NucNews October 24, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- australia Costello sees future for nuke power October 24, 2006 The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20637007-1702,00.html A NUCLEAR power plant would be built in Australia as soon as it was commercially viable, federal Treasurer Peter Costello said today. Mr Costello said nuclear energy was not viable yet but would be at some point. "I can't tell you what that time frame will be - I don't think it'll be next year ... I don't think it'll be three years," he said. "Then you'll say to me `Will it be 10 years?' Maybe, possibly not. "But in my view, yes, it will become commercial and when it becomes commercial, someone will build it." The Government should not legislate to prevent companies from investing in nuclear energy, Mr Costello said. "I think we should legislatively say, provided you meet all of the requirements in relation to safety and export controls and ... environmental considerations, that there is no legislative bar. And then I'd let the market work," he said. "The day it becomes commercial, someone will build it." The Government has commissioned former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski to head a task force investigating whether a nuclear energy industry would be viable in Australia. Labor opposes a nuclear power industry and has called on the Government to nominate possible sites for a plant. -------- britain Wanted: willing hosts for nuclear dump By Christopher Adams, Political Correspondent Published: October 24 2006 Financial Times http://www.ft.com/cms/s/fdda6778-6398-11db-bc82-0000779e2340.html Towns, cities and villages are to be granted the dubious privilege of volunteering to play host to a pile of nuclear waste in a deep underground bunker, with the government expected on Wednesday to back plans for disposal far underground. In return, the lucky winner will be offered inducements including investment in local transport infrastructure and their social fabric. David Miliband, the environment secretary, will endorse proposals by an independent committee of experts to store and then bury radioactive waste from the country’s ageing fleet of civil nuclear plants in a bunker up to 1km below ground. The repository, which could cost over £10bn, is also expected to take waste from any reactors built by the private sector. The issue of what to do with nuclear waste is the biggest question arising from Tony Blair’s energy review. Wednesday’s decision will herald the start of what, if successful, looks likely to be the lengthiest and most expensive construction project in modern UK history. Senior insiders are predicting completion in 40 years. The bunker would house 470,000 cubic metres of waste produced by reactors, experiments and military activities since the 1940s. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, charged with handling the country’s £70bn nuclear clean-up programme, will begin a long period of public consultation on the plans, which are likely to be contentious. It will ask communities to volunteer to accept the repository on their doorstep. In a separate development the government said it planned to break up the sale of British Nuclear Group, the clean-up unit of British Nuclear Fuels, a move that could enhance proceeds for the exchequer. ---- British Government Approves Break-Up and Sale of British Nuclear Group Tuesday October 24, 2006 (AP) http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061024/britain_british_nuclear_group.html?.v=1 LONDON -- The British government said Tuesday it had approved the break-up and sale of British Nuclear Group, the nuclear decommissioning arm of state-owned British Nuclear Fuels PLC. Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Alistair Darling said he had approved the company's decision to break up British Nuclear Group into four parts. "In order to safeguard the interests of the taxpayer and ensure the best solution for the company, its workers and the market in nuclear cleanup, BNG should be split up before being sold off," Darling said in a statement. Darling said he expects the first three parts of the group to be sold during 2007. They are the project services division; the company's one-third shareholding in the management of the military research facility Atomic Weapons Establishment Management Ltd.; and the unit that manages 11 nuclear decommissioning sites. The fourth part -- a five-year contract to manage and operate the Sellafield nuclear waste and engineering complex -- will be opened to bidding from April 2007, with a contractor chosen by mid-2008, the government said. Darling also said the government would establish a national nuclear library at Sellafield in northwest England to protect Britain's nuclear research and development needs. Darling said the library would "play a key role in supporting the U.K.'s strategic R&D requirements, and operate world-class facilities." -------- china Chirac eyes 'strategic partnerships' with China PARIS (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061023220902.hstzp1kn.html French President Jacques Chirac, who is due to visit Beijing this week, said Monday he hoped to strike strategic partnerships with China in areas such as nuclear energy and rail transport. Chirac is due to make a four-day official visit to China from Wednesday, for talks with his counterpart Hu Jintao and a tour of three key cities. He will be accompanied by a large entourage of French business leaders. "France wants to establish genuine, strategic industrial partnerships with China," he said in comments to the Xinhua news agency which were released by his office here. "This is already largely the case in the aeronautic domain. We think this example could be extended to nuclear energy, to rail transport and to other domains where France has unparalleled experience." France is in the running for the construction of a high-speed train line from Wuhan to Canton, and the delivery of four new nuclear reactors. Chirac also said he hoped to open "new sectors" of cooperation between the two countries, such as telecommunications, financial services, agriculture and on environmental issues. "On the other hand I am not satisfied with the weakness of our part of the market and by consequence with the unequal character of our commercial exchanges," he said. France holds only 1.4 percent of the Chinese market, compared with Germany's four percent. "The partnership with China from now on is at the heart of France's foreign strategy because everyone knows that it's China that will play a large part in the future of the world," Chirac said. He said the partnership between China and Europe should flourish because "there are no rivalries of power between us, only common interests". But the French president said the relationship would be affected by issues such as outsourcing as well as China's "social and political evolution", its impact on the environment and its "global ambitions". Chirac said he was "confident in the capacity of China to assert itself as a great, responsible nation committed to international security and the promotion of more equitable global economic development ... and more respectful of the environment". Chirac, who last visited the country in 2004, announced plans for the trip in July following talks with Hu on the sidelines of a Group of Eight summit in Saint Petersburg. He will arrive in Beijing, continuing to the central industrial hub of Wuhan, a city of 7.8 million inhabitants and home to the largest Chinese plant of French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen. Chirac will wrap up his trip in the ancient city of Xian, the largest in northwest China and home to the country's famed terracotta warriors. ---- International experts praise China's new thermonuclear fusion reactor October 24, 2006 Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/200610/24/eng20061024_314794.html World leading nuclear scientists spoke highly of China's experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor, which has been undergoing tests since Sept. 28. Twenty-nine scientists from Europe, the United States, Russia, Japan, Republic of Korea and India have been invited to visit the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province, where the reactor is located. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor is the only reactor of its kind in operation in the world, and the device has met design standards, said a report delivered after the scientists visited the reactor. Unlike traditional nuclear fission reactors, which split atoms to create energy and produce dangerous radioactive waste, the EAST uses nuclear fusion to compress atoms at extremely high temperatures to generate energy that produces very little pollution. To date fusion reactors require more energy to start up than they can produce and a viable one has yet to be made. The report said it was a great achievement in fusion technology since EAST was designed, built and put into operation in a very short time. The Institute of Plasma Physics spent eight years and 200 million yuan (25 million U.S. dollars) on building its experimental reactor. The EAST is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program, which is initiated by the United States, France and Russia in the 1980s, with a purpose of establishing the world's largest experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor. ---- International experts praise China's new thermonuclear fusion reactor October 24, 2006 Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/200610/24/eng20061024_314794.html World leading nuclear scientists spoke highly of China's experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor, which has been undergoing tests since Sept. 28. Twenty-nine scientists from Europe, the United States, Russia, Japan, Republic of Korea and India have been invited to visit the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province, where the reactor is located. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor is the only reactor of its kind in operation in the world, and the device has met design standards, said a report delivered after the scientists visited the reactor. Unlike traditional nuclear fission reactors, which split atoms to create energy and produce dangerous radioactive waste, the EAST uses nuclear fusion to compress atoms at extremely high temperatures to generate energy that produces very little pollution. To date fusion reactors require more energy to start up than they can produce and a viable one has yet to be made. The report said it was a great achievement in fusion technology since EAST was designed, built and put into operation in a very short time. The Institute of Plasma Physics spent eight years and 200 million yuan (25 million U.S. dollars) on building its experimental reactor. The EAST is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program, which is initiated by the United States, France and Russia in the 1980s, with a purpose of establishing the world's largest experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor. -------- europe EU approves new French nuclear reactor The Associated Press Published: October 24, 2006 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/24/business/EU_FIN_EU_France_Nuclear_Plant.php BRUSSELS, Belgium The EU on Tuesday approved French plans to build a new atomic power reactor expected to be a model for the next generation of more fuel-efficient nuclear energy stations. Under EU nuclear rules, the European Commission must clear investments for building or renovating nuclear power plants. Electricite de France SA says the new station — to be built at Flamanville, northern France — will be able to generate 1,600 megawatts of energy using European pressurized-water reactor, or EPR, technology that aims to use 17 percent less fuel. It should be operational by 2012, paving the way for other plants to adopt the technology by 2020, EDF said. The company said some 58 French nuclear plants reach their 40th birthday around 2020 and may need to be shut down. EDF wants to have the Flamanville 3 plant up and working as a "technically tested and validated reactor model" in place before then. The new model should have a longer life span of 60 years. On The Net: EDF's Flamanville plant: http://www.edf.fr/html/epr/uk/index.html ---- Swedish nuclear reactor successfully restarted STOCKHOLM (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061024180811.xfyk82xk.html The second of two nuclear reactors that closed in July over safety fears at Sweden's Forsmark plant re-opened, a plant spokesman said on Tuesday. "The Forsmark 2 reactor was re-started and resumed generating power today," plant spokesman Claes-Inge Andersson told AFP. Forsmark 1 was re-started on October 14. The reactors in central Sweden were closed on July 25 after a short-circuit caused a blackout. Two of four backup diesel generators failed to start automatically, revealing other faults in the power station's electrical system. Sweden's