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news sources archive
2001...
News Picture of the
Year
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CHILD SOLDIERS—"More than
300,000 children are fighting with governments and
armed groups in more than 40 countries around
the world. In 87 countries children are
recruited into government armed forces,
paramilitaries, civil militia and non-state
armed groups source."
STUDY
FINDS INCREASED US DRUG USE SINCE 9/11
—"Thirteen states and four cities have
detected an increased demand for alcohol and
drug treatment since September 11th source."
AFGAN WOMEN TO HAVE LITTLE ROLE IN THEIR
FUTURE?—"Provisional Council would be composed
of a fairly large and representative group of
Afghans, drawn from all ethnic and regional
communities. The Provisional Council could be
chaired by an individual recognized as a symbol
of national unity around whom all ethnic,
religious and regional groups could rally and
could have several deputy chairmen who would
conduct its day-to-day proceedings. The
credibility and legitimacy of the Provisional
Council would be enhanced, if particular
attention were to be given to the participation
of individuals and groups, including women, who
have not been engaged in armed conflict
source."
CHINADAILY: JAPAN SINKING INTO
RECESSION—"Fujitsu Ltd. forecast a record loss for
the year to March of 220 billion yen (US$1.83
billion) while NEC Corp. cut its earnings
prediction to September by 80 percent -- a clear
sign that there is little left to support Japan
as it sinks back into recession source." Click also.
SIR
GEORGE? PLEASE STAND BY—Wrote lyrics & melody
of one of most recorded songs
(Something), created very idea of
rockstar charity concert (Concert for
Bangladesh, 1971). Introduced music of Ravi
Shankhar and philosophy of India to West's
massive pop culture. At age 14 met McCartney on
their school bus, Paul then bringing him along
to his gigs in John Lennon's band the Quarrymen.
"Not old enough to join the group, George hung
around with the boys, and came to idolize John,
doing everything he could to emulate him. George
stood in the back of the room at all their shows
with his guitar. A few times he filled in for
the regular guitarist source." "Having all these
material things, I wanted something more. And it
happened that at just the time I wanted it, it
came to me in the form of Ravi Shankar, Indian
music, and the whole Indian philosophy
source."
Bio + Links
TRUE METEOR
SHOWER—West-US to China
saw peaks of 2500 per hour as Earth passed
through comet debris Nov. 18. Wow!
says NASA. AMS "The earth
orbits in a cosmic shooting gallery, subject to
occasional random hits by comets and asteroids.
Impacts by objects a mile or more across can
devastate the planet's environment source."
IRISH REPUBLICAN
ARMY BEGINS TO DISARM— DeChastelin Commission
reports: "We have now witnessed an event --
which we regard as significant -- in which the
IRA
has put a quantity of arms completely beyond
use source (pdf)."
BRITISH GOVT.
BEGINS TO DISARM IN N. IRELAND—"...we will
undertake a progressive rolling programme of
security normalisation, reducing levels of
troops and installations in Northern Ireland, as
the security situation improves source." "HUMILIATING SURRENDER" SAY
DISSIDENTS—"The Provo sell-out is the worst
yet—unprecedented in Irish history. The basic
question of the English government ruling part
of Ireland remains and Irish history teaches us
that as long this is so there will be resistance
to it source."
"It's a
heck of a lot easier to make war than it is to
make peace (Gerry Adams on Larry King
Live, 31OCT01 )."
Background
LAST MONTH'S NAPM
REPORT'S HEADLINES WERE CONTRADICTED BY ITS
TEXT—Headline: "Production, New Orders Growing"
Text: (1) "NAPM's Production Index declined 1.1
percentage points from 52.2 percent in August to
51.3 percent in September. (2) NAPM's New Orders
Index declined 2.8 percentage points from 53.1
percent in August to 50.3 percent in September
source." There are more
contradictions. Headline: "Prices, Inventories,
Employment Declining" Text: (3) "NAPM's Prices
Index in September is 36.3 percent, an increase
of 2.4 percentage points from August’s 33.9
percent." (4) "The NAPM Employment Index is at
41.2 percent for September, an increase of 0.4
percentage point when compared to the 40.8
percent reported in August source."
