September 12, 2008

HOUSTON — While residents of Galveston Island and neighboring Bolivar Peninsula were told to evacuate or "face certain death" as giant Hurricane Ike barrels toward the Texas coast, officials in America's fourth-largest city made a bold decision: Instead of fleeing, residents here would stare down the storm.

Homeowners should board up windows, clear the decks of furniture and stock up on drinking water and non-perishable food. But whatever they do, officials warned, residents should not flock to the roadways en masse, creating the same kind of gridlock that cost lives — and a little political capital — when Hurricane Rita threatened Houston in 2005.

"It will be, in candor, something that people will be scared of," Houston Mayor Bill White warned. "A number of people in this community have not experienced the magnitude of these winds." The decision is a stark contrast to how emergency management officials responded to Hurricane Rita in 2005. As the storm closed in three years ago, the region implemented its plan: Evacuate the 2 million people in the coastal communities first, past the metropolis of Houston; once they were out of harm's way, Houston would follow in an orderly fashion.

But three days before landfall, Rita bloomed into a Category 5 and tracked toward the city. City and Harris County officials told Houstonians to hit the road, even while the population of Galveston Island was still clogging the freeways. It was a decision that proved tragic: 110 people died during the effort, making the evacuation more deadly than the eventual Category 4 storm, which killed nine.

September 10, 2008

A CNN reporter this week didn’t seem to know or care that a fake photo showing a bikini-clad, rifle-toting Sarah Palin had been widely debunked days earlier as a fraud, the latest in series of incidents involving apparent misstatements or inaccurate reporting by the news network.

“(John) McCain has been really good about painting (Barack) Obama as this lightweight … They don’t want that to come back on Sarah Palin, and people say, yes, she looks good in a bikini clutching an AK-47, but is she equipped to run the country?” CNN’s Lola Ogunnaike said in response to a question on the network’s “Reliable Sources” show, which aired Sunday.

Ogunnaike’s remarks, which came in response to a question by host Howard Kurtz about whether Palin’s status as a political celebrity might undercut Republican efforts to portray the vice presidential nominee as a serious, reform-minded governor, were posted on CNN’s Web site and have since been reported and discussed on numerous other independent sites.

CNN correspondents and analysts have also recently misrepresented Palin’s stance on incorporating creationism into Alaska’s school curriculum and falsely reported that she cut funds for people with special needs in the state budget. Regarding the doctored “bikini” photo, neither Kurtz, a “Washington Post” columnist, nor anyone else on the “Sources” discussion panel ever corrected Ogunnaike by pointing out that the picture was a fake.

By Sharon Gaudin
September 10, 2008

Today's successful test run of a massive particle collider is being called "one of the great engineering milestones of mankind." On Wednesday morning, just outside of Geneva, scientists shot a particle beam fully around a 17-mile loop in the world's most powerful particle accelerator -- the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Twenty years after development of the collider began, a particle beam made the full journey around the accelerator for the first time. It's a forebear to the time when scientists will accelerate two particle beams toward each other at 99.9% of the speed of light. Smashing the beams together will create showers of new particles that should recreate conditions in the universe just moments after its conception, giving scientists the chance to answer one of humanity's oldest questions: How was the universe created?

"This is truly one of the great engineering milestones of mankind," said Harvey Newman, a physics professor at the California Institute of Technology. "It was characterized as having gone as 'smooth as silk,' considering everything that had to work." Newman told Computerworld that scientists sent one beam around the tube and then sent a beam in the opposite direction -- each going one at a time.

Each beam made one circle around the accelerator. And they hit 99.999998% of the speed of light. "It's actually very exciting," said Bolek Wyslouch, a professor of physics at MIT who has been working on the collider project for the past seven years. "We were anxiously waiting, with the whole world watching, to see how this worked."

September 08, 2008

A major shakeup at MSNBC has yanked two controversial figures from anchoring its political coverage after complaints of bias and last place ratings during both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews have been ousted as anchors and will be replaced by White House correspondent David Gregory.

