya and Ethiopia. In 2007, an FAO mission confirmed for the first time that Ug99 had affected wheat
fields in Yemen. The Ug99 strain found in Yemen was already more virulent than the one found in East Africa. Ethiopia and
Kenya had serious wheat rust epidemics in 2007 with considerable yield losses. The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI),
established to combat wheat rusts around the world, will support countries in developing resistant varieties, producing clean
quality seeds, upgrading national plant protection and plant breeding services, and developing contingency plans. The BGRI
was founded by Norman Borlaug (known as “the father of the Green Revolution”), Cornell University; the International
Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and the FAO. Disease
surveillance and wheat breeding is already underway to monitor the fungus and to develop Ug99 resistant varieties. http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/06/top18.htm Rice prices have surged to a 20-year high in the latest sign of global food
inflation, creating policy headaches in Asia, where more than 2.5bn people depend on cheap and abundant supplies of the grain.
Thai rice prices, a global benchmark, surged last week above the level of $500 a tonne for the first time since at least 1989,
according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, prompting importing countries to seek assurances on supplies.
Robert Zeigler, director at the International Rice Research Institute in Manila, said policymakers should be concerned. “If
history is any indicator, we should be worried because rice shortages have in the past led to civil unrest,” he said.
US rice in Chicago, the benchmark for the world’s fourth-largest exporter of the grain, jumped on Monday to a record
$18.10 per hundredweight ($400 per tonne) – up about 75 per cent in the past year. High prices and extremely tight
supplies have prompted leading rice suppliers – including Vietnam, India and Egypt – to restrict exports in recent
months in an attempt to keep local markets well-supplied and domestic prices under control. The Philippines and Vietnam are
in discussions about rice supply security after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the first time asked her Vietnamese
counterpart to guarantee an undisclosed amount of rice for the 2008/09 season. The Philippines is the world’s largest
buyer of the grain. Analysts have attributed the surge in rice prices to bad weather that has hit supply; urbanisation
that has cut the acreage given over to cultivating the grain; and strong demand on the back of rapid income growth in China,
India and other Asian countries. In spite of a record crop of about 420m tonnes in the current season, global rice supplies
are lagging behind demand, which has risen to 423m tonnes, leading to a further decline in global rice inventories, according
to the US Department of Agriculture. Rice stocks have fallen this season to about 70m tonnes, the lowest level for 25 years
and less than half the 150m tonnes held in global inventories in 2000. Vichai Sriprasert, honorary chairman of Riceland
International, a leading Thai rice trading company, said he expected the price of rice to rise “much, much more”.
Some traders said Thai exporters were defaulting on contracts as they were being offered better prices locally. The next Vietnamese
crop, to be harvested in the next few weeks, was unlikely to bring down prices, said Alex Waugh of the industry-backed UK
Rice Association. “It may provide some short-term relief and restraint on prices rising even further.” Asia has
not known famines since the 1970s, and recent price rises for rice and other basic foodstuffs have sparked unrest. http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6258&sid=15e06cbe6b949aad186ae45dfc5b85da WATER RATION BRITAIN THREAT. Millions face water rationing and soaring
bills as experts warned that Britain is heading for a drought crisis. http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/37140/Water-ration-Britain-Threat US GOVERNMENT CONCEDES VACCINE INJURY CASE. Government health officials
have conceded that childhood vaccines worsened a rare, underlying disorder that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms in
a Georgia girl, and that she should be paid from a federal vaccine-injury fund. CAPTIVE & WILD ELK WOULD BE KEPT APART UNDER NEW RULES. The state
agency that regulates elk breeding plans to review several proposed rule changes — including requiring elk to be contained
behind two rows of fencing. The requirement is intended to prevent transmission of chronic wasting disease and bovine tuberculosis
between captive and wild elk. http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080306/BIZ0102/803060384/1001&nav_category= Some of Baxter International's recalled blood thinner heparin contained large
amounts of a contaminant that might explain hundreds of serious side effects. And the government said Wednesday it's investigating whether what appears to be a fake ingredient got there by accident or by fraud. The
