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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-labor4oct04,0,5076104.story?track=tothtml
U.S. Ruling Could Eliminate Union Eligibility for Millions
By Molly Selvin
Times Staff Writer
October 4, 2006
A federal labor agency Tuesday broadened its definition of who is asupervisor, in a ruling that could keep millions of skilled employees fromjoining unions and accelerate a decades-long decline in union membership.
In a long-awaited decision, the Republican-controlled National LaborRelations Board held that nurses could be classified as supervisors if theydirected and oversaw other nurses.
Under federal law, employees defined as supervisors aren't entitled to legalprotections ensuring their right to join unions.
The labor board's definition could be applied to other kinds of workers,particularly in the fast-growing service sector, where unions have made somegains in recent years even as overall union membership has declinednationally, labor experts said.
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http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1786829.ece
The century of drought
One third of the planet will be desert by the year 2100, say climate experts in the most dire warning yet of the effects of global warming
By Michael McCarthy, Environmental Editor
Published: 04 October 2006
Drought threatening the lives of millions will spread across half the landsurface of the Earth in the coming century because of global warming,according to new predictions from Britain's leading climate scientists.
Extreme drought, in which agriculture is in effect impossible, will affectabout a third of the planet, according to the study from the Met Office'sHadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research.
It is one of the most dire forecasts so far of the potential effects ofrising temperatures around the world - yet it may be an underestimation, thescientists involved said yesterday.
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http://www.dailytrojan.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=db4067e4-9d09-48b0-81de-91abd7e45f40
FCC ownership rules threaten U.S. free press
From the editors
Posted: 10/4/06
The Federal Communications Commission held the first of six public hearingsyesterday in hopes of gathering enough feedback to revise its rules on mediaownership that drew so much criticism when they were enacted in 2003. Thosechanges would allow media conglomerates to grow bigger and own TV stationsas well as newspapers, but public criticism and a 2004 appellate courtruling forced the FCC to reconsider.
The FCC is again looking to lift its "common ownership" ban, which currentlyprevents uber- corporations from owning print and broadcast media companies.Many conglomerates do own both, banking on the assumption that the FCC willremove its ban before television stations have to renew their licenses.
Big-name Hollywood producers and artists flooded USC's Davidson ConferenceCenter to give the FCC an earful about the dangers of convergence. Some,such as Producers Guild of America President Marshall Herskovitz, wiselypointed out that large corporations force TV stations to choose more"marketable" segments rather than those that are more newsworthy.
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http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12073
The Dream-Killer
Liberals, take note: War with Iran is a genuine possibility, and it woulddestroy the prospects of progressive foreign policy reform for years tocome.
By Matthew Yglesias
Web Exclusive: 10.03.06
Last week, the Princeton Project on National Security -- an ambitious,years-long effort to outline a course for American foreign policyspearheaded by Anne-Marie Slaughter and G. John Ikenberry, and involving awide range of accomplished figures -- released its final report, Forging aWorld of Liberty Under Law: U.S. National Security In the 21st Century. Asone would expect from any project of this scope, there are various elementsin the report with which one might quibble or disagree. Fundamentally,however, it gives the lie to the myth that liberals have no alternative toBush's futile quest for unilateral hegemony and gunpoint democratization.
The report calls for a recommitment of American policy to internationalinstitutions and legitimate mechanisms of action, which entails a renewedeffort to revitalize, reform, and deepen existing institutions while alsocreating new ones.
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Link - Bill Maher on "Jesus Camp" for youth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhUjNRY2L8k
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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_100306E.shtml
Journalist Jailed for Refusing to Turn Over Protest Footage
By Sarah Olson
t r u t h o u t | Report
Tuesday 03 October 2006
24-year-old independent journalist Josh Wolf has gone to prisonprotecting press freedom. At a time when the mainstream press isincreasingly cowed into silence or submission by the Bush administration,and when a member of the Associated Press Board of Directors also sits on the board of Lockheed Martin, standing up for integrity in journalism is a lot for one 24-year-old to take on.