nuclear energy authority (SKI) gave the go-ahead for the reactors to start operating again on September 28. Forsmark 2 would reach full production capacity on Friday, Andersson added. Nuclear power accounts for almost half of all electricity generation in Sweden, which has 10 nuclear reactors, down from 12 since 1999 as part of a plan to phase out nuclear power over the next 30 years. ---- European Commission Recommends Closer Nuclear Cooperation With Kazakhstan Tuesday October 24, 2006 (AP) http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061024/apfn_eu_kazakhstan.html?.v=1 BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Commission on Tuesday sent a recommendation to EU governments urging them to back the conclusion of an agreement with Kazakhstan to facilitate supplies of uranium to Europe's nuclear industry. "Given the foreseen development of the EU nuclear industry and Kazakhstan's ambition to become the world's top uranium producer by 2010, it is in the mutual interest of both parties to expand their relations in this field," the commission said in a statement. The EU's executive body said the agreement should ease uranium trade, while setting out cooperation in nuclear safety, nonproliferation and research. The agreement should have an initial 10-year duration and an estimated commercial value of around $630 million, the Commission said. According to the EU, Kazakhstan has one-fifth of the world's known reserves of uranium and remains the third biggest producer of uranium in the world, after Australia and Canada, but it represents only 3 percent of uranium delivered to facilities in the 25 EU nations. Growing concerns about the cost and security of oil and gas supplies are causing several EU nations to consider stepping up nuclear power programs. ---- EU gives green light to French nuclear power station BRUSSELS (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061024113109.s3ylx82t.html The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it had given the green light for the construction of a nuclear power plant in northern France. "The European Commission has sent the French authorities a favourable opinion on the investment project for the construction of an EPR -- an ordinary pressurised water reactor with a power output of 1630 megawatts -- at the Flamanville site," the European Union's executive arm said in a statement. The EPR (European Pressurised Water Reactor) design has been developed since the 1990s by Germany's Siemens and France's Framatome-ANP, which is part of the state-owned nucelar energy group Areva. The EPR project is aimed at achieving the highest possible level of nuclear safety, environmental protection and economic performance, the Commission said, and uses 17 percent less fuel than the types of reactor currently operating in France. Its expected service life is 60 years. The reactor will be the first in a planned generation of updated plants for France's ambitious nuclear industry. France derives around three-quarters of its electricity from nuclear power, the highest ratio of any country in the world. It has 58 reactors in standard designs of 900, 1,300 and 1,450 megawatts. They were built under a vast programme, launched 30 years ago during the first oil crisis, aimed at weaning the country off its dependence on imported fuel. These reactors will start reaching the end of their approximately 40-year design life from 2015, which is why the French authorities are already looking at replacements. Preparatory work on the new nuclear plant site began in August but construction of the plant itself should begin early next year. The project is estimated to cost 3.3 billion euros. ---- French loan for nuclear reactor under scrutiny By Tobias Buck in Strasbourg Published: October 24 2006 Financial Times http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a811450e-638a-11db-bc82-0000779e2340.html France came under close regulatory scrutiny on Tuesday for its decision to provide a €570m loan guarantee to finance the construction of the first nuclear reactor in Europe since the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986. The European Commission said it had opened an in-depth investigation into a guarantee that helped Teollisuuden Voima, the Finnish electricity producer, buy equipment from Areva. The French nuclear group, together with German engineering group Siemens, won the contract to build a new nuclear reactor at Finland’s Olkiluoto plant. -------- iraq / inspections Israel experts uphold nuclear vagueness TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 24, 2006 (UPI) http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20061024-051945-2028r Security experts are upholding the government's policy of "vagueness" on Israeli nuclear capability. Foreign reports say it has nuclear weapons, but Israel has been deliberately vague on the issue. Arab fears of Israel's likely nuclear capability probably restrained Egypt in 1973, when it launched a surprise attack with Syria that stopped in the Sinai. In 1991, Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein fired Scud missiles into Israel but did not use chemical warheads, possibly out of fear of a devastating retaliation. "Vagueness is a policy of keeping a low profile, or restraint. ... It served us and is good for the future," Uzi Arad, formerly in charge of Mossad (secret intelligence service) research, told Channel 1 TV. The United States, Britain and France understand Israel's policy and back it, Arad continued. The understandings have been maintained throughout successive U.S. administrations, he noted. Adir Pridor, an expert on military operations research, said that canceling the policy of ambiguity might expose Israel to foreign pressure, and that there is no reason to do so. "It's better to continue with the vagueness so that they (the Iranians) will guess and fear," said former Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh. Several experts said Israel would have to be explicit once Iran obtains a nuclear weapon. Then there will be no alternative but to engage in nuclear deterrence because the cost of a mistake would be intolerable, said Reuven Pedatzur of the Strategic Dialogue Center of Netanya College. Experts agree there is no symmetry between tiny Israel and Iran, which is 70 times its size. The United States and the Soviet Union were big enough to sustain a first strike, but most of Israel is concentrated between Haifa and Ashkelon and is very vulnerable. Sneh suggested that after an attack the damage would be so great that perhaps retaliation would be pointless, recommending that Israel develop the capability to hit many targets far from its borders. -------- korea General says U.S. could beat N. Korea Updated 10/24/2006 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-24-us-nkorea_x.htm WASHINGTON — The U.S. military would prevail in a war against North Korea but at a greater cost in lives than if the United States were not already fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday. "It would not be as clean as we would like it to be, but it would certainly be sure, and the outcome would not be in doubt," said Gen. Peter Pace. He told a Pentagon news conference that the U.S. military has plenty of people available to fight wars beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, but he acknowledged that U.S.-based ground combat units are not fully equipped. "We have 2 million folks who can start protecting this nation anywhere else we need them to tomorrow, if we need them to," Pace said when a reporter asked what sort of threat North Korea's military poses. The fight, however, would be messier than if the U.S. military did not have 147,000 troops tied up in Iraq and about 20,000 in Afghanistan. "It would be more brute force, wherever we might have to go next, than it would be if we weren't already involved in the war we have going on in Iraq and Afghanistan," Pace said. "Why? Because you need precision intelligence to drop precision munitions. And a lot of our precision intelligence assets are currently being used in the Gulf region. So some of those would not be available if you had to go someplace else." As a result there would be more unintended damage inflicted, he added. "You end up more like a World War II, Korean War campaign," he said, adding that he was not making any predictions. "I'm just saying that, on a scale, you're going to have to use more brute force to get the job done" in North Korea. Pace said U.S. intelligence can determine the size of the North Korean military but it cannot provide an equally important piece of information in assessing the threat of war: the intent of North Korea's leaders. "What is not knowable is the intent of the leadership in North Korea to use or not use that power at any given time," he said. "And applying Western logic to the leadership in Korea is not something that I would personally want to get my future on." Concerns about North Korea's intentions have grown in recent months following its July missile tests and its underground nuclear test, which prompted the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on North Korea. Pace said he had seen no indication that North Korean forces have been placed on a higher state of alert. "To my knowledge, the North Koreans' status of their armed forces is stable," he said. "I mean, they haven't raised or lowered any particular parts of their readiness to cause any kind of alarm." ---- Blair debates North Korea with top Chinese official LONDON (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061024165009.uq7z0eji.html British Prime Minister Tony Blair discussed the situation in North Korea with a top Chinese official here Tuesday, a spokesman for Blair said. Blair met Jia Qinglin, a senior figure in the Communist party's politburo standing committee, in his Downing Street offices and talked about trading, bilateral issues and North Korea, the spokesman said. He declined to give further details but the meeting came as it emerged that North Korea told China it had no plans for a second nuclear test, following a first blast on October 9 which drew condemnation around the world. Tough United Nations Security Council sanctions have since been imposed on North Korea. The meeting followed an earlier one between Jia and Britain's Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer, who is in charge of constitutional affairs. ---- Officials deny N Korean ship detained on military concerns HONG KONG (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061024113408.4r41utgt.html Officials denied Tuesday that a North Korean cargo vessel being detained in Hong Kong was tracked down by a US naval warship and stopped on suspicion of carrying military parts. Reports said the Kang Nam 1, which was ordered to remain in Hong Kong after docking on Sunday, had been tailed by the USS Gary, a guided-missile frigate that docked on Saturday. It was feared the 2,035-tonne general cargo ship had been carrying military supplies in breach of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea after its October 9 atom bomb test, the reports in Hong Kong and South Korea said. But the head of the government's marine administration said the Kang Nam 1 had coincidentally docked while the US warship was making a routine port call. "There's nothing sinister in this at all, it's all simply routine practice," Roger Tupper, the director of the Marine Department, told AFP. "We had no tip off about military equipment. We simply selected the Kang Nam 1 on the same grounds that we would for any other vessel. It was all routine." Tupper also denied that officials had stopped the ship under the terms of the UN sanctions. He said it was not unusual for North Korean vessels to stop in Hong Kong. A spokesman for the United States consulate said it had no information on the ship and said the USS Gary was in Hong Kong on a port call, not to tail the North Korean ship. "I can tell you that the USS Gary was not chasing any North Korean ships," spokesman Dale Kreisher told AFP. The South Korean Yonhap news agency reported that the ship's crew members had said they would soon set sail. "(We) came to pick up cargo. We will depart in two days after uploading the cargo," an unnamed sailor on the ship told Yonhap. Tupper added the ship was being detained because it was in breach of a number of local safety regulations. Reports in the local media and Lloyd's List, the London-based shipping directory, said officials had found 25 faults with safety and other equipment aboard the 22-crew vessel. Lloyd's cited the acting assistant director at the Marine Department, Lee Kai-leung, as saying that 12 safety concerns were "detainable deficiencies mainly on life-saving and fire fighting appliances as well as navigational equipment including out-dated and obsolete charts". UN sanctions were imposed on Pyongyang to prevent Kim Jong-il's hardline Stalinist regime from transferring or importing nuclear technology and to end the trade in contraband, such as drugs