Food and Drug Administration said 19 deaths from allergic-type reactions are now associated with the recalled drug, up from
four. Baxter said the contaminant points suspicion at ingredient suppliers in China, which are under increasing scrutiny after
a wave of recalls involving food, drug and toy imports. The FDA stopped short of ruling out a U.S. connection and cautioned
that although the contaminant is a prime suspect, officials haven't yet proved it harmed patients. "We still don't
know whether this inadvertently got into the supply or whether it was actually added," said FDA drug chief Dr. Janet
Woodcock. "We can't tell you where the contamination originated." High-tech testing by Baxter and other groups uncovered a
heparin-like compound in batches of the problem drug — a substance not found in batches of problem-free heparin. The
contaminant accounted for between 5 percent and 20 percent of some of the samples tested, what FDA's Woodcock called "significant
quantities." At those amounts, batches of heparin should have been flagged as subpotent in Baxter's routine quality tests
— but they didn't, because the contaminant is so chemically close to real heparin that standard
testing couldn't tell the difference, Woodcock said. The FDA is so concerned that later this week it will give manufacturers
and other regulatory agencies worldwide instructions on how to check other heparin supplies to be sure the contaminant isn't
sneaking in. Remaining U.S. supplies of heparin, made by Baxter competitor APP Pharmaceuticals, do not show contamination,
the FDA stressed. Heparin is derived from pig intestines, and the heparin-like contaminant is related to a complex group of
chemicals also in those intestines, the FDA said. That's part of the difficulty in determining how the contaminant got into
bulk ingredients used to make vials of the injected blood thinner, which are used in patients undergoing dialysis and heart
surgery. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/health/5596440.html PANCAKE MIX, CHICKEN ENTREES RECALLED. Costco Wholesale is recalling
10,400 pounds of frozen chicken entrees after tests revealed Discover Cuisine products might be contaminated with the bacteria
listeria, known to bring about illness or death. And in a smaller recall, the Quaker Oats Co. is recalling 2-pound and
5-pound boxes of Aunt Jemima Pancake & Waffle Mix. These products might have salmonella contamination, which can cause
serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children and frail or elderly people. http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8470178 A group of socially concerned US investors has launched a public
campaign calling on food companies not to use a controversial new genetically engineered sugar beet crop that is to be planted
for the first time this spring. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is calling on consumers
to write to 63 companies, including Heinz, Campbell’s Soup, General Mills and Kraft, asking them to say they will
not use a new sugar beet strain developed by Monsanto. In a break with its usual focus on shareholder resolutions, it
has launched a web-site, www.dontplantGMObeets.org, that calls on consumers to send letters to the management of the food companies
that are the focus of its campaign. The letter cites survey claims that 50 per cent of US consumers would prefer not to buy
GM products, and calls on the companies “to publicly oppose the spring 2008 planting of genetically modified sugar beets”.
The “Roundup Ready” sugar beet in question was approved for planting by the US Department of Agriculture in March
2005. It has been genetically engineered to make it resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ca1e5c14-ea3d-11dc-b3c9-0000779fd2ac.html MASSACHUSETTS -- The state and town health departments shut down the CoCo
Key Water Resort yesterday morning because a test showed one type of chlorine was 20 times higher than state standards allow.
.... The $20 million, 190,000-gallon water attraction, which features four slides, opened in May at the Sheraton Ferncroft
Resort and is the only one of its kind in New England. Since this weekend, four CoCo Key guests have said their families were
burned or sickened by exposure to chemicals in the spa area of the resort throughout February. A 6-year-old boy coughed to
the point of vomiting, according to his mother, Nancy Joslin of Beverly, and others had asthma attacks or went home with sunburn-like
rashes. http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_066053523.html
The U.N. Security Council voted Monday to impose more sanctions against Iran
over its nuclear program, including travel bans and asset freezes against named individuals and calls for vigilance over banks
in Iran. http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=69999 Iran to Help Build Power Plant in Iraq Turkey's military chief threatened Monday to send the armed forces into Iraq
again to "teach further lessons" to Kurdish rebels and claimed that a recent incursion was a success despite harsh winter
weather. "There will be operations when needed. We will continue. We will try to inflict heavier blows on the PKK."
