Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake Auckland Islands New Zealand
The quake struck at 4.24pm AEST near New Zealand, the agency said in a statement.
A chance of tsunami near the epicentre was possible, it said.
Dengue Fever Surges In Latin America
Dengue fever is spreading across Latin America and the Caribbean in one of the worst outbreaks in decades, causing agonizing joint pain for hundreds of thousands of people and killing nearly 200 so far this year.
The mosquitoes that carry dengue are thriving in expanded urban slums scattered with water-collecting trash and old tires. Experts say dengue is approaching record levels this year as many countries enter their wettest months.
“If we do not slow it down, it will intensify and take a greater social and economic toll on these countries,” said Dr. Jose Luis San Martin, head of anti-dengue efforts for the Pan American Health Organization, a regional public health agency.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has posted advisories this year for people visiting Latin American and Caribbean destinations to use mosquito repellant and stay inside screened areas whenever possible.
“The danger is that the doctors at home don’t recognize the dengue,” said Dr. Wellington Sun, the chief of the CDC’s dengue branch in San Juan. “The doctors need to raise their level of suspicion for any traveler who returns with a fever.”
Dengue has already damaged the economies of countries across the region by driving away tourists, according to a document prepared for a PAHO conference beginning Monday in Washington.
Some countries have focused mosquito eradication efforts on areas popular with tourists. Mexico sent hundreds of workers to the resorts of Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and Acapulco this year to try to avert outbreaks.
Health ministers from across the region meet at the PAHO conference and San Martin said he will urge them to devote more resources to dengue fever.
The tropical virus was once thought to have been nearly eliminated from Latin America, but it has steadily gained strength since the early 1980s. Now, officials fear it could emerge as a pandemic similar to one that became a leading killer of children in Southeast Asia following World War II.
Officials say the virus is likely to grow deadlier in part because tourism and migration are circulating four different strains across the region. A person exposed to one strain may develop immunity to that strain — but subsequent exposure to another strain makes it more likely the person will develop the hemorrhagic form.
“The main concern is what’s happening in the Americas will recapitulate what has happened in Southeast Asia, and we will start seeing more and more severe types of cases of dengue as time progresses,” Sun said.
The disease — known as “bonebreak fever” because of the pain — can incapacitate patients for as long as a week with flu-like symptoms. A deadly hemorrhagic form, which also causes internal and external bleeding, accounts for less than 5 percent of cases but has shown signs of growing.
Avian Flu Suspected In Mexico Illnesses
Dozens of people in a Mexican city are gravely ill with what is being treated as a possible outbreak of avian flu, according to a new report from a Spanish-language website.
According to El Universal, authorities in a neighborhood in Guanajuato say 45 patients have been given medical attention at the area’s hospital after they reported symptoms including extreme headaches, stomachaches, vomiting and diarrhea.
The cases have developed over the last two weeks and “feel [like] death,” according to Silvia Villalobos, one of the victims who spoke to El Universal correspondent Xochitl Alvarez in Spanish.
Syria Says Israel Preparing For War
Syria accused Israel of staging a strategic air raid to prepare international opinion for a future war between the countries.
Deputy Syrian President Farouk Shara said Saturday that an Israeli sortie over northern Syria on September 6, on which Jerusalem made no comment but which stirred foreign speculation that a secret North Korean-supplied nuclear facility had been bombed, was “psychological warfare” by the Jewish state.
“They are making things up to justify an aggression in the future. They are playing on public opinion to mislead it,” Shara told reporters.
Damascus, which denies seeking atomic weapons, said the Israeli warplanes dropped munitions harmlessly in the desert and were chased off by Syrian ground defenses.
Shara suggested that Israel ordered the raid to boost military prestige hit hard by the setbacks of last year’s war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
“They want to rehabilitate the Israeli army after the Lebanese resistance broke it. But what Israel needs is to rehabilitate the Israeli mind. Only then will a real opportunity for peace be created,” he said.
Israel has called for renewed peace talks with Syria, but on condition Damascus first stop sponsoring Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist groups. Israel also rejects Syria’s demand that it agree to return all of the Golan Heights before negotiations begin.