and illicit cigarettes, that is believed to help fund the North's nuclear programme. The sanctions are part of a huge global diplomatic effort since the test to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. A report in the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's English-language daily, said the ship had arrived from Shanghai and was due to return home to Nampo, near Pyongyang, via Taiwan. They said the captain, who would not give his name, had told reporters he was unaware of Pyongyang's first ever atom bomb test, or of subsequent UN sanctions. China said it had no knowledge of the reports. "I do not have information on that, but China will earnestly implement and abide by (UN) resolution 1718," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular press conference, after being asked about the detention of the ship. "If there is any violation of the resolution found in Chinese territories, we will take necessary measures to fulfill our obligations." ---- South Korea's defense chief offers to resign SEOUL (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061024113013.qk7kx0qf.html South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung has offered to resign, the presidential spokesman said Tuesday, just two weeks after North Korea conducted a nuclear weapons test. "Minister Yoon has offered to resign. President Roh Moo-Hyun has yet to make a decision on whether to accept his resignation," presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-Young told AFP. The spokesman did not elaborate on the reason for the defense chief's resignation offer or whether it was linked to the October 9 test. The defense ministry refused to comment. Yonhap news agency, quoting an unnamed source at Roh's office, said Yoon offered his resignation late Monday when he met President Roh to report on the outcome of annual US-South Korean defense ministers' talks in Washington. "I think I have wrapped up what I am supposed to do," Yoon was quoted as telling Roh. Yoon told a group of South Korean journalists late Tuesday that the President had "just listened" to him, adding that he would be in office until early next month, according to Yonhap. During the talks last Friday, Washington promised Seoul "assurances of firm US commitment and immediate support" in defense matters, while repeating the annual pledge to use the US nuclear umbrella to deter threats. Yonhap said Yoon's resignation is likely to be accepted. It also said Roh was considering conducting a partial cabinet reshuffle next week which would also affect Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon. Ban becomes the United Nations secretary-general on January 1. Song Min-Soon, chief presidential security aide, and Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan were touted as strong candidates to replace Ban. Yonhap said Yoon could replace Song or head the country's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service. ---- N Korea has no plans for second nuke test, but no apology for first: China BEIJING, Oct 24 (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061024112653.dw8a77ji.html North Korea told China it had no plans for a second nuclear test but did not apologise for its first blast, Chinese officials said Tuesday, as the UN warned of a critical food shortage in the impoverished nation. In his first meeting with a foreign official since Pyongyang stunned the world with its atomic bomb test, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il held talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao's envoy in Pyongyang on Thursday last week. China's foreign ministry, giving the most expansive briefing yet of the meeting, said Tuesday that Kim had told envoy Tang Jiaxuan that North Korea was not planning a second blast. However Kim also reportedly warned that further, but unspecified action, might follow if the international community continued to heap pressure on North Korea in reaction to the first blast. "He (Kim) expressed that North Korea does not have a plan for a second nuclear test," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters. "But if others put further pressure or unfair pressure (on the country), then North Korea may possibly take further measures." The October 9 blast triggered global outrage and led to sweeping UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea. Some press reports from South Korea said Kim had expressed some form of regret for his nation's actions, but Liu dismissed the speculation. "I have not heard of Kim Jong-Il apologising," he said. Liu also said Kim had reiterated his stance that Pyongyang would not return to talks on its nuclear ambitions until the United States lifted financial sanctions imposed last year for alleged money-laundering and counterfeiting. "They expressed to us their willingness to return to the six-party talks but there are certain conditions," spokesman Liu Jianchao said. "They are willing to return, but these questions, including financial sanctions, need to be solved." Returning to the talks -- which have been stalled since North Korea walked out in November last year -- is a key plank of the UN resolution imposed on the nation for conducting its nuclear test. Japan and Russia, both parties to the six-nation talks, called separately on Tuesday for North Korea to rejoin the diplomatic forum. "We firmly called on the North Korean side to maintain maximum restraint and return to the negotiating table," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Saint Petersburg. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso rejected North Korea's demand that Washington lift the financial sanctions in return for returning to the talks, which China hosts and also includes the United States and South Korea. "The US financial sanctions are a totally different thing from the six-party talks," Aso told reporters. "The US sanctions are based on its domestic laws which have nothing to do with the six-way talks." All six sides agreed a deal in September last year on ending the North's nuclear program in return for Pyongang receiving economic benefits and security guarantees. But the deal fell apart when North Korea walked out in protest at the financial sanctions. Meanwhile, Vitit Muntarbhorn, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, warned that the critical food situation in the impoverished country would likely worsen because of the nuclear crisis. "There is a critical food shortage also compounded by disastrous floods in July and August," Muntarbhorn told a news conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York. He said the food crisis was further complicated by the North Korean missile tests in July and this month's nuclear blast, both of which he described as "a serious waste" of resources. "The resources spent on arms would have been better spent satisfying the food security (of North Koreans)," said Muntarbhorn, a Thai law professor. Chinese spokesman Liu said Tuesday that China, the North's closest ally and by far its biggest aid donor, had no intention of scaling back its humanitarian program to its neighbour. "Supplying the North Korean people with aid to help them overcome some difficulties has all along been the policy of the Chinese government," Liu said. "We believe this is beneficial to the stability of the peninsula... at present I have not heard anything about stopping this kind of aid to North Korea." Also Tuesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said he would play an active part in finding a peaceful settlement to the nuclear crisis when he takes over as the next UN secretary general in the new year. ---- Officials Deny North Korean Ship Detained On Military Concerns by Staff Writers Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Officials_Deny_North_Korean_Ship_Detained_On_Military_Concerns_999.html Officials denied Tuesday that a North Korean cargo vessel being detained in Hong Kong was tracked down by a US naval warship and stopped on suspicion of carrying military parts. Reports said the Kang Nam 1, which was ordered to remain in Hong Kong after docking on Sunday, had been tailed by the USS Gary, a guided-missile frigate that docked on Saturday. It was feared the 2,035-tonne general cargo ship had been carrying military supplies in breach of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea after its October 9 atom bomb test, the reports in Hong Kong and South Korea said. But the head of the government's marine administration said the Kang Nam 1 had coincidentally docked while the US warship was making a routine port call. "There's nothing sinister in this at all, it's all simply routine practice," Roger Tupper, the director of the Marine Department, told AFP. "We had no tip off about military equipment. We simply selected the Kang Nam 1 on the same grounds that we would for any other vessel. It was all routine." Tupper also denied that officials had stopped the ship under the terms of the UN sanctions. He said it was not unusual for North Korean vessels to stop in Hong Kong. A spokesman for the United States consulate said it had no information on the ship and said the USS Gary was in Hong Kong on a port call, not to tail the North Korean ship. "I can tell you that the USS Gary was not chasing any North Korean ships," spokesman Dale Kreisher told AFP. The South Korean Yonhap news agency reported that the ship's crew members had said they would soon set sail. "(We) came to pick up cargo. We will depart in two days after uploading the cargo," an unnamed sailor on the ship told Yonhap. Tupper added the ship was being detained because it was in breach of a number of local safety regulations. Reports in the local media and Lloyd's List, the London-based shipping directory, said officials had found 25 faults with safety and other equipment aboard the 22-crew vessel. Lloyd's cited the acting assistant director at the Marine Department, Lee Kai-leung, as saying that 12 safety concerns were "detainable deficiencies mainly on life-saving and fire fighting appliances as well as navigational equipment including out-dated and obsolete charts". UN sanctions were imposed on Pyongyang to prevent Kim Jong-il's hardline Stalinist regime from transferring or importing nuclear technology and to end the trade in contraband, such as drugs and illicit cigarettes, that is believed to help fund the North's nuclear programme. The sanctions are part of a huge global diplomatic effort since the test to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. A report in the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's English-language daily, said the ship had arrived from Shanghai and was due to return home to Nampo, near Pyongyang, via Taiwan. They said the captain, who would not give his name, had told reporters he was unaware of Pyongyang's first ever atom bomb test, or of subsequent UN sanctions. China said it had no knowledge of the reports. "I do not have information on that, but China will earnestly implement and abide by (UN) resolution 1718," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular press conference, after being asked about the detention of the ship. "If there is any violation of the resolution found in Chinese territories, we will take necessary measures to fulfill our obligations." -------- mideast Mideast solution possible: ElBaradei Reuters October 24, 2006 http://www.topix.net/content/reuters/3105147554010694613704583991860149309286 A solution to this (Israel-Palestinian) conflict is within our grasp, provided that the conditions are created to enable this solution to come into being WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is within grasp if the international community commits to a blueprint and pursues dialogue, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said on Tuesday. Speaking at the University of Maryland, Mohammed ElBaradei, executive director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, declared that conflicts like those in the Middle East "cannot be solved through military force" and he called for a new broad approach focusing on human security rather than state security. "A solution to this (Israel-Palestinian) conflict is within our grasp, provided that the conditions are created to enable this solution to come into being," he said. The central elements of a solution have long been known, so involved parties should try a new tact by beginning with the blueprint of a settlement and then "work backward toward the details of implementation," ElBaradei said. "Because there is already a great deal of agreement on what that blueprint should look like, agreement is not far away," he said in delivering the university's "Sadat lecture for peace," named after the assassinated former leader of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, who signed a peace treaty with Israel. ElBaradei pressed his call for a re-engineering of the international concept of security, including more global strategies and remedies that are "centered on the welfare of the individual and