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=69295 Administration Files Another China Complaint With WTO -- The
Bush administration today said it filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over China's treatment of U.S. suppliers
of financial information services. The United States asserts that China is breaking world trade laws by requiring foreign
financial information suppliers to operate through a government-chosen distributor. The action is the most recent in a series
of cases taken against China over the past two years by the administration, which is trying to fend off efforts in Congress
to enact tariffs against Chinese exports because of the country's trade practices. Lawmakers are particularly concerned about
China's currency policy, which critics contend artificially cheapens Chinese exports while making U.S. products sold in China
more expensive. Previous WTO actions by the United States have included cases involving China's treatment of U.S. auto parts
and intellectual property. In this case, the United States claims that China's use of a government-chosen distributor disadvantages
U.S. companies by preventing them from establishing local operations to provide services. In addition, the administration
contends the Chinese regulatory agency is too closely aligned with Chinese firms. "China's restrictive treatment of outside
suppliers of financial information services places U.S. and other foreign suppliers at a serious competitive disadvantage,"
Trade Representative Schwab said in a written statement. "We have raised this matter with China repeatedly, yet the problem
has not been resolved." In launching the case, the United States is formally requesting dispute settlement consultation with
China in an effort to resolve the matter before proceeding further. "We hope the filing of our request for formal WTO consultations
will lead to a swift resolution of this matter," Schwab said. Under WTO rules, a failure to resolve the dispute would allow
the United States to refer the case to a WTO dispute settlement panel. The United States is being joined in the case by the
European Union which also requested formal WTO consultations with China. National Journal's CongressDaily, March 03, 2008
Monday 15:00 pm Eastern Time, EDITION: pm, SECTION: TRADE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A HUNTING WE WILL GO: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Russian Riot Police Clash With Vote Protesters : Russian riot police clashed on Monday with opposition protesters who tried
to hold an unauthorised rally in Moscow against the election of President Vladimir Putin's protege, Dmitry Medvedev. More
than 300 riot police, sometimes using batons, detained scores of activists and dragged protesters to police buses, Reuters
reporters at the scene said. Some of the protesters lit flares spreading scarlet smoke across the square in central Moscow,
screaming "your election is a farce" and "Fascists! Fascists!" "It is my duty to come down here and express my opposition
after these pre-planned and falsified elections," Yelizaveta, a protester in her 50s, told Reuters as riot police arrested
people around her. "Now they are dragging us away one by one." Russia has warned the United States and NATO to not use their presence in
Afghanistan for any possible regional political or economic purposes other than fighting terrorism. ….."[I]f the military
presence is for other political or economic gains in Afghanistan and in the region, (then) this certainly and definitely will
cause special concerns." Russia, Russia's Ambassador to Kabul Zamir Kabulov told the station in an interview aired on Monday,
will "definitely react" if NATO and the United States were after economic and political gains in Afghanistan and in the region.
He did not elaborate further. "May it not be that our partners have other programmes ... under the pretext of war against
terrorism," he added. http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=68913 FACTS ABOUT AFGHANISTAN: Natural resources: natural
gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious
stones. Agriculture - products: opium [world's largest producer of opium], wheat,
fruits, nuts; wool, mutton, sheepskins, lambskins. Pipelines:
gas 466 km (2007) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html A new Arabic-language television news channel from the British Broadcasting
Corporation will cover events in the Arab world “without fear or favor,” as it seeks to set itself apart from
other government-financed broadcasters in the region, Nigel Chapman, director of the BBC World Service, said Monday. The channel,
BBC Arabic TV, plans to start broadcasting 12 hours a day of news and current affairs programs to the Middle East, the Persian
Gulf region and North Africa on March 11, followed by round-the-clock programming by the end of the year, the BBC said. It
will have a $50 million annual budget. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/world/middleeast/04bbc.html?_r=1&ex=1362286800&en=c51ab3219e0ea850&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin UN warns of climate change in Mideast. Climate change is likely to reduce agricultural production and exacerbate water
shortages in the Middle East, threatening the region's poor, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization warned Monday. Troops Patrol Armenian Capital After Clashes : Hundreds of troops flooded Armenia's capital to enforce a state of emergency
Sunday after clashes between opposition activists and government forces left eight people dead and more than 100 injured.