On July 8th, 2005, Wolf filmed a San Francisco demonstration against aG8 economic summit taking place in Perthshire, Scotland. By most accounts,the demonstration went poorly. Chanting anti-capitalist slogans, maskeddemonstrators marched defiantly in the street, dragging news boxes into theroadway. Some set off fireworks and attempted to smash windows. As a phalanx of police moved aggressively against small groups of protesters, thedemonstration reached a near-riot crescendo.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/us/04monitor.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print
October 4, 2006
Software Being Developed to Monitor Opinions of U.S.
By ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 - A consortium of major universities, using HomelandSecurity Department money, is developing software that would let thegovernment monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders innewspapers and other publications overseas.
Such a "sentiment analysis" is intended to identify potential threats to thenation, security officials said.
Researchers at institutions including Cornell, the University of Pittsburghand the University of Utah intend to test the system on hundreds of articlespublished in 2001 and 2002 on topics like President Bush's use of the term"axis of evil," the handling of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the debate overglobal warming and the coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez ofVenezuela.
A $2.4 million grant will finance the research over three years.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/ana_menendez/15672413.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
IN MY OPINION
Moral outrage shouldn't be limited to sex
BY ANA MENENDEZ
amenendez@MiamiHerald.com
Few things so arouse the righteous as a chance to train their rectitude on the subject of sex.
As the national pastime, moral preening is not without its hazards. But forthose with a compulsion to ferret out sexual misbehavior in others, noamount of public service warnings can discourage what is, at its base, apowerful drive.
So we come to Rep. Mark Foley, the newly unmasked pervert who once chastisedBill Clinton for not being able to control his cravings.
Now Foley has succumbed to disgrace the likes of which neither he nor hiscronies managed to inflict on Clinton.
''Do I make you a little horny?'' Foley wrote to a former page, a boy whowas still underage. Once his twisted urgings went public, the Republicanfrom Palm Beach quit abruptly, confessing to a depravity no less disturbingfor comprising but a small part of Washington's moral rot.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/10/04/nebraska/doc45226a1200c87882798425.prt
'Alarming' groundwater declines reported in Nebraska
By The Associated Press
Tuesday, Oct 03, 2006 - 08:56:42 am CDT
Parts of Nebraska are experiencing groundwater declines of more than 30 feetlargely because of increased irrigation and the seven-year drought,according to annual monitoring by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"We certainly aren't coming to the bottom of the well, so to speak, but thelevel of groundwater declines in many parts of Nebraska are indisputable andcould even be viewed as alarming," said Mark Burbach, assistant geoscientist in UNL's School of Natural Resources.
"There are now large areas of southwest Nebraska and Box Butte County thathave experienced groundwater declines of greater than 50 feet since largescale groundwater development began," Burbach said.While groundwater development for irrigation didn't develop at the same pace across the state, the beginning of large-scale development is generallyregarded as 1952.
In recording groundwater aquifer level changes over the last six years, fromspring 2000 to spring 2006, large swaths of the state show groundwaterdeclines ranging from 5 to 10 feet to greater than 25 feet.
Hardest hit are areas relying heavily on irrigated agriculture, such asPerkins, Chase and Dundy counties in southwest Nebraska and all along thePlatte River valley.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines06/1003-03.htm
Pre-emptive Lawsuit Challenges Bush Plan
by Matt Apuzzo
Attorneys for 25 men being held in Afghanistan launched a pre-emptive strikeMonday against President Bush's plan to prosecute and interrogate terrorsuspects.
Court documents filed Monday demand that the men be released or charged andallowed to meet with attorneys. Such a filing, known as a habeas corpuspetition, is prohibited under the legislation approved by Congress lastweek.
That bill says the military may detain enemy combatants indefinitely and, ifofficials choose to bring charges, the cases would be heard before amilitary commission, not a civilian judge.
Bush has not signed the bill but expects to soon. Supporters say it's anecessary tool in the war on terrorism.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0610040036oct04,1,4848438.column?coll=chi-news-col
UNTANGLING FOLEY'S WEB
Clarence Page
October 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- They've been getting by on spin and raw power for so long thatHouse Republican leaders apparently don't know how to handle a trulydamaging scandal.
Fingers are pointing every which way as to exactly how and when top HouseRepublicans responded to word that Florida Rep. Mark Foley was sendingcreepy e-mails to a former teenage male page. A new version of an oldWatergate-era question now swirls around House Speaker Dennis Hastert: Whatdid he not know and when did he not know it?