not simply focused on the security of the state." He complained that conflicts in the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia persisted "because the international community, despite intermittent efforts, has not made the necessary investments nor mustered the resolve needed to end these conflicts." -------- russia Live from the Kremlin: Putin faces nation in multimedia Q and A MOSCOW (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061024131404.mmxske26.html Lights, cameras... Internet? All have a place Wednesday as President Vladimir Putin faces Russians in a live multimedia broadcast to field queries on topics from nuclear families to nuclear weapons. As he has on four previous occasions since 2001, Putin will respond to questions selected by moderators or posed directly by Russians in satellite television linkups from a number of Russian cities and towns. The session was to be broadcast live on three national television networks and two major radio stations while questions may also be submitted by mobile phone SMS message, email or the old-fashioned way with a land line phone call. The event was scheduled to begin at noon (0800 GMT) Wednesday, and on the eve of the broadcast a special website set up for the appearance indicated that so far the Kremlin had received more than 1.2 million questions for Putin. Of those, more than 50,000 were submitted by Internet. "Unfortunately, not all questions submitted can be answered, due to limited airtime," noted a precautionary warning on the website, www.president-line.ru. A sampling of questions so far received, posted on the website, suggested that Putin would be asked to respond to issues ranging from relatively banal domestic concerns to some of the most pressing current international problems. "Will support be increased for children of young parents with limited means?" was among the questions on "social protection" issues posted on the website. It was preceded by: "What do you think of North Korea's nuclear test?" If similar appearances in past years are any indication, Putin can be expected Wednesday to face a cascade of tailor-made or even fawning questions, though he was also likely to be grilled on a hot-button topic here and there. "If there is a war between Georgia and Abkhazia, what will Russia's position be and what action will Moscow take?" one pre-selected question asked, referring to a contentious "frozen conflict" in the former Soviet Union. Tensions between Russia and Georgia remain high amid a Russian economic blockade on its small southern neighbor, imposed after four Russian officers were arrested last month by Tbilisi and accused of spying. The Kremlin said only "the most interesting and currently relevant" questions would be submitted to Putin, but provided no explanation for how those would be determined and who would decide what was "most interesting". Some political analysts dismissed the whole exercise as theater. Such events "serve to hide the fact that there are no democratic mechanisms in Russia, such as an opposition and an independent press, to hold the authorities to account," scoffed Maria Lipman of the Carnegie Moscow Center. She said many would be watching with interest to see whether Putin was presented with a question regarding the recent murder of Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist highly critical of the Kremlin. Putin, whose administration got some Western PR coaching this year as it managed the Group of Eight presidency for the first time, has said in the past that he favors the direct, televised question-answer sessions. "It is a good format," he said on September 27 last year, after he spent more than three hours answering questions. "It enables you to feel the problems that worry the people. It is a good guideline for practical work." -------- security Two ethnic Koreans arrested for uranium trade in China: report B Seoul (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Officials_Deny_North_Korean_Ship_Detained_On_Military_Concerns_999.html Two ethnic Koreans have been arrested in China for attempting to sell enriched uranium that could be used to make a nuclear bomb, a news report here said Tuesday. Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's largest circulation daily, said the Chinese police confirmed the September 11 arrests of the duo, only known by their surnames Chang and Chung, at a Beijing hotel. The two were trying to sell about 970 grams (34 ounces) of enriched uranium which they said had been obtained "from an unidentified man from a remote area" in November 2004, it said. "The two were ethnic Koreans and an initial investigation showed the enriched uranium was presumed to be Russian-made," a Beijing police source was quoted by Chosun as saying. The paper said other sources did not rule out the possibility that the uranium could have come from North Korea, given the large number of ethnic Koreans in China engaging in illegal trade with North Koreans. "I have personally met someone in a Chinese border town who asked me to find him a buyer, saying 'I have enriched uranium smuggled from North Korea,'" an unnamed source told Chosun. It was not known how enriched the uranium was. Only highly enriched uranium can be used to make a nuclear weapon. Some 15 to 17 kilograms of enriched uranium would be needed to produce a nuclear bomb, Chosun said. The United States accused North Korea in 2002 of runnning a clandestine nuclear program based on enriched uranium. The North said earlier this month it had tested a nuclear weapon for the first time. ---- China Says No Knowledge Of Koreans Arrested For Selling Uranium Beijing (AFP) Oct 24, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Officials_Deny_North_Korean_Ship_Detained_On_Military_Concerns_999.html China said Tuesday it had no knowledge of a report that two ethnic Koreans were arrested in the country for attempting to sell enriched uranium that could be used to make a nuclear bomb. South Korea's largest circulation daily, Chosun Ilbo, reported Tuesday that Chinese police arrested the pair in September at a Beijing hotel for trying to sell about 970 grams (34 ounces) of enriched uranium. "I have tried to consult with relevant authorities, but I haven't received any information yet," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular press conference. "But China's position on the control of sensitive items is quite clear -- we do not allow people to bring in sensitive items, especially radioactive items. "China's police will take necessary action according to Chinese law." The South Korea news report quoted a Beijing police source as saying the enriched uranium "was presumed to be Russian-made", but it could also have come from North Korea. The report did not say how enriched the uranium was, but only highly enriched uranium can be used to make a nuclear weapon. Fifteen to 17 kilograms of enriched uranium would be needed to produce a nuclear bomb, the newspaper said.The United States accused North Korea in 2002 of runnning a clandestine nuclear program based on enriched uranium. The North declared on October 9 it had tested a nuclear weapon for the first time. -------- treaties Blix Criticizes U.S. For Refusing to Sign Nuke Test Ban Treaty Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 Democracy Now! Headlines http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/24/1412238 Former UN chief arms inspector Hans Blix said Monday that the world needs to make clear to North Korea that they are not trying to overthrow the regime as they try to persuade North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons. * Hans Blix: "It might be more useful to say: "Look here, we are not out for regime change here, that is for the Korean people and for you to do. But the world is very concerned if you move on with the nuclear weapons. And we the outside world are willing to try to create conditions where you don't need them. We can give you assurances, on paper, that you will not be attacked from the outside, and that we will not try to change your regime." Hans Blix also criticized the United States for promoting a double-standard. * Hans Blix: "Of course we all regret and even the Security Council condemns the tests, but we must remember then that they are condemned for doing something the US and other countries are reserving themselves the right to do. The United States has refused to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. They keep test-ban test-areas open in the United States, so here is someone telling Korea, 'you must not do that, but we of course might do so in the future.'” -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- new mexico Classified documents found at home of Los Alamos scientist Updated 10/24/2006 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-24-los-alamos-documents_x.htm WASHINGTON — A drug raid on a Los Alamos scientist's home in New Mexico turned up what appeared to be classified documents taken from the nuclear weapons lab, the FBI said Tuesday. Police discovered the documents at the scientist's home while making an arrest in a methamphetamine investigation, according to an FBI official in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case. The police alerted the FBI to the documents, prompting a federal search of the unidentified female scientist's home. The official would not describe the documents except to say that they appeared to contain classified material. Asked about the raid, FBI special agent Bill Elwell in Albuquerque, confirmed that a search warrant was executed on Friday night, but he refused to discuss details. "We do have an investigation with regard to the matter, but our standard is we do not discuss pending investigations," Elwell said. A spokesman for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Los Alamos, N.M., declined to comment. Los Alamos has a history of high-profile security problems in the past decade, with the most notable the case of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. After years of accusations, Lee pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to one count of mishandling nuclear secrets at the lab. In 2004, the lab was essentially shut down after an inventory showed that two computer disks containing nuclear secrets were missing. A year later the lab concluded that it was just a mistake and the disks never existed. But the incident highlighted sloppy inventory control and security failures at the nuclear weapons lab. And the Energy Department began moving toward a five-year program to create a so-called diskless environment at Los Alamos to prevent any classified material being carried outside the lab. Even though Los Alamos is now under new management, Danielle Brian, executive director of the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, said the lab has not done much to clean up its act. "Los Alamos has always seemed to be rewarded for its screw-ups," Brian said. "We're waiting with baited breath to see if anything has changed." The idea that police found classified documents in a drug lab is disturbing, she said. "The problem is when you actually have those materials that are supposed to be protected inside the lab and you find them outside the lab in the hands of criminals that should worry everybody," Brian said. The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Albuquerque were "evaluating the information obtained as a result of the search warrant," Elwell said. The federal charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine. -------- us nuc waste Waste to be moved through Gallup By Kathy Helms Diné Bureau Tuesday October 24, 2006 Gallup NM Independent http://www.gallupindependent.com/2006/oct/102406kh_waste.html WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation is preparing to give consent to the U.S. Department of Energy to move trucks of radioactive waste so "hot" that it has to be handled by machines rather than humans down Interstate 40 through 10 Navajo chapters. In exchange for signing the cooperative agreement with DOE's Carlsbad Field Office, shipments of remote-handled transuranic waste would be allowed to pass through the reservation and the Gallup area on their way to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in Carlsbad, N.M. The Navajo Nation would receive a financial assistance award of $50,000, which would go to Navajo Division of Public Safety Executive Director Samson Cowboy to fund the position of Emergency Services Liaison under the Department of Emergency Management. Total cost of the project is estimated at $250,000, though there is no guarantee the Nation would receive that amount, according to DOE. The budget documents contained in the legislation introduced by Delegate Lorenzo Curley (Houck/Lupton/Nahata dziil) during Monday's meeting of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee and approved 8-0, were signed by Cowboy and Johnny Johnson, DEM program manager. Transuranic waste, or TRU, is waste material contaminated with Uranium-233 and its daughter