The bloodshed over the results of last month's presidential election is the worst political crisis to hit this volatile former
Soviet republic in nearly a decade. A European envoy rushed to Armenia to mediate the conflict, while the United States urged
both sides to show restraint. President Robert Kocharian declared the 20-day state of emergency Saturday night after a day
of violence between police and demonstrators, who say the Feb. 19 election was won fraudulently by Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian.
Police fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators Saturday after using clubs earlier in the day
to break up a tent camp where hundreds of protesters had stayed for more than a week. The Organization of American States scheduled an emergency meeting on Tuesday
to discuss rising military tensions in South America as a Colombian official charged that Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez gave Colombian rebels [FARC] $300 million. The newspaper El Tiempo quoted Colombia's police chief, Gen.
Oscar Naranjo, as saying that the money transfer from Chavez to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was detailed
in documents on a computer that belonged to a rebel leader killed Saturday in a Colombian raid on a FARC encampment in Ecuador.
The newspaper said the documents also said that the group had given Chavez $50,000 when he was jailed in 1992 after a failed
coup attempt. Chavez ordered troops and tanks to the border with Colombia on Sunday and warned Colombia not to try to strike
rebel encampments inside Venezuela, while Ecuador charged that the Colombia raid was illegal. Colombia fired back on Monday,
accusing Venezuela and Ecuador of violating international agreements by harboring the rebels. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/29273.html FACTS ABOUT COLUMBIA: Legal system: based on Spanish law; a new criminal
code modeled after US procedures was enacted into law in 2004 and is gradually being implemented. Political pressure
groups and leaders: two largest insurgent groups active in Colombia - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC and
National Liberation Army or ELN. Exports - partners: US 35.8%, Venezuela 11.4%, Ecuador
5.4% (2006). Imports - partners: US 26.8%, Brazil 8.6%, Mexico 8.5%, China 6%, Venezuela
5.6%, Japan 4.1% (2006). Pipelines: gas 4,329 km; oil 6,140 km;
refined products 3,145 km (2007). Refugees and internally displaced persons: IDPs: 1.8-3.8 million
(conflict between government and illegal armed groups and FARC factions; drug wars) (2006). Illicit drugs: illicit
producer of coca, opium poppy, and cannabis; world's leading coca cultivator with 144,000 hectares
in coca cultivation in 2005, a 26% increase over 2004, producing a potential of 545 mt of pure cocaine; the world's largest
producer of coca derivatives; supplies cocaine to most of the US market and the great majority of other international drug
markets; in 2005, aerial eradication dispensed herbicide to treat over 130,000 hectares but aggressive replanting on the part
of coca growers means Colombia remains a key producer; a significant portion of non-US narcotics proceeds are either laundered
or invested in Colombia through the black market peso exchange; important supplier of heroin to the US market; opium poppy
cultivation fell 50% between 2003 and 2004 to 2,100 hectares yielding a potential 3.8 metric tons of pure heroin, mostly for
the US market; no poppy estimate was conducted in 2005 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/co.html The FARC is considered a terrorist group by the Columbian government, the
United States, Canada, the Latin American Parliament, and the European Union. Cuba, Venezuela, and some other nations
instead refer to the leftist rebels as "insurgents." Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, for example, publicly rejected this
classification in January of 2008 and called on Colombia and other world governments to recognize the guerrillas as a "belligerent
force", arguing that they would then be obliged to renounce kidnappings and terror acts in order to respect the Geneva Conventions.