Executives are hoping Gregory will deliver a more balanced assessment of the news. Complaints about Olbermann and Matthews reached a crescendo last week when Olbermann apologized to viewers for a September 11 tribute video crafted by the RNC. He said the Republican Party exploited the memories of the dead. Meanwhile, Matthews has been heavily criticized since saying back in February after listening to an Obama speech, "I felt this thrill going up my leg," prompting some Hillary Clinton supporters to complain that MSNBC was completely in the tank for Obama.

But never fear, there are even worse examples of liberal bias. While hosting the MTV Video Music Awards, Sunday, British comedian Russell Brand praised Obama and then took a shot at President Bush. He said, "Could I please ask you, people of America, to please elect Barack Obama. Please! On behalf of the world."

He went on to say, "Some people, I think they're called racists, say America is not ready for a black president. But I know America to be a forward thinking country because otherwise why would you have let that retard cowboy fella be president for eight years? We were very impressed because in England, he wouldn't be trusted with a pair of scissors."

By Egan Orion
1 September 2008, 10:25 AM

THE OWNER and editor of a web site that was critical of police abuse of the citizens of a troubled southern Russian province was arrested and apparently shot to death by police on Sunday.

Ingushetiya police arrested Magomed Yevloyev, proprietor of the website Ingushetiya.ru, on a plane from Moscow after it landed, according to deputy editor Ruslan Kautiyev. Kautiyev said Yevloyev was taken away in a car by police and dumped beside the road a short time later with a gunshot wound to the head. He subsequently died at a hospital.

A court had ordered Yevloyev's web site shut down in June due to government allegations that it was publishing "extremist" views. Yevloyev complied, but continued online publication on a new web site with a different name. Also in June, Human Rights Watch said Russian security forces had committed many human rights abuses in Ingushetia.

The group claimed that it had documented dozens of arbitrary detentions, instances of torture, disappearances of civilians and extrajudicial executions. It accused Ingushetia's authorities of persecuting peaceful Muslims and civil rights critics, marginalising opposition groups and suppressing independent journalists.

September 01, 2008

NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Gustav charged toward the largely deserted coast of Louisiana early Monday morning and seemed destined to make landfall west of a city still recovering three years after Katrina's devastating blow.

Those who heeded the days of warnings to get out watched from shelters and hotel rooms hundreds of miles away, praying the powerful Category 3 storm and its 115-mph winds would pass without the same deadly toll.

"We're nervous, but we just have to keep trusting in God that we don't get the water again," said Lyndon Guidry, who hit the road for Florida just a few months after he was able to return to his home in New Orleans. "We just have to put our faith in God."

The brutal memories of Katrina, which flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and killed more than 1,600 along the Gulf Coast, led officials to aggressively insist that everyone in Gustav's path flee from shore. As the storm grew near, the streets of the city were empty — save for National Guardsmen and just about every officer on the city's police force standing watch for looters.

August 17, 2008

BEIJING — Michael Phelps locked arms with his three teammates, as though they were in a football huddle calling a play, then hugged each one of them. It took a team to make him the grandest of Olympic champions. And one last big push from Phelps himself.

Going hard right to the end of a mesmerizing nine days in Beijing, Phelps helped the Americans come from behind Sunday in a race they've never lost at the Olympics, cheering from the deck as Jason Lezak brought it home for a world record in the 400-meter medley relay. It was Phelps' history-making eighth gold medal of these games.

"Everything was accomplished," he said. "I will have the medals forever." Phelps sure did his part to win No. 8, eclipsing Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games. Aaron Peirsol got the Americans off to the lead in the backstroke, but Brendan Hansen — a major disappointment in this Olympic year — slowed them down with only the third-fastest breaststroke leg.

By the time Phelps dived in for the butterfly, the U.S. was trailing Australia and Japan. That's when he really went to work. With his long arms whirling across the water like propellers, Phelps caught the two guys ahead of him on the return lap and passed off to Lezak a lead of less than a second for the freestyle.

August 15, 2005

This is the dramatic moment a TV reporter was shot by a sniper as she reported live from war-torn Georgia. Tamara Urushadze took a bullet to her left arm in the flashpoint town of Gori as Russian forces continued their illegal occupation.