Colorado Students Walk Out During Pledge, Recite Own Version
September 29, 2007 by admin
Filed under Moral Decay
About 50 Boulder High School students walked out of class Thursday to protest the daily reading of the Pledge of Allegiance and recited their own version, omitting “one nation, under God.”
The students say the phrase violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
They also say the daily reading of the pledge over the school public address system at the start of the second class takes away from education time and is ignored or mocked by some students.
A state law passed in 2004 requires schools to offer the opportunity to recite the pledge each day but does not require students to participate.
The protesting students, members of the Student Worker Club, want administrators to hold the pledge reading in the auditorium during each of the school’s two lunch periods for any students who want to participate.
Otherwise, they said, they plan to walk out each Thursday when the pledge is read and recite their version, which omits the reference to God and adds allegiance to constitutional rights, diversity and freedom, among other things.
“Boulder High has a highly diverse population, not all of whom believe in God, or one God,” said Emma Martens, a senior and president of the club, which has about a dozen members.
Democratic Candidates Say They’re OK With Second-Grade Teacher Reading Gay Prince Fairy Tale
September 29, 2007 by admin
Filed under Moral Decay
A fairy tale about two princes falling in love sparked a backlash and a lawsuit against a teacher and a school last year when it was read to a second-grade class in Massachusetts.
But the three frontrunners in the Democratic presidential race suggested Wednesday night at their debate in New Hampshire that they’d support reading the controversial book to children as part of a school curriculum.
Moderator Tim Russert asked John Edwards, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton whether they’d be comfortable having the story called “King & King” read to their children in school.
Edwards gave the first and most definitive answer a resounding and instant “yes, absolutely” although he added that it “might be a little tough” for second-graders.
Obama agreed with Edwards and revealed that his wife has already spoken to his 6- and 9-year-old daughters about same-sex marriage.
Clinton said she believes it’s up to parents to decide how to handle such topics, but added that it’s important to teach kids about the “many differences that are in the world.”
Conservatives Rebuke Hate Crimes Bill Ploy
September 29, 2007 by admin
Filed under Moral Decay
Prominent Christian leaders, such as Chuck Colson and Dr. James Dobson, defended the right of people of faith to speak out on their religious beliefs.
Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship and former top aide for then President Richard Nixon, highlighted cases in Europe, Canada and even in the United States where Christians have been prosecuted for peaceful speech on the sin of homosexuality.
“In Pennsylvania, 11 Christians were prosecuted under the state’s hate crime law for preaching on a street corner against homosexuality,” he noted, referring to the case of the ten adults and one teenager who were arrested shortly after “sexual orientation” was added to the state’s hate crimes law as a victim category in 2004. The group was reportedly singing hymns and carrying signs peacefully at a homosexual celebration in Philadelphia.
“The Hate Crimes Act will be the first step to criminalize our rights as Christians to believe that some behaviors are sinful,” said Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family Action, in a message for a petition to oppose the bill.
“Pastors preaching from Scripture on homosexuality could be threatened with persecution and prosecution,” he noted.
Items Found In U-Haul Prompt Arizona Terrorism Investigation
Unusual items discovered in the back of a rental truck in Tempe prompted the county’s anti-terrorism unit to launch an investigation Friday evening.
An employee at the U-Haul rental center near Priest Drive and Elliot Road called authorities around 5 p.m. after finding items that Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy Doug Matteson called “suspicious” in a 15-foot rental truck
No explosive material, hazardous items or weapons were inside the truck, Matteson said. Instead papers and other items were found.
Matteson would not divulge exactly what the other items were or what they were related to, only saying it was significant enough for the Maricopa County’s anti-terrorism group to be called out to investigate.
Authorities are currently checking where the truck came from and who last rented it.
Matteson said that he believes the truck has been at that U-Haul location for 3 to 6 months and that as far as he knows no one has had access to it during that time. The rental center is surrounded by fences and has a security unit, Matteson said.
The Department of Homeland Security would be notified, Matteson said, although the current situation was not to a level that would require that federal agency or the FBI to get involved in the investigation.
Dollar’s Retreat Raises Fear Of Collapse
Finance ministers and central bankers have long fretted that at some point, the rest of the world would lose its willingness to finance the United States’ proclivity to consume far more than it produces – and that a potentially disastrous free-fall in the dollar’s value would result.