….. The FARC-EP has proclaimed itself as a politico-military Marxist-Leninist organization of Bolivarian inspiration.
It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes and opposes the
United States influence in Colombia (particularly Plan Columbia [The term Plan Colombia is most often used to
refer to controversial U.S. legislation aimed at curbing drug smuggling by supporting different Drug War activities]). Other
prominent areas of focus for the FARC-EP include fighting against privatization of natural resources, multinational corporations,
and paramilitary violence. The FARC-EP says these objectives motivate the group's efforts to seize power in Colombia through
an armed revolution. It funds itself principally through extortion, kidnapping and participation in the illegal drug trade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FARC High winds kill eight, cut power in central
Europe. Gale-force winds hammered Austria, Germany and the
Czech Republic on Saturday, killing at least eight people, snarling transport networks and cutting power lines. In
Germany, trains were delayed by uprooted trees and an intercity express collided with a fallen tree between the cities of
Cologne and Koblenz, injuring the driver. Nearly 130 flights to or from Frankfurt airport were either cancelled or diverted,
a spokesman said. Officials said air traffic in Austria and the Czech Republic was also briefly interrupted when the storm,
packing winds of between 155 kph (96 miles) and 180 kph (110 mph) lashed parts of central Europe. Less than a week after a soaring symphony raised hopes of detente on the
Korean peninsula, North Korea leveled its latest tirade Monday against the U.S. military presence in South Korea to dash expectations
of quick progress in its nuclear standoff. ….. The reclusive regime promised in October to lay out its long history
of nuclear weapons development in a formal declaration by the end of 2007, a step toward eventually giving up its atomic bombs
and the means to make them. Washington says the North has not yet handed over its nuclear list, and U.S. Assistant Secretary
of State Christopher Hill pressed Pyongyang Monday to move quickly on the declaration. "Time is short, and I would hope we
could get on with that this month," Hill told reporters during a visit to Vietnam before he was to depart for Washington later
Monday. http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=69229 Serbia has retaken control of a stretch of railway line in northern Kosovo,
a senior Serb official has said. Branislav Ristivojevic, who heads Serbia's state-run railway company, said Belgrade had restored
control over the 50km (30-mile) Lesak-Zvecan line. Earlier, Serb rail workers stopped a train on the line, saying they would
not work for Kosovo's rail firms. Belgrade and Kosovo Serbs refuse to recognise Kosovo's declaration of independence last
month. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7274826.stm Muslim representatives and Vatican officials begin talks this week that
they hope will lead to an unprecedented Catholic-Islamic meeting. Five representatives from each side will meet on Tuesday
for two days in Rome to work out the details of a larger meeting that will include Pope Benedict later this year. "We have
to bring the dialogue up to date following the great successes of the pontificate of John Paul II," said Yahya Sergio Yahe
Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community. ……. Besides Pallavicini, the Muslim delegation
to the preparatory talks will include a Turk, a Briton, a Jordanian and a Libyan. The Vatican delegation includes Cardinal
Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Vatican's Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the head of the Pontifical Institute of Arab
and Islamic Studies in Rome and a professor from Rome's Gregorian University. Pallavicini said the larger meeting later this
year will undoubtedly talk about terrorism. http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=69101 Pon·tif·i·cate n. Definition:
To express opinions or judgments in a dogmatic and pompous manner. Mideast sovereign wealth funds may fail to save troubled U.S. banking giant
Citigroup Inc. unless more cash is pumped into the lender, the head of a $13 billion Dubai-owned investment firm said Tuesday.