300 MAJOR RIGHTS
ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDING ACLU FORM COALITION RE
PROPOSED ANTI- TERRORISM LAWS—"The American
Civil Liberties Union has urged the House of
Representatives to reject proposed "compromise"
anti- terrorism legislation, saying that many of
its provisions continue to go far beyond any
powers conceivably necessary to fight terrorism
in the United States source." "We can, as we have in times of war
and of peace, reconcile the requirements of
security with the demands of liberty
source."
"At least 5,000 refugees,
mostly women and children, crossed into
Pakistan...the largest single-day mass migration
since U.S.-led air raids began source."
ONGOING AURORA ALERT—11-Year sunspot-cycle
peak is
continuing to provide
unusual opportunities to see Northern
Lights
source.
Jiang refers to, "the already grave
economic situation"...needs China's huge
consumer market, e.
g." "Mankind has entered
a new century. This is not merely a
chronological change. It marks a new era of
economic development and social advancement for
the international community source."
Click also New
China News.VIETNAMISTAN?—Bush
creates Red Cross fund for Afghan children
source
just before US accidently bombs Intl. Red Cross
warehouse in Kabul source. Amid anthrax-mail
crisis: "You can send your dollar in
an envelope, marked 'America's Fund for Afghan
Children', right here to the White House
source."
PENTAGON'S ANTHRAX
SITE—"Anthrax is an infectious bacterial
disease spread by contact with infected animals,
handling infected products, eating infected
meat, or breathing weapon- dispersed anthrax
spores. Three types of Anthrax infection:
Cutaneous Anthrax - primarily involving the
skin, caused by contact with infected animals or
contaminated animal products.
Gastrointestinal Anthrax - caused by eating
of contaminated meat. Inhalation Anthrax -
caused by inhaling anthrax spores **MOST DEADLY
- BIGGEST THREAT** source." FDA SAYS
NOT TO TAKE ANTIBIOTICS UNLESS
INFECTED—" In addition to the
potential influence on supply of the drug,
indiscriminate prescribing and widespread use of
Cipro could hasten the development of drug-
resistant organisms source."
CHINA NEWS
AGENCY SAYS FIVE MORE ANTHRAX POSITIVE IN
FLORIDA—"Five more Americans have been
tested positive for the deadly anthrax, and they
are all colleagues of a photo editor who died of
the inhaled form of the disease, according to
local news reports Saturday. The five persons,
who work with Boca Raton, Florida- based tabloid
The Sun, a newspaper published by
American Media Inc., were tested positive for
exposure to anthrax, source."
US MILITARY LAUNCHES YET ANOTHER
SATELLITE— "For the third time in less than a
month, the US Air Force will launch a top-secret
spy satellite... industry experts believe it
will perform a data communications role - but it
might also be capable of eavesdropping on ground
communications source."
Previous launch on Oct. 5 was believed to be an
advanced imaging
satellite.
PENTAGON LAUNCHES OFFICIAL ANTHRAX
SITE—"Anthrax is an infectious bacterial disease
spread by contact with infected animals,
handling infected products, eating infected
meat, or breathing weapon- dispersed anthrax
spores. Three types of Anthrax infection:
Cutaneous Anthrax - primarily involving the
skin, caused by contact with infected animals or
contaminated animal products.
Gastrointestinal Anthrax - caused by eating
of contaminated meat. Inhalation Anthrax -
caused by inhaling anthrax spores **MOST DEADLY
- BIGGEST THREAT** source."