Hastert said he does not recall being told last spring by Rep. Tom Reynolds(R-N.Y.), the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman, aboutFoley's questionable e-mail exchange with the page, although Hastert doesnot dispute Reynolds' account. Wrong answer. Inability to recall allegedmash notes from a congressman to a teenage page makes one wonder what elsethe speaker may have lost in his amnesia.
Hastert and other leaders say they first became aware of "over-friendly"e-mails from Foley to the underage page last spring. "There wasn't muchthere other than a friendly inquiry," Hastert said of the 2005 message fromFoley to the page.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views06/1003-31.htm
The American Republic Died Last Week. At Least the First One
by Mark LeVine
Is there any other way to understand the meaning of the Military CommissionsLaw passed by the Senate last Thursday and soon to be signed by PresidentBush? Without any serious opposition from Democrats (twelve of whom actuallyvoted for the bill, while none offered a serious threat to fillibuster it),
President Bush has signed into a law a bill that guts the right of HabeasCorpus, legalizes the use of secret and coerced evidence, "clarifies" theGeneva Conventions to allow torture on the his command, prevents future warcrimes prosecutions, and arrogates to himself the right to declareanyone--including American citizens--enemy combatants who can be draggedfrom their families, thrown in any prison he chooses, anywhere on earth, forhowever long he chooses.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Fort Smith Times Record, AR, October 3, 2006
http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2006/10/03/news/news14.txt
GOP Candidates Stir Gay Marriage Issue
By Doug Thompson, Arkansas News Bureau,
dthompson@arkansasnews.com
FAYETTEVILLE - Republican candidates for state office and legislative seatsreaffirmed their opposition to gay marriage on Monday.
Though Arkansas voters passed a constitutional amendment banning gaymarriage by a 3-to-1 margin two years ago, the will of the people can beundermined if public officials are not vigilant and dedicated to preservingthe ban, the Republican candidates said,
The state Democratic Party's decision to remove the issue from its platformat its summer convention showed a lack of resolve, said GOP candidates,including attorney general hopeful Gunner DeLay of Fort Smith and state Sen.Jim Holt, R-Springdale, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Susie Bright on Foley etc
http://susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/2006/10/i_am_having_an_.html>
I am having an unexpected reaction to Congressman Foley's sex scandal.
-Not surprised that a gay-bashing, flag-waving, "save-the-children"Republican turns out to be a closeted chicken hawk who harasses cute boypages in the House of Representatives.
-Not taken aback if the entire House leadership knew about it, tolerated it,and for all we know, ordered in the beer.
"Foley gets triple bonus points for hypocrisy. As co-chairman of the Housecaucus on missing and exploited children, he has been a fierce advocate fortough sanctions against people who sexually exploit children over theInternet..."
I fully expect that men like Foley, who scream about the pornographicdangers of the Web, are likely the most narcissistic predators in town.Foley wouldn't know a moral code if it fell on top of him. He's part of avery select club.
But here's my NEW unexpected reaction:
All things considered, I don't give a shit about this.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-anderson4oct04,1,3911871.story?coll=la-news-comment
Fox News: Enraging Liberals for 10 Years
Cable news ratings king celebrates its first decade, as the left tries to muzzle Murdoch's creation.
By Brian C. Anderson
BRIAN C. ANDERSON is senior editor of City Journal and author of "South Park
Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias."
October 4, 2006
FOX NEWS turns 10 this week, and it has every reason to celebrate. Launchedby media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and former political consultant Roger Ailesas a refuge for viewers fed up with real or perceived liberal bias elsewherein the media, Fox is the undisputed ratings champion of cable news. It'sbeen trouncing CNN, MSNBC and CNBC for years, and it sometimes draws afatter audience share than all its competitors combined, though viewershiphas slumped a little of late. Pugnacious Bill O'Reilly and conservative tough guy Sean Hannity have become two of the nation's most powerfulbroadcasters thanks to this kind of ratings pull.