products, plutonium and other nuclides. It is produced primarily from reprocessing spent fuel and from the use of plutonium in the fabrication of nuclear weapons. The liaison is to be hired to educate local community members on the effects of the transuranic waste materials being transported through 20 miles of Navajo Nation trust lands along I-40. The liaison also will develop a hazardous materials emergency preparedness and response plan in the event of a radioactive waste spill on I-40. Sacrifice zone The 10 Navajo chapter communities are located within a four-mile buffer zone along I-40, running west and east, in Apache and McKinley counties. A combined population of 10,894 persons would be impacted, according to the Statement of Work. This does not include the thousands who potentially could be impacted in the areas of Gallup and Grants. Hiring of the Navajo WIPP liaison is justified by I-40's close proximity to Navajo families and livestock living within two to three miles of the interstate, according to the document. The radioactive waste would pass through Nahata dziil, where the Nation plans to develop its first full-scale casino, as well as the chapters of Houck, Lupton, Manuelito, Tsayatoh, Red Rock, Church Rock, Iyanbito, Thoreau and Baca. Delegate Curley said the affected Navajo communities and chapters "will benefit from the education grant from the Department of Energy," which will pay for publishing articles in tribal newspapers or public information bulletins. "The shipments that have been going through historically, you could walk up to it and be around it without it having any adverse affect on your health. But it's going to be changed," Curley said. "The type of waste that's going to come through in trucks along I-40, you cannot come around that. The type of stuff that we're talking about here may be dangerous to those people that live along these communities. "We need to move forward, get these monies and train these people" in how to handle potential radioactive waste spills, he said. In DOE we trust According to the Statement of Work, the DOE, and thus Carlsbad Field Office, as an agent of the federal government, has a trust responsibility to the Navajo Nation. "This responsibility includes involving and assisting the Navajos in necessary preparations for the safe transport of transuranic radioactive waste from DOE Site to the WIPP." Public Law 102-579, the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act, as amended, states that DOE shall "provide technical assistance and funds for the purpose of training public safety officials, and other emergency responders in any state or Indian tribe through whose jurisdiction DOE plans to transport transuranic waste to or from the WIPP." The cooperative agreement between Navajo and DOE satisfies the federal trust responsibility and provides funding for support in accident prevention, emergency preparedness, public information and participation in large-scale WIPP exercises, the document states. The Carlsbad office will provide the Navajo WIPP Emergency Services Liaison with advance notification of shipments and the liaison will inform emergency response personnel. The liaison also will identify traffic problems on the route used for WIPP shipments. Under the conditions of acceptance of the award, the Department of Energy assumes no responsibility with respect to any damages or loss arising out of any activities undertaken with the financial support of this award. DOE reserves the right to cancel any awards made under the cooperative agreement if the Navajo Nation fails to meet its obligations. -------- MILITARY -------- arms Ex-bureaucrat for Pentagon gets 18 months for illegal arms sales Posted 10/24/2006 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-24-armssellers_x.htm WASHINGTON — A former Defense Department official was sentenced to 18 months in prison and another pleaded guilty Tuesday to selling military equipment in the Middle East and pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of the equipment was unneeded and scheduled for auction, but prosecutors said the illegal deals also included the sale of Humvees that were still weaponized and were not supposed to have been sold. Ronald W. Wiseman of New Boston, Texas, was sentenced for violating federal weapons laws. Wiseman worked for the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service, the Pentagon agency that sells excess military equipment. The agency contracts with overseas auctioneers to sell the equipment and return the money to the government. Prosecutors said Wiseman and a Saudi Arabian auctioneer agreed to sell some equipment off the books and share in the profits. Wiseman pleaded guilty in May and agreed to cooperate in a federal investigation. A second U.S. official, Gayden C. Woodson of North Ogden, Utah, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to steal government property. Woodson said that in January 2001, he joined Wiseman's conspiracy and continued it after Wiseman left the Middle East the following year. Woodson admitted in federal court that he made at least 19 illegal transactions and received about $350,000. U.S. authorities have recovered some of the Humvees and traced others to Spain, the Czech Republic and other countries, according to court documents. "By putting militarized vehicles into an unregulated stream of foreign commerce, in a part of the world in which United States military personnel are engaged in deadly conflict with insurgency forces, the defendant put those vehicles within reach of adversaries who could use them against our own," prosecutor Laura A. Ingersoll wrote. Woodson is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 31. -------- europe Germany in radical shake-up of military By Hugh Williamson in Berlin October 24 2006 Financial Times http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b0651290-6384-11db-bc82-0000779e2340.html Germany will on Wednesday adopt the most radical restructuring of its military since 1945, turning the Bundeswehr into an international intervention force, according to an internal cabinet strategy paper obtained by the Financial Times. The paper, which will be endorsed at a special cabinet meeting in the defence ministry, is the product of a review – the first of its kind since 1994 – begun by Angela Merkel, chancellor, after she won office last November. It will see Germany’s military officially abandon its primary postwar task of defending the country’s borders in favour of a more robust role for German troops on international missions. The military’s most sensitive international deployment since the second world war came this month when the German navy took control of patrolling Lebanese waters to stop weapons smugglers. The military has taken part in other international missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, for example, but has largely avoided direct involvement in war zones. The 133-page strategy paper argues that the capacity of the Bundeswehr must be expanded to allow for the deployment of a total of 14,000 troops to five international missions simultaneously. This will be achieved by drawing troops previously deployed on national defence into units involved in staffing or supporting overseas missions. The Bundeswehr has about 250,000 military personnel, including about 50,000 conscripts. About 9,000 troops are currently overseas in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Congo and elsewhere. The paper confirms conscription will be retained. Henning Riecke, European security specialist at Berlin’s DGAP foreign policy institute, said the paper will “give German policymakers a way of handing increasing international pressure to join overseas missions”. -------- nato Three Afghan children killed in NATO mortar test error Tue Oct 24, 2006 (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061024/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanunrestnatochildren JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Three children were killed when a mortar test-fired by NATO troops fell short of its target and hit a home in Afghanistan, police and the force said. The police chief of the eastern province of Kunar, Abduljalal Jalal, said three children died and two others were hurt in the incident on Monday. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it knew of one dead and two seven-year-old girls wounded. The girls were being treated in a NATO hospital, spokesman Major Luke Knittig said on Tuesday. The ISAF troops had been setting up mortars to fire into areas where they had previously come under attack, he said. The area in Pech district is a hotspot for attacks by Taliban insurgents. In a test, one of a round of five mortars fell short of the target for technical reasons, Knittig said. "We extend our sympathies and we are taking every effort to ensure children involved get the best care," he said. An inquiry had been launched into the incident and an ISAF team had already been into the area to visit the families involved, he said. Afghanistan is crawling with guns and fighters as around 40,000 foreign troops work alongside the 35,000-man Afghan army to defeat Islamist insurgents like the Taliban, who favour suicide and roadside bombings. Children are often caught up in the violence: two were killed in a suicide blast in the southern town of Lashkar Gah on Thursday last week along with a British soldier. Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged NATO forces the same day to take more care to avoid civilian casualties after up to 20 people were reported killed in two bombing raids targeted at Taliban fighters earlier in the week. The Taliban were in government for five years until 2001, when they were driven out by a coalition led by the United States which wanted the hardline regime to hand over Al-Qaeda leaders for the 9/11 attacks. -------- russia / chechnya Georgia – on Moscow's Mind by Patrick J. Buchanan October 24, 2006 Antiwar.com http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=9906 With the failure of the Orange Revolution, Ukraine is being drawn back into Moscow's orbit. Now, Georgia, another former republic of the old Soviet Union, is finding that ex-colonies of the empire pay a price for becoming estranged from Mother Russia. In 2003, Georgia underwent a Rose Revolution that swept Eduard Shevardnadze from power. But in the street demonstrations that raised up Mikhail Saakashvili, Moscow saw the fine hand of Bush's "democracy project." Since then, Moscow has seethed, as Saakashvili has pulled his country steadily toward the EU and NATO. In late September, Saakashvili went a bridge too far, arresting four Russian officials as spies. President Vladimir Putin denounced the arrests as an "act of state terrorism with hostage-taking," calling them "a sign of the political legacy of Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria." Beria, who headed the NKVD secret police under Josef Stalin, had come out of Georgia, as did Stalin. To ease the crisis, Georgia released and expelled the Russians. But that failed to satisfy Putin, who recalled Russia's ambassador, cut air and rail travel and postal lines, ceased to issue visas to Tbilisi, imposed an embargo, began to expel Georgians from Russia, and conducted naval maneuvers in the Black Sea off the coast of Georgia. Since the 1990s, Moscow has supported secessionists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, who wish to break free of Georgia and rejoin Russia. Putin has lately met with the leaders of both regions at the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Moscow also maintains Russian peacekeeping troops in both. This confrontation is between unequals. Georgia, a poor country of 5 million, is dependent on Russia not only for the remittances of its sons and daughters who work in Russia, but for the revenue from its exports of wine and mineral water, and for gas and electricity. Russians, resentful at perceived Georgian insolence and American meddling in their backyard, support Putin's cracking of the whip. But Putin may have unleashed a strain of nationalism he could find difficult to contain. Says Nikolai Svanidze, a leading Russian TV personality of Georgian heritage, "This anti-Georgian campaign … has led to a wave of xenophobia, which is very dangerous in a multiethnic state." Saakashvili appears wholly dependent upon the restraint of Putin and Moscow. For Georgia's friends in the European Union and Washington seem impotent or unwilling to take his side. The EU is held hostage by its dependence on Russian oil and gas as winter impends. Bush, beset with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and collisions with Iran and North Korea, has shown no desire to take a stand alongside Tbilisi against Moscow. Many believe Putin's endgame is the overthrow of Saakashvili in a counter-revolution of the kind the Russians believe was engineered in the West to bring him to power. If that is Putin's goal, there seems little more that the United States could do to prevent it than Russia could do to prevent Bill Clinton's ouster of the Haitian junta or Bush 41's ouster of Manuel Noriega. What this Tbilisi-Moscow confrontation does reveal, however, is, first, the limits of U.S. power; second, the folly of U.S. meddling in Russia's "near abroad"; third, the insanity of any decision to bring Georgia into NATO. Were Georgia in NATO today, this crisis would have escalated into a confrontation between Washington and Moscow. For under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, an attack against one member is to be treated as an attack against all. Thus, a collision of Russian forces in South Ossetia with Georgian forces could bring America and Russia to the brink of war. Russian leaders contend that Saakashvili has been building up his military to invade and recapture the breakaway regions, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has implied that Saakashvili ignited the crisis after visits to Washington and NATO headquarters. No hard evidence has surfaced to substantiate this charge. But if Saakashvili was put up to creating this crisis by anyone in the United States, it was an act of colossal stupidity. What do we do now? There seems little we can do if Putin is determined to bring down Saakashvili. Russia is flush with oil and gas revenue and $250 billion in cash reserves; Moscow is moving closer to China; and Putin is far more popular in his country than Bush and Blair are in theirs. Bush bought into the notion that U.S. vital interests required supporting ex-Russian republics against Moscow, which was absurd. Our vital interest was always in maintaining strong U.S.