"If this was a massive exposure, there should be
lots of people sick. We are not finding that,''
Dr. Scott Lillibridge, U.S. Health and Human
Services." "Although FDA does not regulate the
practice of medicine, the agency is strongly
recommending that physicians not prescribe Cipro
for individual patients to have on hand for
possible use against inhaled anthrax. In
addition to the potential influence on supply of
the drug, indiscriminate prescribing and
widespread use of Cipro could hasten the
development of drug-resistant organisms source."
THE 'MASTERMIND'?— "Ayman Al Zawahiri is
believed to now serve as an advisor and doctor
to Usama Bin Laden source."
"Interpol on Tuesday posted a Red Notice for
Aiman Al Zawahri, a leader of the Al Jihad
terrorist group and emerging as one of the key
figures in Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist
network source."
NETWORK
SOLUTIONS
REGISTERING OF DOT BIZ
ENDS—"Businesses and individuals may now submit
applications for domain names ending in
.biz. Filing a Domain Name Application
from June 18th through September 25th enters the
applicant into a Domain Name review in which the
.biz registry will compare each Domain
Name Application with the Trademark Claim Forms
submitted by trademark owners source."
MICROSOFT ENTERS FREE SOFTWARE
DEBATE—Hardball software corp implies General
Public License (GPL) is Un-American source.
Open Source Movement replies: "The Free Software
Movement was founded in 1984, but its
inspiration comes from the ideals of 1776:
freedom, community, and voluntary cooperation.
This is what leads to free enterprise, to free
speech, and to free software source.".
MATHEMATICIAN NAMED AS HEAD OF INTERNET
GOVERNING BODY (ICANN)—M. Stuart Lynn holds
Oxford B.A. and M.A., and M.A., Ph.D. from UCLA,
all in mathematics. In 1994, he was elected
Fellow of the ACM. His Curriculum
Vitae indicates considerable
expertise in "communications infrastructure,
corporate information systems, library
automation and the uses of information and
network technologies in support of the
University's mission of teaching, research, and
public service." Lynn was involved in Internet
operations in the early 90s source.
Attrition.org, an archive of hacking and
other internet crimes reports, "one of the
largest, most systematic defacements of
worldwide government servers on the Web. The
defacers, known as Pentaguard,
took out various government Web sites from 3
countries - the United Kingdom, Australia, and
the United States source."
INTEL launches Pentium IV. Plans
2GHz chip by next year. Tech at ugeek.com.
HACKERS: TRY TO FIND MILITANT'S HIDDEN
WEBSITES AND REPORT THEM TO US GOVT.— Don't hack
the sites. "Bin Laden and others are hiding maps
and photographs of terrorist targets and posting
instructions for terrorist activities on sports
chat rooms, pornographic bulletin boards and
other Web sites source."
If you know any hackers, send the following
links to them. Preliminary
Info Internal
Bin Laden Network info #1
Internal
info #2
TALIBAN (=STUDENT) LEADER IS SERENE IN
HIS CERTAINTY—"Even if it (US) were twice as
strong, or twice that, it would not be strong
enough to defeat us source."INDIA
PROVIDING INFORMATION TO US ON ISLAMIC MILITANT
TRAINING CAMPS—"The inputs consisted of video
footage of training camps of militants and
intelligence reports on their location in the
region source."
FILE
SWAPPING CONTINUES—Film American Pie II
is supposedly available for free at Hotline
Communications. Downloading of films using
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Internet Relay
Chat (IRC), "can't be controlled using
traditional enforcement or litigation. You have
to combat it and co-opt it,'' says film exec.
(2) US judge bars hacker site 2600.org from
revealing software code that enables DVD movies
to be copied and swapped on the Net. So try bebits.com
. (3) Aimster.com
can also be used to swap picture and video
files, and MP3 music files.
TALIBAN THREATENS PAKISTAN—"The Taliban
leadership has sent half of its fighting force
to muster along Afghanistan's border with
Pakistan armed with elderly Scud missiles, whose
threat is as much psychological as military. The
Taliban Saturday threatened Pakistan with a
'massive attack' if it helped the United States
launch military strikes on Afghanistan in
retaliation for the terrorist atrocities in New
York and Washington source."