Fox is the news media success story of the last decade.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://sweetjesusihatebilloreilly.com/archive/100306B.html
October 3, 2006 -
Republican Child Predator Labeled 'Democrat' on O'Reilly Factor
Tonight on three separate occasions, during two different segments, BillO'Reilly showed video of his fellow culture warrior, boy-crazy CongressmanMark Foley, with the tagline "Former Congressman Mark Foley (D-FL)."
That's right, kids. Mark Foley, that darling of the right and champion ofchild protection, was dubbed a Democrat as soon as it came out that he'schild predator. This is what we in the business call "a lucky accident."
But will the average Fox News viewer see the three-time accident for what itis-a mistake?
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301632_pf.html
The Washington Post
Arabs Pressure Rice On U.S. Peace Efforts
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; A20
CAIRO, Oct. 3 -- The Bush administration's effort to foster a bloc of moderate Arab states to stand against growing militancy in the Middle East has come up against a brick wall, with several close U.S. allies bluntly telling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday that they do not want to be pitted against other Arab governments and movements, according to senior Arab officials. The solution, the allies told Rice, lies with stronger U.S. leadership in solving the Arab-Israeli conflict.
During talks Tuesday in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Rice was confronted by friendly but firm pressure from eight Arab governments -- Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain -- to follow up on promises by President Bush to help achieve a two-state solution in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. They also questioned whether the administration still has the energy or full commitment to pull off a solution to the Palestinian issue before Bush leaves office, officials said.Arab officials also expressed frustration that the United States seems far more focused on the issue of Iran's nuclear program.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301482_pf.html
The Washington Post
Protesters Renew Fight Over Choice Of President
By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; B06
Last spring, when protesters took their tents down from Gallaudet University's grounds after graduation, they posted signs: We'll be back.
This week, they once again pitched tents and signs to tell the board of trustees, meeting tomorrow and Friday, that they're still angry about the incoming president and the way she was chosen. Some students and faculty walked out of classes yesterday, demanding that the presidential search be reopened and that there be no reprisals against protesters.
"For most people on campus, nothing's really changed since May," said professor Richard Lytle, a member of the coalition of student, faculty, staff and alumni protesters.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/education/04EDUCATION.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1159966971-s0Wwb1P8iHXqFQADsjrlBQ&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
October 4, 2006
On Education
Demoting Advanced Placement
By JOE BERGER
SCARSDALE, N.Y.
This town's public high school, well known for turning out some of the nation's finest college prospects, is contemplating a step that would seem to betray its competitive reputation: eliminating Advanced Placement courses.
Scarsdale High School is a place where 70 percent of the 1,500 students take an A.P. course, and many take five and six to impress college admissions officers with their willingness to challenge themselves. But like a few private schools, Scarsdale is concluding that the A.P. pile-on is helping turn the teenage years into a rat race where learning becomes a calculated means to an end rather than a chance for in-depth investigation, imagination, even some fun to go along with all that amassing of knowledge.
"People nationwide are recognizing what an inhuman obstacle course college admission is, and a big element of that is A.P.," said Bruce Hammond, director of college counseling at Sandia Preparatory School in Albuquerque, which dropped A.P. courses a few years ago.
Across the country, students in, say, A.P. American history who might better understand the Depression by taking time to read "Grapes of Wrath" are instead huffing and puffing through chronological parades of facts and documents.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400324_pf.html
The Washington Post
Disgraced congressman was popular in Hollywood
By Brooks Boliek
Reuters
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 7:22 AM
WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, embroiled in a scandal involving explicit messages he sent to young aides in Congress, easily moved between the world of conservative politics and the liberal entertainment industry as he became one of Hollywood's go-to guys on Capitol Hill.
While entertainment industry executives were shocked by the disclosure of e-mails and instant messages to a page that led to his resignation, they considered Foley an effective representative for them with the Republican Party -- often considered a hostile environment for the industry. Foley, 52, resigned Friday after the e-mails came to light, and is at an undisclosed alcohol rehabilitation center.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/washington/04victory.html?ei=5094&en=4ad8d391104e9988&hp=&ex=1160020800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
October 4, 2006
In Bill's Fine Print, Millions to Celebrate Victory
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 - Even as the Bush administration urges Americans to stay the course in Iraq, Republicans in Congress have put down a quiet marker in the apparent hope that V-I Day might be only months away.