-Russian ties, which have been ravaged by the meddling of neoconservatives mired in Russophobia. As for who rules Ukraine or Georgia, for two centuries that was never a vital interest of ours. Thus there is no reason to extend NATO war guarantees to Ukraine, the Caucasus, or Central Asia. The destiny of that region will be determined by the dominant powers that reside there: Russia, China, Turkey, Iran. Not by us. -------- spies Italy’s Top Spy To Be Indicted in CIA Kidnapping Case Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 Democracy Now! Headlines http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/24/1412238 Italy’s top spy is expected to soon be indicted on charges connected to the CIA’s kidnapping of an Islamic cleric from the streets of Milan in 2003. If indicted, Nicolo Pollari would become the most prominent official ever charged in connection with the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program. Pollari has been the head of Italy’s military intelligence for five years. According to the New York Times, the case marks the first time a foreign government official has been charged, essentially, with cooperating with the United States to violate their own country’s laws. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- justice Gonzales Says U.S. Image Hurt by Actions By CIARAN GILES The Associated Press Tuesday, October 24, 2006; 4:48 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102400784_pf.html MADRID, Spain -- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday he believes some of the U.S. actions in its war on terror have done damage to the image of the United States abroad, particularly its commitment to the rule of law. The U.S. has drawn criticism around the world for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, its treatment of detainees and secret renditions of terrorism suspects to clandestine prisons in allied countries where they are allegedly tortured. "The notion that the United States does not fully support the rule of law is one I find very disappointing," Gonzales told reporters, especially given that President Bush "believes the Unites States is the leader, is a beacon of hope in the world and it's important that our actions should reflect a total commitment to the rule of law." He blamed the country's deteriorating image on misunderstanding in Europe about what the U.S. is doing to fight terrorism. "Part of the misunderstanding is the fault of the United States in the sense that we need to be out there more, talking about what we are doing and why," he said. Gonzales was in Madrid for the sixth meeting of a working group set up two years ago to coordinate the fight against terrorism and other police matters. Gonzales dismissed criticism that prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility were in legal limbo and said the recent Military Commissions Act ensured fair trials for terrorists and guarantees that evidence acquired through torture will not be used. "The Military Commissions Act reflects a careful balance by our Congress to respect the rights of terrorists to receive a fair trial but to do so at a time when we are still at war with the enemy," Gonzales said. Bush signed the act into law last week after a highly publicized dispute with key Republicans over the terms of the legislation. Civil libertarians and leading Democrats have decried the law as a violation of American values. -------- torture Other Nations Justify Torture Citing U.S. Policies Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 Democracy Now! Headlines http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/24/1412238 The UN Special Rapporteur on torture said Monday that the Bush administration’s handling of the war on terrorism has allowed other countries to justify using torture. Manfred Nowak said, "Today, many other governments are kind of saying: 'But why are you criticizing us? We are not doing something different than what the United States is doing.' " Nowak said that because of its prominence, the United States has a greater responsibility to uphold international standards. -------- POLITICS -------- propaganda wars Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman To Write Weekly Newspaper Column Tues., Oct. 24, 2006 http://www.kingfeatures.com/pressrm/PR236.htm NEW YORK – Investigative journalist Amy Goodman, host of the extraordinarily popular award-winning news program Democracy Now!, will bring her frank analysis of politics, the media and current affairs to print in a new nationally syndicated column for newspapers. King Features Syndicate will distribute “Amy Goodman: Breaking the Sound Barrier” weekly beginning Tues., Oct. 24, 2006. Writing in her introductory column about the distinction her commentary might bring to an already crowded field of opinion writers, Goodman says, “My goal as a journalist is to break the sound barrier. To cut through the static and bring forth voices that are not usually heard. I am not talking about a fringe minority, or the ‘Silent Majority,’ but a silenced majority, increasingly restless, of people who are looking for alternative sources of information in a complex world. “My column will include voices so often excluded, people whose views the media mostly ignore, issues they distort and even ridicule,” she said. >King Features managing editor Glenn Mott said, “Amy Goodman’s syndicated column is unique, in that it brings an award-winning journalist and firebrand from independent media to the increasingly incessant media-doom of partisan talking heads. “King Features Syndicate is proud to represent Amy Goodman in print because her energy and passion for the truth inspires and rouses readers young and old from across the political spectrum,” Mott said. “Her unrestrained commentary from the front lines resonates with a generation that has an uncanny ability to spot the inauthentic in any discourse. Goodman’s stories go where the silence is, to report on the people and places caught in the middle, the ones most directly affected by policy debates, war and social issues. Her frank analysis of the issues is fearless and cuts through the turbid static. “Goodman has said, ‘I see the media as a huge kitchen table that stretches across the country, one where we all sit around to debate and discuss the most critical issues of the day: war and peace, life and death. Anything less than that is a disservice to a democratic society.’ In practice, Goodman’s is a civic journalism with a belief in the craft’s obligation to public life. Her syndicated column is meant for people who want to read the news and analyze its content, not just for information’s sake, but for thought.” Amy Goodman: Award-Winning Journalist Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on 500 radio and television stations in North America. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the U.S., Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, NPR, low power FM, College and Community Radio stations as well as Public Access TV and PBS stations, and on both TV satellite networks – DISH Network channel 9415 Free Speech TV, 9410 Link TV, and on Direct TV channel 375. Amy Goodman began her career in journalism at Pacifica Radio’s New York station, WBAI, where she produced WBAI’s Evening News for 10 years. In 1991, Goodman traveled to East Timor to report on the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. There, she and colleague Allan Nairn witnessed Indonesian soldier gun down 270 East Timorese men, women and children during a memorial procession. Indonesian soldiers savagely beat Goodman and Nairn, fracturing Nairn’s skull. Their documentary, “Massacre: The Story of East Timor,” won numerous awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award, the Armstrong Award, the Radio/Television News Directors Award, as well as awards from the Associated Press, United Press International and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 1998, Goodman and producer Jeremy Scahill went to Nigeria. Their award-winning radio documentary, “Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria’s Oil Dictatorship,” exposed Chevron’s role in the killing of two Nigerian villagers who were protesting yet another oil spill in their community. In 1999, Goodman traveled to Peru to interview American political prisoner Lori Berenson. It was the first time a journalist had ever gotten into the prison to speak to her. In March 2004, Goodman obtained the international broadcast exclusive of the return of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from his imposed exile in the Central African Republic to Jamaica, accompanying the Aristides with the delegation that retrieved them. Her coverage of the Haitian story scored more than 3.5 million hits on Democracy Now!’s Web site, ultimately forcing the story into the mainstream press in what Goodman describes as “trickle up” journalism. In addition to writing her syndicated editorial column, Goodman is co-author, with her brother and investigative journalist David Goodman, of the book Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders and the People Who Fight Back (Hyperion, 2006). The pair also co-wrote the national best-seller The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them. The book was chosen by independent bookstores as the No. 1 political title of the 2004 election season and ranked as one of the top 50 nonfiction books of 2004 by the editors of Publishers Weekly. ---- MoD bans TV news access to warzones By Dominic Kennedy October 24, 2006 UK Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2417831,00.html THE Ministry of Defence has banned Britain’s biggest commercial news broadcaster from frontline access to the nation’s forces, The Times has learnt. In an unprecedented move that risks accusations of censorship, the Government has withdrawn co-operation from ITV News in warzones after accusing it of inaccurate and intrusive reports about the fate of wounded soldiers. The first casualty is ITV’s planned trip to Afghanistan to cover troops marking Remembrance Sunday, traditionally an opportunity for positive coverage of reconstruction efforts. ITV sources said last night that the trip had been cancelled because of the row with the MoD. The Times understands that the head of ITV News, David Mannion, wrote to the MoD yesterday to demand an explanation. He also sent a copy of the letter to the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, a move that is likely to drag Tony Blair into the dispute. The row began last week after ITV broadcast the first of a series of reports showing how British soldiers wounded during the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are treated. The segments, which appear nightly on the 6.30pm and 10.30pm bulletins, topped the agenda at a meeting between ministers, including the Defence Secretary Des Browne, and military chiefs. MoD sources have indicated that there was concern about images showing identifiable wounded servicemen arriving at Birmingham airport by night. It has been suggested that no permission was obtained from the men and that their families may have been caused distress. Field Marshall Lord Bramall, a former Chief of the Defence Staff, was also seen on ITV footage expressing concern about the shortcomings in treatment for Britain’s returning soldiers. However, defence sources said that ITV staff working on the same series