FLORIDA REVOTE? YET ANOTHER INVESTIGATION
FINDS GORE MAY HAVE WON IN FLORIDA: NEW YORK
TIMES FINDS 680 FLAWED ABSENTEE
BALLOTS—Three investigations and seven
statistical studies seriously question Gov.
Bush's certification of his brother as winner in
Floirida. Not one suggests that Bush won.
"Florida officials accepted
hundreds of overseas absentee ballots that
failed to comply with state election laws. 680
of the 2,490 overseas ballots were questionable.
All would have been disqualified had the state's
election laws been strictly enforced. Bush
counties were four times as likely as Gore
counties to count ballots lacking witness
signatures and addresses source." US CIVIL RIGHTS
COMMISSION FOUND BLACK VOTES REJECTED TEN TIMES
MORE OFTEN AND "INJUSTICE, INEPTITUDE AND
INEFFICIENCY" IN FLORIDA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
VOTE— "African Americans were nearly 10 times as
likely as whites to have their ballots rejected.
Some Hispanic and Haitian voters were not
provided ballots in their native languages, and
physical barriers sometimes kept disabled voters
from entering polling sites source."
PALM BEACH POST INVESTIGATION
FOUND 6600 VOTES SHOULD HAVE GONE TO
GORE— "Confusion over Palm Beach
County's butterfly ballot cost Al Gore about
6,600 votes, more than 10 times what he needed
to overcome George W. Bush's slim lead in
Florida and win the presidency, the Palm Beach
Post's ballot-by-ballot review of discarded
over-votes reveals source. STATISTICS EXPERTS
FOUND SAME—"We can state with 99.9% confidence that
2058 of the 3407 votes cast for Patrick Buchanan
are inconsistent with the demographic
characteristics of Palm Beach source."
SIX MORE
STATISTICAL STUDIES came to
similar conclusions. ET CETERA ET
CETERA—Said Gore's running mate Sen. Joe
Lieberman: "I will remain convinced forever that
a majority of the people who went to vote and
voted in Florida intended to vote for Al Gore
and me, but because of confusion in the ballots,
the butterfly ballots, et cetera, et
cetera, because of some discouragement
particularly of African Americans and Haitian
Americans, that's not the way it ended source."
White House spokesman says, "This election was
decided by the voters of Florida a long time
ago. And the nation, the president and all but
the most partisan Americans have moved on."
Email Petition
CIGARETTE COMPANIES
STILL ADVERTISING TO TEENS—New England
Journal of Medicine: "The Master
Settlement Agreement with the tobacco
industry appears to have had little effect
on cigarette advertising in magazines
and on the exposure of young people to these
advertisements source."
Click also Wealth
& Power: Assets or
Addictions?
SALVATION ARMY SOUGHT EXEMPTION FROM
US CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS RE HIRING OF
GAYS—Bush
administration rejected request
source. The $330m the Army gets
from the US taxpayers each year is only 15% of
its $1.7b annual US income source. Some say big charities
spend more than 80% of donated money on
themselves as 'administrative costs'
source. The Salvation
Army is found in more than 100 countries. A
Google search finds it has hundreds of websites
source. salvos.com is
its own webhosting service, and it has its own mortgage company,
health-insurance company, and pension
fund. See Chap. 6 of Wealth &
Power: Assets or Addictions?.
GATESES
GIVE $100M TO AIDS VACCINE
ORG.
GAVE $25MIL TO SAME TWO YEARS AGO— Reported
Reuters, "The vaccine, which has been tested
since August on volunteers in Oxford, England,
was developed after doctors found that a group
of prostitutes in Nairobi never contracted HIV
despite repeated exposure to infection."