Tucked away in fine print in the military spending bill for this past year was a lump sum of $20 million to pay for a celebration in the nation's capital "for commemoration of success" in Iraq and Afghanistan.Not surprisingly, the money was not spent.
Now Congressional Republicans are saying, in effect, maybe next year. A paragraph written into spending legislation and approved by the Senate and House allows the $20 million to be rolled over into 2007.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/washington/04hastert.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The New York Times
October 4, 2006
Hastert Fights to Save His Job in Page Scandal
By CARL HULSE and JEFF ZELENY
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 - Backed by measured words of support from President Bush, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert opened an intense drive on Tuesday to hold on to his post, but behind the scenes senior Republicans weighed whether he could survive the scandal surrounding former Representative Mark Foley.
Among the options being considered by senior Republicans is for Mr. Hastert to announce that he will stay on as speaker through this year but not seek re-election to the post assuming Republicans retain control of the House, said people on and off Capitol Hill who were involved in the discussions. They said the advantage of such a step would be to postpone a disruptive leadership fight until after Election Day.
Mr. Hastert, who stayed on as speaker after 2004 at the urging of Mr. Bush, has been involved in some of the discussions about how to proceed, but it was not clear how seriously he was considering not seeking the speakership next year, said the Republicans, who asked not to be named because they were iscussing internal deliberations. Mr. Hastert returned home to Illinois on Tuesday.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301109_pf.html
The Washington Post Company
When the House Could Clean Itself
By Joseph A. Califano Jr.
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; A25
The most troubling aspect of the Mark Foley scandal is not his conduct, disgusting as it was, but what the response of the leadership reveals about the rancid state of partisanship and the consequent decline of the House of Representatives. Speaker Dennis Hastert presides over a legislative body so infested with mistrust that it doesn't even have a functioning ethics committee. Since the House is incapable of washing its own dirty laundry and policing itself, the speaker has to turn over that responsibility to the attorney general and the executive branch of government.
Compare the current situation with the way Speaker Tip O'Neill and the House handled the last scandal involving sexual misconduct with pages, in the summer of 1982.
On "The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather" that June, two former pages, their teenage faces silhouetted to hide their identity, claimed they were victims of sexual abuse by members of Congress. One described homosexual advances by members; the other shocked the nation when he said he had engaged in homosexual relations with three members and procured prostitutes for others. The CBS broadcast sparked a wildfire of reports and rumors about sexual abuse of pages and drug use by members and pages.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/opinion/04turley.html?pagewanted=print
October 4, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Get Congress Out of the Page Business
By JONATHAN TURLEY
WASHINGTON
MEMBERS of Congress have been falling over themselves this week to assign blame to other people in the aftermath of the resignation of their colleague Mark Foley, the Florida Republican who has acknowledged sending improper e-mail messages to a former House page. The fact is, however, that they are all to blame to different degrees for this latest page scandal.
I served as a House leadership page in 1977 and 1978 under the sponsorship of Sidney Yates, an Illinois Democrat. This was during the dark ages when male pages were simply given a salary and told to find their own housing. (Female pages were housed at the Y.W.C.A.) It goes without saying that pages grew up fast and had to learn self-discipline and survival skills.
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http://www.local10.com/news/9990710/detail.html?treets=mia&tml=mia_natlbreak&ts=T&tmi=mia_natlbreak_1_11050310032006
Airliner Hijacked To Protest Pope's Visit
POSTED: 11:52 am EDT October 3, 2006
UPDATED: 1:33 pm EDT October 3, 2006
ATHENS, Greece -- A Turkish Airlines plane carrying 113 people from Albaniato Istanbul landed in Italy on Tuesday after being hijacked by two Turksprotesting Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming visit to Turkey, officials said.
The hijackers told authorities they are prepared to surrender, said CandanKarlitekin, chairman of Turkish Airlines' board of directors.
The plane was hijacked in Greek airspace, said airline spokesman Ali Genc.
It doesn't appear that the hijackers are not ready to do any harm. AnAlbanian lawmaker who is on the plane has told a TV channel that everyone issafe, and that "there is no threat."
An Italian official said the two hijackers "seem to be not particularlyhostile, nor do they appear to be armed."
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