In Other News... for Friday November 3, 2006

An obscure provision within a huge new military authorization bill terminates the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The federal oversight agency has led investigations that sent US occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton, and discovered the military did not properly track weapons shipped to Iraqi security forces. Supporters call the order reward for repeatedly embarrassing the Bush administration.
Main Source: New York Times

Oaxaca has erupted in the most intense fighting since federal police occupied the city on Sunday, as police bashed through barriers leading to the university and launched tear gas at protesters, some of who fought back with handmade weapons. Officers stopped short of crossing into the campus; they are banned from entering state universities. No one is sure what sparked the fighting, which saw as many as 10 people injured. Protesters are demanding the ouster of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, who used force to break up an annual teachers strike 5 months ago.
Main Source: Washington Post

Last March, the Bush administration set up a website to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war, under pressure from Congressional Republicans, who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein. But in recent weeks, the site has posted documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, experts say, constitute a guide to building an atomic bomb.

The government had received earlier warnings about the contents of the Web site. Last spring, after the site began posting old Iraqi documents about chemical weapons, UN arms-control officials in New York won the withdrawal of a report that gave information on how to make nerve agents that kill by causing respiratory failure.

Conservative publications and politicians mounted a campaign to post the Iraqi archives online, arguing that US spy agencies had failed to adequately analyze some 48,000 boxes of documents seized since the March 2003 invasion. They hoped public scrutiny would turn up evidence of contemporary WMD programs to retroactively justify the invasion and occupation.

Main Source: New York Times

Sri Lanka's air force launched strikes for the third consecutive day on suspected Tamil Tiger targets Friday, the military said, days after the breakdown of talks to halt renewed civil war. The military said dozens of civilians were fleeing to government-held territory. There are no details of casualties yet. The raid came after the air force dropped bombs near the rebels' northern stronghold of Kilinochchi, which the Tigers said demolished a house and killed 5 civilians.
Main Source: Reuters

Under a new federal policy, children born in the United US to undocumented immigrants with low incomes will no longer be automatically entitled to health insurance through Medicaid, even though the newborns are automatically citizens. Instead, their parents will have to apply for them, after they are born, a process that could days or weeks. Doctors fear some children will not receive necessary care because their parents will be afraid to approach officials in order to apply.
Main Source: New York Times

Khartoum is accused of remobilizing Arab paramilitaries for attacks in West Darfur after its forces purportedly suffered defeats at the hands of rebels on the Sudan-Chad border. Rebels said of 63 dead in the latest attacks, 33 were children; the UN says 27 of those were under 12. The African Union force monitoring a widely ignored peace deal said up to 92 people may have died. Sudanese officials deny mobilizing or supporting the Janjaweed, which would violate a UN resolution.
Main Source: Reuters

The federal government disclosed details yesterday of a border-security program to screen all people who enter and leave the US, create a terrorism-risk profile of each individual, and retain that information for up to 40 years. Civil libertarians expressed concern, saying “assigning a suspicion level” to millions of Americans would be intrusive. The federal government already maintains such a program for air travelers and says it will now expand to those crossing US borders by car, boat or foot.
Main Source: Washington Post

If fishing around the world continues at its present pace, more and more species will vanish, marine ecosystems will unravel and there will be “global collapse” of all species currently fished, possibly as soon as midcentury, fisheries experts and ecologists are predicting. To avoid this catastrophe, the scientists say countries must manage entire marine ecosystems and not just individual fish species as today. They also urge the creation of extensive "no-fish" zones, the aquatic version of national parks.
Main Source: New York Times

Also...

» Ocean species face extinction  (Toronto Star)

French authorities have stripped 72 Muslim workers of their airport access badges for suspected links with movements or people who rejected “France and our values,” or for suspected travels to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Airport security did not present any evidence against the workers. France’s largest union filed a discrimination lawsuit and at least 10 workers have sued. Those who lose their security clearance are at risk of dismissal by their private employers. Rights groups accused authorities of an anti-Muslim campaign in an election year.
Main Source: New York Times

A federal judge upheld an order requiring the New York Times to disclose a columnist's confidential sources as part of a libel lawsuit filed over its coverage of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Former Army scientist Steven Hatfill sued the Times, arguing that a series of articles by columnist Nicholas Kristof falsely implicated him in the anthrax mailings that killed 5 people in late 2001. The judge said Hatfill's right to move forward with his lawsuit outweighed the limited immunity Virginia gives reporters from disclosing sources.
Main Source: Associated Press

Police in Baghdad found 56 bodies and a severed head over the past 24 hours in various parts of the capital, the highest daily figure since the end of Ramadan, an Interior Ministry source said on Friday. While not unprecedented, the number represents a sharp rise since last week when US forces were out in force throughout the city aggressively hunting for a missing US soldier. The body count in Baghdad on Wednesday was 35, and the daily figure was generally lower in the previous week.
Main Source: Reuters

After he served 90 days hard labor for his role in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, the US Army sent dog-handling military policeman Santos Cardona back to Iraq. Despite infamous pictures of Cardona using the animal to threaten Iraqis, he is serving with a company selected to train Iraqi police. A military jury acquitted Cardona of 7 abuse charges. Attorneys argued his actions were condoned by officers in charge of the prison as well as senior Army officials. After his conviction, the military took away Cardona's dog.
Main Source: Time

An unprecedented US bid for the top UN peacekeeping post would place an American in command of the 95,000 UN troops. An American-led department could replace the US-led coalition in Iraq with a UN-flagged force. The disastrous UN peace operation led by the US in Somalia in 1993 ended in chaos and killing on the streets of the capital, Mogadishu. Some officials also fear an American head of peacekeeping could enable the US to use UN operations for covert activities – as it did with the UN weapons inspection teams in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Main Source: London Times

Also...

» UN official pleads not guilty in bribery case, freed on bail  (Associated Press)

Houston’s Mayor Bill White, former had of the Texas Democratic Party, has cancelled a privately funded plan to launch a series of "Vote and Vaccinate" clinics during early voting in heavily Latino and black neighborhoods. Voters were to be offered flu shots at polling stations. Republicans were outraged, accusing the mayor of trying to swing the election in favor of Democrats by targeting the program at Democratic strongholds. White said the program was placed where it was needed most.
Main Source: LA Times

Mob killings claiming a life a day over the past week have led the Italian government to talk of bringing in the Army to restore order. Police in Naples say that the violence has spiraled out of control, ironically, because of their success in jailing crime bosses. The traditional Mafia power structure has disintegrated, with younger mafiosi now feuding for control of the lucrative illegal-drugs market, estimated to be worth $66.5 million a year. There have been 75 murders this year in Naples; 12 in the past 10 days.
Main Source: London Times

An alliance of rebel groups that captured the Central African Republic town of Birao on Monday says it is ready to hold talks with the government under national or international mediation to resolve the country's problems and avoid "useless bloodshed". The alliance of 3 groups resorted to arms in protest of an exclusionist policy it claims bans people of certain ethnicities and political parties from government. The capture of Birao is considered a major setback for Pres. Francois Bozize.
Main Source: IRIN