HUMAN ANCESTORS EVEN
EARLIER— "Researchers in Ethiopia have discovered
the earliest human ancestor so far. They have
unearthed the teeth, jawbone, collarbone, hand
and foot bones of a creature who walked on two
legs through cool, wet forests 5.8m years ago
source."
Click also
Time
Magazine.
SOLAR SYSTEM FOUND IN FAMILIAR
CONSTELLATION—(The Big Dipper, Plough,
or Great Bear) "A team of
astronomers has found a Jupiter-size planet in a
circular orbit around a faint nearby star,
raising intriguing prospects of finding a solar
system with characteristics similar to our own.
'For the first time we have detected two planets
in nearly circular orbits around the same
star' source." Click also
Astrobiology
Today.
ONGOING AURORA
ALERT—11-Year sunspot-cycle peak providing unusual
opportunities to see Northern Lights source. Click also EarthLive.
LAYOFFS MORE THAN DOUBLE THIS
YEAR—Corporations "announcing in the first half
of this year alone plans to eliminate some
777,362 jobs, compared with 613,960 in all of
last year. Layoffs are being spread more
even-handedly than in the past, hitting women as
often as men, top executives as well as clerks
and production workers, good performers as well
as bad source."
PHILIP MORRIS SAYS SMOKERS DIE
YOUNGER AND SO REDUCE GOVT.
SPENDING—Leaked Arthur D. Little, Inc. report
commissioned by the cigarette company says:
"Public finance saved between 943 mil. CZK and 1,193 mil.
CZK (realistic estimate: 1,193 mil. CZK) from
reduced health-care costs, savings on pensions
and housing costs for the elderly—all related to
the early mortality of smokers full
report." Says PM: "We understand the outrage
that has been expressed and we sincerely regret
this extraordinarily unfortunate incident source."
Besides selling the drugs alcohol (Miller Beer)
and nicotine on a huge scale, they also sell
Kraft processed foods which may have a role in
triggering the US overweight epidemic. (See Trigger
Diet.) CALIFORNIA COURT ORDERS PM TO PAY
SMOKER WITH LUNG CANCER $100M``Our appeal
will request a complete reversal and retrial on
multiple grounds, not the least of which was the
passion and prejudice the jury displayed in
reaching its verdict,'' William Ohemeyer,
associate general counsel of Philip Morris, said
in a statement.
YOUNG ACTIVIST SHOT DEAD BY
GENOA POLICE THEN RUN OVER AS 10,000 PROTEST
G8'S CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH source.
66 INJURED IN POLICE RAID ON GENOA
SOCIAL FORUM OFFICE—Seven hospitalized
source. G8 INFORMATION
CENTER G8
ONLINE
AMERICAN BAR ASSN. LAUNCHES
WEBSITE WITH LEGAL INFO FOR GENERAL
PUBLIC—"Your gateway to
information on legal topics that affect your
daily life source."
iPUBLISH.COM TO PUBLISH
WRITERS WHO SUBMITTED MANUSCRIPTS TO ITS WEBSITE—"We listened, selected the
best three books, and are now releasing excerpts
from them here, before they are available in
bookstores this October source."
UNDERGROUND
ASTRONOMY—"This large sphere beneath Canada is
detecting nearly invisible particles called
neutrinos being emitted from the center of the
sun source."
STUDY FINDS EACH NEW WAVE OF EMIGRANTS TO
US WORSE OFF— "The Center for Immigration
Studies finds that over the last thirty years
each successive wave of immigrants has fared
worse than the one that preceded it. As a
result, today’s established immigrants (those
who have lived in the country between 10 and 20
years), are much poorer, less likely to be
homeowners, and less likely to have become
citizens than established immigrants in the past
source."
ONGOING N. IRELAND RIOTING HAS
INJURED 100 POLICE. JUNE ELECTIONS RESULTED IN
GAINS FOR HARDER LINE PARTIES DUP AND SINN
FEIN—But no
significant shift in total balance of power. The
split between Catholic & Protestant began in
the 1500s with the 'Reformation' which was followed in the 1600s by
Protestant domination of Catholicism in
Ireland.