Sameer Al Ansari, chief executive of Dubai International Capital told delegates at a private equity conference that it will
take more than the combined efforts of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Kuwait Investment Authority and Saudi investor
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to save the bank. "It's going to take more than that to rescue Citi," Mr. Ansari said. He added
that more write-downs at the bank are expected and that Gulf investors would be required to bolster Citi. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120463680226410261.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news In separate lawsuits filed in a New York federal court, a $58-million-asset
hedge fund alleges that Citigroup Inc. and Wachovia Corp., respectively, improperly required the fund to pay out more money
from insurance derivatives contracts known as "credit default swaps" amid a steep decline in the value of mortgage-backed
bonds. …. The skirmishes signal cracks in the vast and unregulated market for such credit default swaps, where banks,
hedge funds and others trade insurance against debt defaults. In these swaps, one party pays another to assume the risk that
a bond or loan will go bad. The market for such swaps has soared to nearly $45 trillion, a number comparable to all the bank
deposits world-wide, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, or ISDA, a trade group. …. One
suit, filed Feb. 14, outlines a credit-default-swap agreement in which Citigroup bought $10 million of protection against
a security backed by subprime-mortgage assets from a small Florida hedge fund with just $58 million in capital. The security
was a "collateralized debt obligation," known as a CDO, or a thinly traded investment that packages pools of loans. The fund
-- VCG Special Opportunities Master Fund Ltd., which is owned by an investment firm that also owns a Puerto Rican investment
bank -- alleges that Citigroup breached its contract after the bank demanded the fund post additional collateral. By this
January, the hedge fund says, the collateral Citi sought from it nearly equaled the $10 million "notional," or underlying,
amount of the swap. In the other suit, the hedge fund, which at that time was named CDO Plus Master Fund Ltd., says it sold
credit protection on a mortgage-related security to a unit of Wachovia last May, only to be asked to pony up millions of dollars
of collateral in the ensuing weeks. The hedge fund entered into a credit default swap with Wachovia under which the bank bought
protection on a $10 million security issued by a CDO, which had a credit rating of double-A and was issued in April 2007.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120459196434709061.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OIL & GAS: Insight: Petrodollar tsunami to hit euro and dollar With crude oil at $100 a barrel, there is going to be a massive transfer
of global financial wealth from oil consuming countries to oil exporters. Some of these windfalls will be absorbed by the
economies of the oil producers, but a far larger amount will be invested outside them. Indeed, a petrodollar tsunami is coming,
with significant consequences for global financial markets. How big are petrodollars? They are big and getting bigger with the rise of
oil prices. We can look at this in terms of the financial worth of the stocks of proven oil reserves underground, or in terms
of flows – ie the value of the annual oil exports. At $100 a barrel, the total proven reserves of the oil exporting
countries is about $104,000bn – equivalent to the combined total value of publicly-traded equities and bonds in the
world. About $48,000bn of this belongs to the Gulf Co-operation Council member countries – which include Bahrain, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The rest of Opec owns another $44,000bn, while non-Opec countries
(Canada, Norway, Mexico and Russia) own some $12,000bn worth of oil reserves. The flows are massive too. At the current pace of production and exports,
and at $100 a barrel, collectively, oil exporters are projected to earn a total of $2,100bn in oil export receipts annually.
Such large windfall receipts/profits could in theory be invested in domestic
physical infrastructure. However, the size of the GDP of most of these oil exporters is relatively modest. What would be considered
‘significant’ investment, equivalent to 5-10 per cent of GDP, would amount to only about 5-10 per cent of their
annual oil revenues. Thus, the bulk of the petrodollar windfalls for most oil-exporting countries will still not be spent,
but will be saved and deployed in the global financial markets. There are two key implications. First, the deployment
of petrodollars is likely to favour equities over bonds. Second, they should favour emerging market currencies at the expense
of both the dollar and the euro. These two themes are identical to the financial market implications of the emergence
of Sovereign Wealth Funds, because about half of the petrodollar receipts may be invested through SWFs, and close to three-quarters
of all assets under management by SWFs are derived from petrodollars. Over the past 20 years, spot crude oil has significantly under-performed
global equities, by a factor of one to three in cumulative returns, and by a factor of two to one in terms of volatility.