of reports had been given access to Headley Court, the MoD’s state-of-the art rehabilitation centre. Film showing the hospital’s high standards of care for seriously injured soldiers, sailors and air personnel was broadcast later in the week. The MoD’s director of news, James Clark, responded by sending a furious e-mail to ITV editors last Monday. “As bad a hatchet-job as I’ve seen in years. Cheap shots all over the place, no context, no reasonable explanation. Like the Daily Star in moving pictures,” he wrote. “If giving ITN detailed exposure to our people, lengthy briefing and open access results in this, then I dread to think how your editors and producers would look to exploit access to our people in theatres (of war), or our chiefs and ministers.” That e-mail omitted any specific details of perceived errors. ITV quickly became aware of a second, internal e-mail from Mr Clark, a civil servant, to the MoD’s media operations staff, who are seconded from the military. The effect was to cease co-operation with ITV by withdrawing access to “embeds”, the much-sought placements for reporters which enable them to be “embedded” with battlefield forces. That e-mail begins with the words “To reiterate . . .” implying that there had already been such a policy in place. Mark Wood, chief executive of ITN, which provides ITV News, told The Times: “We are not happy about the way it has been handled. They [the MoD] have objected to some of our coverage but we haven’t quite worked out what the repercussions are. We welcome any criticism particularly if it is pointing to factual errors or inaccuracies. What we have had is criticism of our coverage which has not actually gone into any detail of what is factually wrong.” An MoD spokesman said: “The MoD is severely concerned about inaccuracies in some of ITV’s reporting on the news last week as well as some of the images that were shown without the permission of the military personnel involved and will be seeking explanation.” -------- ENERGY -------- alternative energy Energy Department Awards $100 Million in Fuel Cell R&D CHICAGO, Illinois, October 24, 2006 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2006/2006-10-24-09.asp#anchor1 In an effort to overcome cost and durability barriers associated with hydrogen fuel cell research, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman today announced $100 million to fund 25 hydrogen research and development projects Speaking to the Council on Competitiveness and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Bodman said, “The Department of Energy is committed to breaking our addiction to oil by creating a diverse portfolio of clean, affordable and domestically produced energy choices. We expect hydrogen to play an integral role in our energy portfolio and we are eager to see hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road in the near future.” The Department of Energy, DOE, will negotiate these 25 cost shared projects for an approximate total of $127 million - $100 million DOE cost; $27 million applicant cost over four years - fiscal years 2007 – 2010. The projects will focus on fuel cell membranes, water transport within the stack, advanced cathode catalysts and supports, cell hardware, innovative fuel cell concepts, and effects of impurities on fuel cell performance and durability. The funds are awarded to national laboratories, universities and private corporations. The largest single award, $8.9 million, goes to the 3M corporation for work on membranes used in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. The second largest award also goes to 3M for work on catalysts. Awards also include stationary fuel cell demonstration projects that Bodman says will help foster international and intergovernmental partnerships. Advanced research funded by these awards are intended to support the Bush administration's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, HFI, which seeks to make it practical and cost-effective for large numbers of Americans to choose to purchase fuel cell vehicles by 2020. The projects will explore hydrogen production from diverse domestic sources, hydrogen storage, and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. The President’s 2007 budget requests $289 million for the HFI, an increase of $53 million over FY 2006, to accelerate the development of hydrogen fuel cells and affordable hydrogen-powered cars. "As a result the President’s investment in this initiative, the cost of a hydrogen fuel cell has been cut by more than 50 percent in just four years," the Energy Department says. Fuel cells use hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity, with only water and heat as byproducts. They can power small portable devices and provide heat and electricity to buildings, and they can be used to power vehicles, with two to three times the efficiency of traditional internal combustion technologies. However, fuel cells are currently more expensive and less durable than internal combustion engines. ---- New Technology Turns Bay Area Table Scraps into Fuels DAVIS, California, October 24, 2006 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2006/2006-10-24-09.asp#anchor1 More than five million tons of food scraps go into California landfills each year, but that is about to change. Starting today, tons of table scraps from Bay Area restaurants will be turned into clean, renewable energy at a new research and technology demonstration facility at the University of California - Davis. The Biogas Energy Project will process eight tons of leftovers weekly from premier restaurants such as San Francisco's Slanted Door, Jardiniere, Scoma's, Boulevard and Zuni Cafe, and Oakland's Oliveto and Scott's Seafood. Each ton of scraps can produce enough energy to provide electricity to power 10 average California homes for one day. Later as much as eight tons of leftovers will go to the project every day. The Biogas Energy Project is the first large-scale demonstration in the United States of a new technology developed in the past eight years by Ruihong Zhang, a UC Davis professor of biological and agricultural engineering. The technology, called an "anaerobic phased solids digester," has been licensed from the university and adapted for commercial use by Onsite Power Systems Inc. The project's goal is to divert organic matter such as food waste and yard clippings away from landfills and into the energy grid. That reduces greenhouse gas emissions from landfills and turns trash into a substantial source of clean energy. "The new Biogas Energy facility at UC Davis allows us to conduct innovative research on renewable energy sources. By utilizing agricultural and food waste as alternatives to fossil fuels, UC Davis continues the tradition of protecting California's environment," said Neal Van Alfen, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. "The College of Engineering is leading a campuswide initiative that emphasizes renewable energy, energy efficiency and transportation," said Engineering Dean Enrique Lavernia. "The opening of the Biogas Energy Project marks a significant step, and we're delighted that we were able to partner with industry in addressing this important problem for the state and for the nation." Zhang's system processes a wider variety of wastes than other anaerobic digesters, most of which are in use on municipal wastewater treatment plants and livestock farms. It works faster, turning waste into energy in half the time of other digesters. Zhang's system produces two clean energy gases - hydrogen and methane. Other digesters produce only methane. The gases can be burned to produce electricity and heat, or to propel cars, trucks and buses. Zhang has proved in the laboratory on a small scale that in anaerobic, or oxygen-free, conditions, naturally occurring bacteria can quickly convert food and green wastes into hydrogen and methane gases. Now the challenge is to make the gases in consistently high quality and large volumes over the long term. Onsite Power Systems has invested almost $2 million in helping Zhang refine the technology and prepare it for transfer to the commercial market. Norcal Waste Systems of San Francisco is supplying the waste for the project because it already collects restaurant leftovers for its composting operation near Vacaville. Every day, Norcal collects 300 tons of food scraps from 2,000 restaurants in San Francisco and 150 more restaurants in Oakland, said Chris Choate, the firm's vice president of sustainability. Choate said energy can be harvested out of about half of the waste material that the state currently sends to landfills. ---- Canada Doubles Wind Energy Projects From 2005 REUTERS CANADA: October 24, 2006 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38627/newsDate/24-Oct-2006/story.htm WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Wind farm construction in Canada doubled in 2006 from a year ago, enabling it to power 370,000 homes with the renewable energy, Canadian Wind Energy Association President Robert Hornung said Monday. "We project that Canada will end the year with more than 700 MW of new wind energy projects installed," Hornung said. More than 500 MW of wind energy capacity has been built this year in Canada, up from the previous record of 240 MW in 2005, bringing the total to 1,218 MW, Hornung said in a statement. Funding from the federal government that the association said has been critical for development, however, has not been available for new wind energy projects since April 2006. Future funding depends on the government's decision regarding the extent of its support in the industry, the Canadian Wind Energy Association said. "Many companies signed contracts to build wind farms following commitments made by the previous government that federal support would be available," Hornung said. "Federal support has stimulated provincial governments to pursue wind energy development and they are now targeting a combined minimum of 10,000 MW of installed wind energy capacity by 2015 and (are) looking to the federal government to continue its role as a supporting partner." Industry members are meeting in the Prairie city Winnipeg, Manitoba, for the association's annual conference, which will end on Oct. 25. -------- OTHER -------- environment Living Planet Report: Humanity Overdrawn on Nature's Credit GLAND, Switzerland, October 24, 2006 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2006/2006-10-24-01.asp Earth's resources are being used faster than they can be replaced, according to a new report, which claims humanity's impact on the planet has more than tripled since 1961. "Living Planet Report 2006," released today by the global conservation group WWF and the Global Footprint Network, says that by 2050 humanity will demand twice as much as the planet can supply. “Humanity is living off its ecological credit card,” said Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, executive director of Global Footprint Network, an Oakland, California group working internationally to make ecological limits central to decision making. “While this can be done for a short while, overshoot ultimately leads to liquidation of the planet’s ecological assets, and the depletion of resources, such as the forests, oceans and agricultural land upon which our economy depends.” Overshoot describes the gap between what humanity uses and how long the Earth takes to replace it. It is integral to the Ecological Footprint, a measure of human demand on ecosystems and one of two indicators used in the report. The other is the Living Planet Index, which reflects the health of those ecosystems. The report describes the changing state of global biodiversity and the pressures of human consumption on natural resources. It calculates that in 2003, humanity's ecological footprint was 25 percent larger than the planet’s capacity to produce these resources - meaning that it took about one year and three months for the Earth to regenerate what we used in a single year. That figure is projected to rise to 30 percent this year and to 100 percent in 2050. The fastest growing part of that footprint is fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions, increasing more than nine fold from 1961 to 2003. The report also highlights a rapid and continuing loss of biodiversity - populations of vertebrate species have declined by about one third since 1970, confirming previous trends. "The message of these two indices is clear and urgent," said James Leape, director general of WWF International. "We have been exceeding the Earth’s ability to support our lifestyles for the past 20 years, and we need to stop," he said. "We must balance our consumption with the natural world’s capacity to regenerate and absorb our wastes. If we do not, we risk irreversible damage." The report's Living Planet Index tracked trends from 1970 to 2003 in over 3,600 populations of more than 1,300 vertebrate species - fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals - from around the world. Those species