LONG HOT ENGLISH
SUMMER?—Race
riots continue source. Bradford rioting was
specifically predicted two months
prior Guardian. "The
disturbances in a mixed-race area of Leeds come
less than a week after racial violence flared in
Greater Manchester BBC."
Earlier conflict was between whites and 1st
& 2nd generation India immigrants called
'Asians' by whites here.
POLLUTO'S BIG EGO BAD ECOLOGY
—As another ice sheet breaks off the Antarctic
coast, US official says: "We need more
refineries. We need more power plants. We need
more natural gas pipelines. It’s as simple as
that. We have a choice in this country of having
the lights on or, at least, in the short run,
having more carbon dioxide source."
Says another: "The president has been
unequivocal. He does not support the Kyoto
treaty source."
(2) The US is responsible for nearly half of the
worldwide increase in emissions since 1990,
according to the World
Watch Inst. (3) "Human actions are
causing declines in plant biodiversity,
increases in atmospheric CO2
concentrations...plant diversity enhances
ecosystem responses to elevated
CO2...source,
source."
See also Wealth
& Power: Assets or
Addictions?
CYBERIGHTS WARS: ICANN
website now has statement describing itself as a
"non-profit private-sector corporation." So why
did it give itself a .org? Ralf Nader calls for
"international watchdog to oversee ICANN to
prevent corporate interests from taking control
and overextending its authority." (See Who
Controls the Net, lower-left column. Click also
Internet
Democracy Project) (2)Saudi Arabia blocks
its people from accessing clubs on Yahoo which
bypass firewalls set up by the Saudi govt. (3)
Pentagon goes to hackers (e.g., dis.org/filez
and 2600.com)
convention to recruit security advisers. "I
invite you to join the defense side,'' says Art
Money, Pentagon's Chief Information Officer. (4)
Judge orders FBI to give details of Carnivore
which can find and follow your e-mail. FBI says
it will turn it over to epic.org
in 45 days, and promises to seek court order as
in wiretaps but Congressman asks, " 'trust us,
we're the government' ?'' Some ISPs object,
saying they can do this anyway! US Attorney
General Reno sets up panel of experts to conduct
detailed review of Carnivore's source code. (5)
Chinese activist who used website to publish
info on brutality in Tiananmen Square could face
life in prison. There are now 17 million online
in China, double last year's total.
chinesesos.com
(6) Lawsuit alleges AOL's SmartDownload
"secretly transmits to Netscape the file name
and location, along with an identification
string unique to that Internet
user.''
"50B TEXT MESSAGES IN Q1—'More than 50
Billion SMS (Short Message Service) text
messages were sent over the world's GSM (TM)
networks in the first three months of 2001'
reports the GSM (Global System for Mobile
Communications) Assn...on track to exceed 200
billion global messages during 2001 source."
About GSM
BILLIONAIRE SHAYKH USAMAH BIN- MUHAMMAD
BIN-LADEN WEST'S MOST WANTED MAN—Said by US to operate under auspices of
Taliban govt. in Afghanistan Background
35 DIE IN STAMPEDE AT ISLAMIC RITUAL—
"Thirty-five Muslim pilgrims were crushed to
death in a stampede during the 'Stoning of
Satan' ritual near the holy city of Mecca, in
the first such tragedy in three years, Saudi
officials said. The stampede on the first day of
the three-day stoning ritual which coincides
with the Muslim feast of Aidliladha left an
unspecified number of other pilgrims slightly
injured, the Saudi civil defence service said
source."