In other words, crude oil has had a much lower return and much higher volatility compared with global equities. Calculations
using data from the past 100 years yield a similar result. Thus, from the perspective of maximising the risk-adjusted long-term return
on the combined underground wealth (crude oil) and above-ground wealth (financial assets), an exporter should be expected
to embark on a multi-generational transformation from crude oil to equities. Since most oil exporting countries have a much higher propensity to invest
in equities than do Asian reserve holders, because petrodollars are deployed in the financial markets, there will be a bias
in favour of global equities. At the same time, if we assume that SWF/petrodollar portfolios have benchmarks
of 25:45:30 on bonds, equities, and alternative investments, the currency composition of these portfolios will look significantly
different from that of the official reserves. In fact, some 95 per cent of the world’s official reserves are held in
only three currencies: the dollar, the euro and the pound. While many observers focus on the shift in reserves between dollars and euros,
the deployment of petrodollar investments will in fact likely tilt the balance in favour of emerging market currencies, at
the expense of both the dollar and the euro. Specifically, we calculate that the theoretical share of emerging market assets
in total petrodollar portfolios could be as high as 25 per cent, compared with the current exposure of official reserves to
emerging market currencies of zero. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c56c0aa8-e93f-11dc-8365-0000779fd2ac.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Pentagon is scheduled to release an odorless, invisible,
and yes, harmless, gases into the city Thursday to test how quickly they spread through buildings, officials said. The test
is part of the military's national security preparation for the capital area. Over the past few years, the defense agency
has worked with Arlington County to set up chemical sensors throughout the county, where thousands of defense employees work
in leased office space. The Pentagon has also supplied the sensors and accompanying monitoring equipment to Arlington for
the county's own use. "Within minutes, if someone attacks the Pentagon, it becomes a problem for Arlington," Pentagon Force
Protection Agency Director Paul Benda said. The sensors scan broad areas, Benda said. If weather cooperates, the Pentagon
will release perfluorocarbon tracers, which are commonly used commercially to detect leaks, and sulfur hexafluoride, a common
window insulator filling, near the Jefferson Plaza building at 10am on Thursday and Friday. Officials in yellow vests will
set up 80 battery-operated samplers - toolbox-looking cases with 12 air tubes inside of them - throughout Crystal City and
will check the air samples in the tubes afterwards to evaluate how quickly and how high the gases spread. The data will help
the Pentagon and Arlington shape their lockdown policies for chemical and biological attacks or accidents, and will also help
them determine the most effective locations for sensors. "We want to place our sensors so we can detect this stuff as quickly
as possible," Benda said. The test, dubbed "Urban Shield: Crystal City Urban Transport Study," is similar to one conducted
in Manhattan a few years ago, officials said. http://www.examiner.com/a-1251975~Pentagon_to_test_invisible_gases_in_Crystal_City.html A Union Pacific train has derailed in the Southern California desert town
of Mecca, setting two tanker cars ablaze. The accident happened around 9:30 p.m. Monday. Fire officials say about 60 residents
in nearby homes have been evacuated, and a cloud of acid fumes is lingering over the crash site. One tanker car was carrying
phosphoric acid, and another was carrying hydrochloric acid. Riverside County Fire Capt. Julie Hutchinson said a one-mile
radius has been set up around the accident site and no one is being let inside because of the potentially hazardous fumes.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080304/D8V6M0501.html State and federal regulators say they aren’t likely to investigate
the Port of Galveston’s baffling discovery of a buried railroad tank car filled with thousands of gallons of liquid,
including a deteriorated form of the banned pesticide DDT. Also, state regulators say they won’t encourage port officials
to go digging for other chemical-filled railcars. Such a move could cause more harm than good, they said. Holding anyone accountable
for burying the railcar, which is not registered as an underground storage tank, is unlikely also, officials say. Some port
officials say the car likely was buried more than 50 years ago. One toxicology expert said he found the governmental inaction
surprising. “I would think state regulators certainly would be interested in getting more information and determining
whether a regulatory response was needed,” said Jonathan Ward, director of the University of Texas Medical Branch’s
division of environmental toxicology. Crews unearthed the railcar, which is about 40 feet long and 10 feet in diameter, about
a month ago when they were removing track to install a storm drain for a parking lot just west of Cruise Terminal No. 2, north
of Harborside Drive near Pier 27. The discovery became public last week during a regular monthly meeting of the
Wharves Board of Trustees, the port’s governing board. Port officials say they don’t know the concentrations of
pesticides or the exact amount of liquid in the railcar, which has a capacity of 8,000 to 10,000 gallons. The car is full
of liquid, some of which may be rainwater, they said. An initial analysis by the port’s environmental consulting firm
detected DDE, a breakdown product of DDT. The federal government banned DDT in the 1970s. It was blamed for devastating wildlife,
particularly birds, and probably causes cancer in humans. Tests also detected the pesticide Endosulfan, a neurotoxin.