Bravely, or foolishly, the 32-year-old brunette continued her report after a few moments as other journalists and aid workers dashed for cover. Siege-town Gori has become a deadly 'sniper's alley' with citizens at the mercy of rampaging militiamen - believed to be from the breakaway republic South Ossetia - looting and firing guns, some drunkenly.

On Sunday video footage caught reporters from two Turkish stations ducking and saying their last prayers as they were fired upon by Russian snipers. One of the journalists was hit in the eye but his injuries are reportedly not thought to be life-threatening. 'Friends, I got hit on the head,' the journalist, Levent Ozturk shouts in the video. 'I am OK now, but in a few minutes ... .' The four journalists begin reciting a Muslim last prayer.

Then they wave through the shattered sunroof of their truck and shout 'Press! Press!' in English. All the journalists, from Turkish networks NTV and Kanal Turk, were safely back in Turkey by yesterday. The Kremlin stands accused of turning a blind eye to renegades bent on 'ethnic cleansing' in revenge for Georgia's ill-conceived invasion of South Ossetia last Friday.

By Chris Chase
Aug 12, 2008 9:23 am EDT

Spain's Olympic basketball team posed for an advertisement prior to the Games which appears to show all its players slanting their eyes, a move that could offend its Olympic hosts in Beijing. The ads, for a Spanish courier company, appeared in the Spanish-language newspaper La Marca.

As the uproar over the picture has grown today, more information about the advertising shot has come to light. The ad was sponsored by a Spanish courier company, Seur. Spain's team, ironically, also is sponsored by Li-Ning Footwear, a Chinese company founded by Li Ning, the final torchbearer who was hoisted along the top of Beijing National Stadium during the Olympic Opening Ceremony finale.

The Spanish-language paper El Mundo has a piece debating whether the ad was racist that basically calls out the British press for trying to smear Spain's good name. But they miss the point. Whether the picture was made in good fun is irrelevant. It was a ridiculous idea that was bound to upset a lot of people. It's baffling that nobody involved in the picture -- from the photographers to the players -- even seemed to consider that this ad would be looked at negatively.

Did it not occur to somebody that it might not be a good idea to mock a large portion of the continent before the world's largest athletic competition that, by the way, happens to take place on that continent. Were they not aware of an invention called "the Internet" that allows pictures taken in Spain to be transmitted all over the world for the eyes of everyone?

August 15, 2008

Human Rights Watch researchers have uncovered evidence that Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs in populated areas in Georgia, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring dozens, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called upon Russia to immediately stop using cluster bombs, weapons so dangerous to civilians that more than 100 nations have agreed to ban their use.

"Cluster bombs are indiscriminate killers that most nations have agreed to outlaw," said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. "Russia's use of this weapon is not only deadly to civilians, but also an insult to international efforts to avoid a global humanitarian disaster of the kind caused by landmines." Human Rights Watch said Russian aircraft dropped RBK-250 cluster bombs, each containing 30 PTAB 2.5M submunitions, on the town of Ruisi in the Kareli district of Georgia on August 12, 2008.

Three civilians were killed and five wounded in the attack. On the same day, a cluster strike in the center of the town of Gori killed at least eight civilians and injured dozens, Human Rights Watch said. Dutch journalist Stan Storimans was among the dead. Israeli journalist Zadok Yehezkeli was seriously wounded and evacuated to Israel for treatment after surgery in Tbilisi. An armored vehicle from the Reuters news agency was perforated with shrapnel from the attack.

This is the first known use of cluster munitions since 2006, during Israel's war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Cluster munitions contain dozens or hundreds of smaller submunitions or bomblets. They cause unacceptable humanitarian harm in two ways. First, their broad-area effect kills and injures civilians indiscriminately during strikes. Second, many submunitions do not explode, becoming de facto landmines that cause civilian casualties for months or years to come.

August 14, 2008

WASHINGTON — Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world. They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.

The secret comes out Thursday — all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.

They were soldiers, actors, historians, lawyers, athletes, professors, reporters. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.

Among the more than 35,000 OSS personnel files are applications, commendations and handwritten notes identifying young recruits who, like Child, Goldberg and Berg, earned greater acclaim in other fields — Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy; Sterling Hayden, a film and television actor whose work included a role in "The Godfather"; and Thomas Braden, an author whose "Eight Is Enough" book inspired the 1970s television series.