MILOSEVIC CLAIMS
HAGUE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL HAS NO JURISDICTION AS
MORE MASS BURIALS OF KOSOVARS ARE UNEARTHED NEAR
BELGRADE ITSELF—As evidence for genocide mounts,
he has been turned over in handcuffs to the
Hague war crimes tribunal. Says Pro-Milosevic Website:
"We the undersigned demand that the Serbian
authorities immediately release Slobodan
Milosevic and all other Serbian patriots from
jail." $1B
in aid from other countries was deciding factor
for turnover. Kostunica Govt.
said at the time of his arrest that it was
internal and not for war crimes. source, background." See also this
list of names.
MUDSLIDES ON DEFORESTED HILLS DURING
SALVADOR 7.6 EARTHQUAKE CAUSED HUNDREDS OF
DEATHS AND LOSS OF THOUSANDS OF
HOMES—"Population growth has led people to
settle in flood-prone valleys and unstable
hillsides, where deforestation and climate
change have increased their vulnerability to
disasters...source"
[Each additional Richter # = 32 times the
power.] (See
also.)
CORPORATE INTERESTS BLOCKED MERE 5%
REDUCTION IN 'GREENHOUSE' EMISSIONS BY 2010—As
UK and Ireland enjoyed wettest season since
their records began in 1766, wealth & power
addicts and their govt. codependents remain
powerless to stop consuming the Earth source, source,
source.
See also Wealth &
Power: Assets or Addictions?
HIGH RESOLUTION
ELECTRONIC 'PAPER'— "...milestone for new
generation of highly mobile devices such as
cellular phones, personal digital assistants
(PDAs) and reader devices with screens as easy
to read as ink on paper source."
ROLL YOUR OWN BLACKOUT —"Rather than
having BIG ENERGY turn the lights out on us,
let's turn them out on them!! source."
NASA
& UN FIND DEVASTATION OF 'CRADLE OF WESTERN
CIVILIZATION'— "Around 90 per cent of the
Mesopotamian marshlands, known since time
immemorial as the fertile crescent, have been
lost mainly as a result of drainage and damming.
A study by scientists at the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), drawing on
historical and new satellite images, has
collected the first hard evidence detailing the
true extent of damage to this important habitat
for people, wildlife and fisheries source."
US CRIME STATISTICS SHOW
BIGGEST DROP EVER—"The nation's violent crime
rate fell almost 15 percent last year in the
largest one-year decline ever recorded by the
Justice Department's National Crime
Victimization Survey. Americans experienced
about 1 million fewer violent crimes in 2000
than they did in 1999...property crime, which
accounts for three-fourths of all criminal
offenses, fell by 10 percent source."
MOSCOWTIMES.COM
—"Tens of thousands of
people rallied across the country this weekend
in support of indebted NTV television and its
fight to ward off a takeover by creditor
Gazprom. NTV, says the takeover is being
orchestrated by a Kremlin weary of criticism,
calls the meeting illegal and its journalists
are standing by the ousted managers.
Gazprom-Media says it just wants to collect on
its debts source."
(2) EYE MOSCOW'S
SUBURBS— "The encircling region is poised
to take a bigger slice of the pie because it
offers a variety of incentives to businesses
that the capital does not source."
(3) S & P RAISES RUSSIA'S BOND RATING—"B-/C
ratings of Russian bond strength raised to B- source."
NEPAL ARMY CLAIMS TO HAVE
SURROUNDED MAOIST REBEL HIDEOUT—"The Royal Nepal
Army (RNA) went into action today against Maoist
rebels in the hills of western Nepal,
surrounding hundreds of rebels in their hideout
in Nuwa village of Rolpa district, high ranking
government and army sources told The Kathmandu
Post today source." Amnesty Int.
says rebels are using child soldiers
source. "The 'People's War' in
pure Marxist-Leninist- Maoist terms is one which
is directed against feudalism and for
establishing a People's Republic. The 'People
war' takes its cue from the Maoist principle of
encircling cities with liberated villages
source." "The Maoists have been
waging a guerrilla war in Nepal since 1996,
which has so far claimed nearly 1,600 lives
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