Ingestion of even small amounts of Endosulfan has been linked to seizures and death, Ward said. After learning of the
port’s discovery, Ward notified Ronnie Schultz, director of environmental health programs for the Galveston County Health
District. Schultz was out of the office and could not be reached for comment Monday. Environmental regulators say port officials
have done nothing wrong by not reporting the find. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "GLOBAL WARMING" / CLIMATE CHANGE: Domenici Wants Bank To Aid Low-Carbon Energy Products -- Senate
Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has proposed to create a federal bank responsible for doling
out financial aid for low-carbon energy projects. The bank would be modeled after the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas
Private Investment Corporation -- independent federal agencies -- and would replace the Energy Department in issuing loan
guarantees for wind, solar, nuclear and other low-carbon projects. The department's program has been criticized in both parties
for being slow in issuing loans. Domenici aides say the bank is not meant as a criticism of the Energy Department but a way
to fill a void by offering financial incentives, some of which have been more easily given for traditional fossil-fuel projects.
"With clean energy we think there has been a problem in getting debt financing," said Frank Macchiarola, Domenici's committee
staff director. "There's really no entity positioned to do that in the government." The bill would give discretion to a seven-member
board in determining which projects receive aid from the Treasury, though the legislation would require that financial help
be given only commercially available products. "This is not a research-and-development project," Macchiarola said. Five of
the seven board directors would be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, with no more than three members
from the same political party. Those five members would select a president and vice president. Like the Ex-Im Bank and OPIC,
the goal is for this proposed bank to be self-financing with Congress appropriating funds for start-up and operating costs.
There is no estimated cost yet. The issue may be brought up when the Senate takes up legislation this year requiring reductions
in greenhouse-gas emissions through a cap-and-trade program. But the odds are not good that cap-and-trade legislation would
become law this year due to Republican opposition. "If we really want to do something on climate change this year, this is
an idea," Macchiarola said. "We believe that this is an idea that addresses climate change that would have wide bipartisan
support." Domenici's spokesman added the proposal is not meant as an alternative to a cap-and-trade bill. Domenici has approached
Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Bingaman to be a co-sponsor. The New Mexico Democrat is reviewing the bill. "It appears
to be a fairly complicated legislative proposal," Bingaman's spokesman said. It is unclear whether the Energy and Natural
Resources would have jurisdiction over the bill, which Domenici plans to introduce this week. National Journal's CongressDaily,
March 03, 2008 Monday 15:00 pm Eastern Time, EDITION: pm, SECTION: ENERGY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A U.S. Federal Communications Commission official is seeking an inquiry
into the blacking out of a politically charged segment of the CBS News magazine "60 Minutes" by a local television station
in Alabama. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said he had asked the chairman of the FCC to open an inquiry into the February
24 incident at WHNT, a CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama, in which civil rights footage from the 1960s was blacked out.
"The FCC now needs to find out if something analogous is going on here," Copps said at a luncheon with media watchdog groups.
"Was this an attempt to suppress information on the public airwaves, or was it really just a technical problem?" Copps is
one of two Democratic appointees on the five-member FC |