But for longer than most economists would have been willing to predict a decade ago, the world has been a willing partner in American excess – until a new and home-grown financial crisis this summer rattled confidence in the country, the world’s largest economy.
On Thursday, the dollar briefly fell to another low against the euro of $1.3927, as a slow decline that has been under way for months picked up steam this past week.
“This is all pointing to a greatly increased risk of a fast unwinding of the U.S. current account deficit and a serious decline of the dollar,” said Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and an expert on exchange rates. “We could finally see the big kahuna hit.”
In addition to increased nervousness about the pace of the dollar’s decline, many currency analysts now also are willing to make an argument they would have avoided as recently as a few years ago: that the euro should bear the brunt of the dollar’s decline.
Russia, China buy more time for Iran
In a reprieve for Iran, the six major powers have agreed to wait until mid-November before pushing for tougher sanctions against the country to force it to abandon its uranium enrichment activities, dealing a blow to US-backed efforts to step up the heat on Tehran.
Foreign ministers of the US, Britain, France, permanent members (P-5) of the Security Council, and Germany on Friday failed to convince Russia and China, the other two P-5 countries with veto power, to back effort to strengthen the embargo connected to its controversial nuclear programme immediately.
A joint statement from the P5 1 said they would finalize the new resolution on a third round of sanctions and bring it to a vote unless reports in November from the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency and EU foreign policy Javier Solana chief “show a positive outcome of their efforts.”
However, Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns claimed the statement sent “a very tough and strict message to Iran.”
At the meeting, diplomats and officials said, the US pushed for quick action but Russia sought time for negotiations to resolve the issue.
Separate 7.4 And 6.6 Magnitude Quakes Strike Simultaneously Off Japans Coast
Two strong earthquakes struck close together south of Japan on Friday, but no tsunami warning was issued and no damages were reported, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The first quake struck with a 6.6 magnitude at 10:41 p.m. local time. It was centered in the Pacific Ocean 930 miles south of Tokyo off Iwo Jima. At virtually the same time a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the Mariana Islands, agency officials said.
Residents of northeastern towns on Japans main island of Honshu reported they felt slight shaking from the first quake.
The Mariana quake was initially measured by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Network as a 4.1 quake off the Big Island before officials realized they were measuring shocks from the Mariana Island event. The Mariana quake occurred some 172 miles under the oceans surface and was centered about 14 miles north and 89 miles east of the Mariana Islands.
Japan has more earthquakes than any other area of the earth because it sits atop four tectonic plates that shift and move. The Mariana Islands are about 1,500 miles south of Tokyo.
Jibril – Israel Will Attack Syria Soon
Israel has already made a decision to attack Syria and was just mulling where to land its first strike, Ahmad Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed in an interview published Friday by Arabic paper Al Hadat.
Jibril estimated that Israeli action, several weeks after an alleged IAF foray into Syria on September 6 would likely be a wide-scale operation, and would probably be answered with attacks by Iran, Hizbullah in Lebanon and the Palestinians of Syria.
“I believe Israel has prepared all likely scenarios for war with Syria, but they are still considering where they would land the first strike, which will come very soon,” Jibril said. “They are weighing whether to attack on one front or on multiple fronts.
“There is an American Israeli plan, backed by silent agreement from the Arab world, to change the balance of power in the Middle East,” he added.
The PFLP leader said also that Israel was wary of a “domino effect” that would drag other countries into the conflict. “The Israelis have not formed a final estimate regarding the possibility of Iranian interference in case they would attack Syria. Secondly, the Lebanese resistance, led by Hizbullah’s Islamic resistance, will intervene and strike the Zionist home front with missiles,” he said.
“The Syrian brothers will not be afraid to protect their land and will continue the war with the Zionist enemy, and we, the Palestinians in Syria, will not sit idly – we will be in the front lines,” Jibril added.
However, despite Jibril’s claim that “Hizbullah would also participate,” officials in the organization hinted that they would not interfere in a future conflict. Two weeks ago, Sheikh Na’im Kassem, Deputy Secretary General of Hizbullah and Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s second in command, said that Israeli estimates that the group would try to take revenge on Syria’s behalf were no more that “journalistic assessments based on insufficient evidence.”