were broken down into terrestrial species, such as Australia northern hairy nosed wombat; marine species, such as the minke whale, found in the North Atlantic; and freshwater species, such as the Indus blind dolphin of Pakistan. Overall, the Index found that vertebrate species populations have declined by about 30 percent between 1970 and 2003, but within that trend were marked differences between temperate and tropical species. Tropical species populations declined by around 55 percent on average from 1970 to 2003, while temperate species populations, which would have shown marked declines prior to 1970, have shown little overall change since. The report suggests that this is because in temperate ecosystems, the conversion of natural habitat to farmland largely took place before 1950, when populations of temperate species are likely to have declined, before stabilizing. The more dramatic decline of tropical species is mirrored by the conversion of natural habitat to cropland or pasture between 1950 and 1990. The tropical forests of Southeast Asia have seen the fastest conversion in the last two decades. Among marine species, the report found a greater than 25 percent decline on average across the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Southern oceans. While trends have remained relatively stable in the Pacific and Atlantic, there were "dramatic declines in the Indian/Southeast Asian and Southern Oceans." Those declines can be partly attributed to the plight of the world's mangroves. Mangroves are saltwater tolerant, inter-tidal forests growing along tropical shorelines that provide nurseries for 85 percent of commercial fish species in the tropics. They also protect shorelines from damaging storms, prevent erosion by stabilizing sediments with their tangled root systems and help maintain water quality by filtering pollutants and trapping sediments originating from land. The report found that mangroves are being degraded or destroyed at about twice the rate of tropical forests. It's estimated that more than a third of the global area of mangrove forest was lost between 1990 and 2000. More than a quarter of Asia’s mangrove cover was lost in the 10 year period preceding 2000. In South America, almost half of all mangroves were lost over the same period. Fish populations are dwindling across the world's oceans. "Overall increases in the populations of sea birds and some mammal species in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans since 1970, mask a decline in many fish species, especially those of economic importance such as cod and tuna, which are decreasing as a result of overfishing, as well as turtles and other species that are caught as by-catch," said the report. The freshwater index examined average trends in 344 species - 287 in temperate zones and 51 in tropical zones. Among freshwater species the report found a population decline of about 30 percent between 1970 and 2003, but there were marked differences within that trend. Populations of freshwater birds, such as the great crested grebe and pink backed pelican, remain relatively stable, while other freshwater species, such as the American crocodile, African bullfrog and box turtle, have declined on average by about 50 percent over the same period. The report cites habitat destruction, overfishing, invasive species, pollution, and the disruption of river systems as the main causes for the decline of freshwater animals. Rivers altered or dammed for industrial and domestic use, irrigation, and hydroelectric power, have fragmented more than half of the world’s large river systems, said the report, affecting 83 percent of their total annual flow. In the Mediterranean region, woodlands, deserts and xeric shrublands, temperate broadleaved forests, and temperate, flooded, and montane grasslands all have suffered disruption of more than 70 percent of their large river systems, primarily for irrigation. The report's study of humanity's Ecological Footprint breaks down how individual components each contribute to our overall demand on the planet. The footprint of a country includes cropland, grazing land, forest, and fishing grounds required to produce the food, fiber, and timber it consumes, to absorb the wastes emitted in generating the energy it uses, and to provide space for its infrastructure. Carbon dioxide, CO2, emissions from the use of fossil fuels was the fastest growing component of the Ecological Footprint, increasing more than ninefold from 1961 to 2003, according to the report. CO2 is the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases, which trap heat close to the planet and raise the global temperature. The United Arab Emirates has the largest Ecological Footprint per person by country, the report finds, followed by the United States, Finland, Canada, Kuwait, Australia, Estonia, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark. "For three decades now we have been in overshoot, drawing down these assets and increasing the amount of CO2 in the air," warns the report. "We cannot remain in overshoot much longer without depleting the planet’s biological resources and interfering with its long-term ability to renew them." Wackernagel said today's 44 page report raises a simple question. “How can we live well and live within the means of one planet? This is the main research question of the 21st century.” "We know where to start," said Leape. "The biggest contributor to our footprint is the way in which we generate and use energy. The Living Planet Report indicates that our reliance on fossil fuels to meet our energy needs continues to grow and that climate-changing emissions now make up 48 per cent – almost half – of our global footprint. "The good news is that this can be done," Leape offered. "We already have technologies that can lighten our footprint, including many that can significantly reduce climate-threatening carbon dioxide emissions." To read "Living Planet Report 2006," visit: www.panda.org/livingplanet -------- health Study finds flu shots are safe for kids Posted 10/24/2006 By Carla K. Johnson, Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-10-24-shots-kids_x.htm CHICAGO — The biggest study ever to look at the side effects of flu shots in children confirmed that the vaccine is safe for babies and toddlers. Researchers studied 45,000 U.S. children and found almost no side effects requiring medical treatment during the six weeks after the youngsters were vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 90 children under 5 die of the flu each season. Flu vaccine has a good safety record, the researchers wrote, though some formulations have been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare paralyzing disorder. With the shots now recommended for all children younger than 5, the findings are reassuring, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who was not involved in the study. "Linus had a security blanket, and this is a huge security blanket," Schaffner said. "This is a comfort to all providers, parents and policymakers that we can move ahead with great, great confidence." Researchers found a few more cases of mild nausea and diarrhea than expected within the first two weeks after the shot, but the numbers were extremely low considering the thousands of children studied: 13 cases. After their flu shots, the children were less likely to get treated for upper respiratory tract and ear infections. That could have been because parents felt reassured that the symptoms were not signs of flu, said study co-author Dr. Simon Hambidge, an investigator at Kaiser Permanente Colorado's clinical research unit. The federally funded study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. "This is really reassuring for parents and for doctors who want to protect children from what's a pretty nasty disease," Hambidge said. "We know children in this age group get hospitalized for complications of influenza as much as elderly adults do." Nine of the study's 19 co-authors reported financial ties to vaccine manufacturers, but the industry had no direct role in the study. -------- ACTIVISTS 65 Active Duty Soldiers Call for End of Iraq Occupation Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 Democracy Now! Headlines http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/24/1412238 The Bush administration is facing new opposition to the war in Iraq from within the U.S. military. For the first time since the invasion, a group of 65 active duty service members are formally asking Congress to end the U.S. occupation and bring the troops home. The soldiers are filing Appeals for Redress to members of Congress. Under the Military Whistle-Blower Protection Act active-duty troops can file and send a protected communication to a member of Congress regarding any subject without reprisal. One of the soldiers is Marine Sgt. Liam Madden of Rockingham Vermont who served in Iraq for seven months last year. He told a Vermont newspaper, "The war is being paid for by American people and they're not seeing any benefit from it, and neither are the Iraqi people. It doesn't make sense to me." The soldiers plan to publicly announce their campaign on Wednesday. Sgt. Liam Madden said they hope to collect two thousand appeals for redress and send them to Congress on Jan. 15 -- Martin Luther King Day. ---- When “Anti-War” Doesn't Mean Anti-War by Mickey Z. Dissident Voice October 24, 2006 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct06/MickeyZ24.htm A casual stroll through most major U.S. cities would provide ample opportunity to encounter numerous stickers, buttons, t-shirts, and window signs bearing anti-war messages. Well, maybe not exactly "anti-war," but more like: anti-THIS-war. There's been some version of a peace movement in America for over a century, but far too many of those speaking out against the U.S. invasion of Iraq are not strictly "anti-war." From what I can tell, more than a few of them have absolutely no problem with: wars started by their [sic] party and/or wars that the U.S. easily wins [sic]. Case in point: Operation Iraqi Freedom [sic] has provoked far more protest/outrage than 78 days of U.S./NATO bombing over Yugoslavia in 1999 ever did. Where were all the Hitler moustaches and facile Nazi analogies when it was Bill Clinton ordering the use of cruise missiles and depleted uranium in the name of humanitarianism [sic]? Well, don't think for a second that the powers-that-be aren't hip to this irrational trend. "As the Iraq war gets more unpopular, the environment for Republican candidates erodes," said Republican strategist Mark Campbell recently told the New York Times. Meanwhile, Democratic candidates suddenly can't stop talking about Iraq. "Iraq and foreign policy are to a large extent albatrosses around the Republicans' neck this year," New York Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat) explains. "And they don't know what to do about it." So, dig this: You're a Democrat in the Senate or the House. You've assured your constituents that you are not soft on terror. You've supported the invasion of Iraq and voted in favor of all subsequent funding bills. You've helped spread wild theories about WMD and hinted at a possible connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. You've passionately and unconditionally pronounced your support for the troops, choosing to view the massacres, rapes, and torture as "anomalies." Most recently, you've voted for the draconian Military Commissions Act. Now, with the mid-term elections just weeks away, you find it politically expedient to position yourself as anti-war [sic] ... and, of course, the public is buying it like it was a new iPod. A New York Times-CBS News Poll taken in early October found that two-thirds of respondents "disapproved of Mr. Bush's handling of the war and 66 percent said the war was going somewhat or very badly." In addition, according to the Times, "45 percent said Democrats were more likely to make the right decision on Iraq, compared with 34 percent of Republicans." While the Democrats pretend to be Cindy Sheehan for a month, their rivals, well, here's Mark Campbell again: "Only in an election year this complicated can Republicans be happy that Mark Foley knocked the Iraq war off the front page." By equating U.S. military intervention with the Bush regime, the anti-war crowd is aiding and abetting this subterfuge. Anti-war doesn't just mean anti-Bush and it isn't a useful mask to wear at an election season costume party. The label "anti-war" signifies one as being against all war no matter what political party has commenced the invasion, the bombing, the sanctions, or the covert operations. Until the anti-war movement is guided by genuine anti-war sentiment, it'll play right into the hands of the two-party [sic] game ... a game with no long-term winners. Mickey Z. is the author of several books, most recently 50 American Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know (Disinformation Books). He can be found on the Web at: www.mickeyz.net.