August 13, 2008

DEVELOPING STORY: — Russians are bombing and looting the city of Gori outside the breakaway province of South Ossetia on their way deeper into the country, witnesses say. Georgian Security Council Chief Alexander Lomaia said that the Russian military bombed Gori Wednesday morning and entered the city.

The Russian military then let paramilitaries into Gori who started massive looting. An AP reporter outside the city of Gori saw the convoy speeding past and heading south. The accusation came less than 12 hours after Georgia's president said he accepted a cease-fire plan brokered by France. The Russian president said that Russia was halting military action because Georgia had paid enough for its attack on South Ossetia, a separatist region along the Russian border with close ties to Moscow.

Still, Medvedev ordered the Russian defense minister at a televised Kremlin meeting to destroy any resistance or aggressive actions. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had gambled on a surprise attack late Thursday to regain control over his country's pro-Russian breakaway province of South Ossetia. Instead, Georgia suffered a punishing beating from Russian tanks and aircraft that has left the country with even less control over territory than it had before.

In the west, Georgian troops acknowledged Wednesday they had completely pulled out of a small section of Abkhazia, a second separatist region — a development that leaves the entire area in the hands of the Russian-backed separatists. A few dozen separatist fighters moved into Georgian territory on Wednesday, planting their flag on a bridge over the Inguri River.

August 13, 2008

BEIJING — For Michael Phelps, it's not enough to just set a new standard. He has to demolish the old one. Winningest Olympian ever? He's two golds past that already and not finished yet, just over halfway to his goal of breaking Mark Spitz's record seven in a single Olympics.

World records? In a sport measured down to the hundredths for a reason, Phelps sets a pace to crush one of them by more than four seconds. Even when his goggles malfunctioned during the first race of a golden morning in China, the gangly, 23-year-old American squinted through water-filled lenses on the way to, yes, a world record. Of course, he was none too happy to beat it by only six-hundredths of a second.

So un-Phelps-like. "In the circumstances, not too bad I guess," he said with a shrug. "I know I can go faster." No wonder his competitors realize they're merely swimming for second. Monumental challenges for mere mortals seem almost inconsequential to Phelps. "He is just a normal person, but maybe from a different planet," said Russia's Alexander Sukhorukov, fresh off a thrashing by the Phelps-led Americans but still good enough to have a silver around his neck.

On Wednesday, Phelps swam into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals — and five world records in five events at the Beijing Games. A day after etching his name alongside Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis with gold No. 9, Phelps set a standard all his own when he won the 200-meter butterfly.

By Rich Jones
August 13, 2008 @ 7:24 AM

Mr. Unstable is now Mr. Unemployed. The Burger King employee who took a soapy bath in a utility sink at work and then posted a video of it online doesn't work at Burger King anymore. Timothy Tackett, who was fired, says he regrets the bath because a couple of other people also lost their jobs...the co-worker who did the taping and the shift manager.

Burger King says two people were fired from their jobs at the restaurant in Xenia, Ohio, and a third quit. The video was posted last week, with a worker who appeared to be naked calling himself ``Mr. Unstable.'' By the time a health inspector went to the restaurant, the sink that's used to clean large pieces of equipment had been sterilized.

August 11, 2008

MONTREAL — Montreal's police chief vowed to mend shaky relations between his department and the community, hours after a deadly riot broke out among youth gangs angry over the shooting death of a young man by police.

The rampage erupted late Sunday in the city's north end after a peaceful demonstration to protest the shooting. The violence started when some protesters torched eight cars parked outside a fire station and then spread as rioters set dozens of fires in the streets and pelted responding fire trucks with bottles.

Early Monday morning, heavily armed Quebec provincial police officers escorted firefighters as they doused dozens of fires. Police helicopters surveyed the sector from above. Police said three officers were injured during the clashes overnight, including one shot in the leg, and an ambulance technician was injured. Six people were arrested for charges such as drug possession and breaking and entering.

Hundreds of officers in full riot gear marched through the Montreal North neighborhood early Monday morning and eventually brought calm to the area. Montreal police Chief Yvan Delorme said he's prepared to do whatever it takes to mend the shaky relations between police and the community.