Barak Says Israel Is ‘close’ To Gaza Operation
At least two civilians were reportedly among eight Palestinians killed in Gaza yesterday by Israeli forces as Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, warned that a “widespread” military operation in the Strip was “getting closer”.
Five militants were killed when a missile fired from the air hit the car in which they were travelling and which the Israeli military said was also carrying missiles ready for launching into Israel. Unconfirmed reports said that the men killed were from the Army of Islam, the group that kidnapped the BBC journalist Alan Johnston this year.
But Palestinian witnesses were quoted by Reuters as saying a gunman and two bystanders were also killed by a tank shell, which also wounded 21 Palestinians in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, where Israeli ground forces were attempting to halt the firing of Qassam rockets by Gaza’s militants.
Mr Barak said in an interview with Army Radio yesterday: “We are getting closer to carrying out a widespread operation in Gaza, which, for many reasons, has not taken place in the past weeks.”
But the minister also warned that such a large-scale operation, which has been demanded by right-wing politicians in response to the rocket attacks into Israel, was “not simple, not in terms of the forces and the amount of time which we will have to stay there or in terms of the operational challenges which the troops will have to meet”.
A large-scale operation against Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza was originally rejected by the cabinet last month in favour of the plans to cut fuel and power to the Strip, which the cabinet endorsed last week when it declared it a “hostile entity”.
Ministers resolved on more limited operations of the kind which resulted in the Palestinian deaths yesterday. There have been conflicting signals about the possibility of a large-scale military operation in Gaza. Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, a member of the inner security cabinet, told the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz this week that he was opposed to such an operation, which had to be “the very last alternative there is”.
Ahmadinejad Forms Anti-American Alliance With Chavez
The leaders of Iran and Venezuela cemented an alliance aimed at countering the United States while the Iranian president reached out to a new ally in Bolivia and declared that together, “no one can defeat us.”
After being vilified during his U.N. visit this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled on to friendlier territory Thursday, first stopping in Bolivia — where he pledged $1 billion in investment — and then visiting Venezuela to meet President Hugo Chavez.
“Together we are surely growing stronger, and in truth no one can defeat us,” the Iranian leader said through an interpreter. Apparently referring to the U.S., he said, “Imperialism has no other option: Respect the peoples (of the world) or accept defeat.”
Chavez greeted the Iranian leader warmly on a red carpet in front of the presidential palace, where they both stood before microphones and let loose with rhetoric challenging Washington.
“We will continue resisting to the end in the face of imperialism,” Ahmadinejad said. “And the age of imperialism has ended.”
Chavez embraced the Iranian leader, calling him “one of the greatest anti-imperialist fighters” and “one of the great fighters for true peace.”
In his defiant speech to the U.N. General Assembly this week, Ahmadinejad rebuked “arrogant powers” seeking to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
Chavez also strongly defends Iran’s nuclear research, insisting it is for peaceful energy uses despite U.S. charges it is aimed at making nuclear weapons. The Venezuelan leader also says his country plans to eventually develop a nuclear energy program.
Chavez said he was proud of Ahmadinejad’s courage while under hostile questioning at New York’s Columbia University. “An imperial spokesman tried to disrespect you, calling you a cruel little tyrant. You responded with the greatness of a revolutionary.”
In Bolivia, the Iranian leader pledged investment over the next five years to help the poor Andean nation tap its vast natural gas reserves, extract minerals, generate more electricity and fund agricultural and construction projects.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, who joins Chavez as one of Iran’s key allies, called Ahmadinejad’s visit historic as the two nations established diplomatic relations for the first time.
Morales brushed off concerns about close ties to a country that the Bush administration says is a sponsor of terrorism, declaring that the “international community can rest assured that Bolivia’s foreign policy is dedicated to peace with equality and social justice.”
Ahmadinejad’s trip underscored his growing ties to Latin American nations, including Nicaragua and Ecuador, even as the U.S. tries to isolate him internationally.
The closer relationship is viewed with alarm by the opposition in Venezuela and Bolivia, and by Washington. U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, a Florida Republican, said they remind him “of the relationship that Fidel Castro had with Russia.” He urged Washington to reach out more to a region analysts say it has largely ignored since the Sept. 11 attacks.
