NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST December 3, 2007

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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flahiv1202sbdec02,0,5292678,print.story

AIDS virus infection rates said to be higher
Estimates are now more precise; actual figures not released

By GARDINER HARRIS
The New York Times
December 2, 2007

WASHINGTON

More people in the United States are infected each year with the AIDS virusthan previously thought, according to federal health officials, in a findingthat could roil the debate over how much money should be spent on preventionefforts.

While the new numbers are sobering, no one is yet sure whether more peoplehave actually been infected in recent years or if the figures are simply abetter estimate than the old ones. Two more years of data are needed toanswer that question.

For 14 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used informalmethods to estimate that around 40,000 people annually in the United Statesare newly infected with HIV. In recent years, federal officials have workeddiligently to set up a more accurate assessment technique.

The numbers from the new system are now in, although the agency has notreleased them publicly.

The Washington Blade, a gay newspaper, reported Nov. 14 that the newestimates showed infections rates were 50 percent higher than previouslybelieved, with between 58,000 and 63,000 infected in the most recent12-month period. The Washington Post had a similar report on Saturday.

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WashingtonPost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/02/AR2007120200324_pf.html

Russian Vote Seen As Referendum on Putin

By JIM HEINTZ
The Associated Press
Sunday, December 2, 2007; 6:38 AM

MOSCOW -- Russians voted Sunday in a parliamentary election where the onlyquestion was whether President Vladimir Putin's party would win a strongmajority of seats or a crushing share.

The election follows months of increasingly acidic rhetoric aimed againstthe West and efforts, by law and by truncheon, to stifle opponents.

A huge win for Putin's United Russia party could pave the way for him tostay at the country's helm once his presidential term expires in the spring.The party casts the election as essentially a referendum on Putin's nearlyeight years in office. Many of its campaign banners that festoon the capitalread "Moscow is voting for Putin."

"He's a good man. Any woman would love to see him in her house," said PolinaAmanyeva, 58, at a Moscow polling station where she said she voted forUnited Russia.

Putin is constitutionally prohibited from running for a third consecutiveterm as president in March. But he clearly wants to keep his hand onRussia's levers of power, and has raised the prospect of becoming primeminister; many supporters have suggested his becoming a "national leader,"though what duties and powers that would entail are unclear.

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WashingtonPost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/01/AR2007120101803_pf.html

Younger Muslims Tune In to Upbeat Religious Message

By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, December 2, 2007; A01

CAIRO -- Muna el-Leboudy, a 22-year-old medical student, had a terriblesecret: She wanted to be a filmmaker. The way she understood her Muslimfaith, it was haram -- forbidden -- to dabble in movies, music or any artthat might pique sexual desires.

Then one day in September, she flipped on her satellite TV and saw MoezMasoud.

A Muslim televangelist not much older than herself, in a stylish goatee andWestern clothes, Masoud, 29, was preaching about Islam in youthful Arabicslang.

He said imams who outlawed art and music were misinterpreting their faith.He talked about love and relationships, the need to be compassionate towardhomosexuals and tolerant of non-Muslims. Leboudy had never heard a Muslimpreacher speak that way.

"Moez helps us understand everything about our religion -- not from 1,400years ago, but the way we live now," said Leboudy, wearing a scarlet hijabover her hair.

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Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/01/in_day_of_crisis_clinton_rivals_offer_support/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z

In day of crisis, Clinton rivals offer support

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff
December 1, 2007

The hostage situation at Hillary Clinton's campaign office in Rochester,N.H., cast a pall over the Democratic presidential campaign yesterday,muting political differences and unifying rivals in support of Clinton andher staff.

Clinton said that in the tense hours before the hostages fled to safety andtheir captor was arrested, she had spoken to the families of the campaignvolunteers and staffers who were taken captive.

"Talking to the families was probably the hardest part for me, becauseobviously it's something that every parent can relate to," Clinton toldreporters outside her home in Washington, D.C., last evening, just beforeflying to New Hampshire to see her staff and thank law enforcementofficials.

"I'm relieved to have this situation end so peacefully," Clinton said. "It'sbeen a very difficult day personally and emotionally."

Clinton's campaign ground to a halt for much of yesterday, as she shutoffices in Iowa and New Hampshire and canceled a speech before theDemocratic National Committee in Vienna, Va. Her husband, Bill Clinton, alsocanceled his public events.

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Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-healthbox1dec01,1,1208776.story?coll=la-news-a_section

Candidates' positions

December 1, 2007

The three leading Democratic presidential contenders all propose expandinghealthcare coverage but they differ in the details, particularly when itcomes to whether all Americans, or just children, must be covered. All wouldplace responsibility on individuals to make sure they, or their children,have coverage through an employer or a government program, or by buyinginsurance privately. Here is a look at other key points of their proposals:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.)
* Requires all individuals to have coverage.

* Healthcare providers help enforce the coverage requirement byautomatically enrolling uninsured who seek treatment.

* Requires "large employers" to provide coverage or pay into a publicprogram.

* Provides businesses with 25 or fewer employees with tax credits toencourage them to obtain or continue offering coverage.

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Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-kansas1dec01,1,1668588.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo

In Kansas, GOP abandons abortion focus
And party leaders suggest that conservative candidates do the same, sayingthe issue could alienate voters nowadays.

By Stephanie Simon
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 1, 2007

It would seem an ideal time for Kansas politicians opposed to abortion topush that agenda, hard. The state's two biggest clinics are under criminalindictment, and two grand juries will soon convene to consider additionalcharges.

But as the political season revs up, the executive director of the KansasRepublican Party has issued a stern warning to his fellow conservatives:Abortion is not a winning issue.

"This is not something that the Kansas GOP is going to go out and lead on,"Christian Morgan said.

Morgan said that he and his party remain firmly opposed to abortion. MostRepublican voters in Kansas feel the same, he said. But Morgan also believesthat those voters are fed up with years of fruitless political and legalmaneuvering aimed at driving abortion clinics out of business. They wouldmuch prefer to see an all-out focus on curbing illegal immigration orcutting taxes, he said.

In an e-mail rebuffing an antiabortion activist who asked for more GOPsupport, Morgan explained: "My job is to win elections. . . . Your agendadoes not fit my agenda."

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Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-ufo1dec01,0,7572562.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials

Kucinich's close encounter
The presidential candidate's televised acknowledgment of seeing a UFO hasput the issue back on the radar.

December 1, 2007

Although it's unlikely that voters will ever have anything resembling aclose encounter with Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), the two-timepresidential hopeless has helped revive an issue that means more to manyAmericans than any election: suppression of UFO evidence by the men inblack.

You may recall that during a recent MSNBC Democratic presidentialcandidates' debate, moderator Tim Russert drew out Kucinich on therevelation (by Oscar-winning paranormal investigator Shirley MacLaine) thathe had once spotted a "triangular craft, silent and hovering." Kucinich'sreply, which was intriguing in its own right, came at a conjunction of --well, maybe not of UFO activity, but certainly of UFO aficionado activity.

This fall saw the first anniversary of the multiple-witness saucer incidentover the United Airlines terminal at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport,which is already shaping up as this decade's great sighting. In lateOctober, a federal judge ordered NASA to search its records for informationon one of two fabled UFO sightings from 1965.

And last month, the New York-based Coalition for Freedom of Information helda conference at which more than a score of pilots from around the worldgathered to share their experiences with unidentified flying objects.Moderator Fife Symington (the controversial former governor of Arizona)summed up the conference by calling for the government to stop perpetuating"the myth that ALL UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth, conventionalterms" and reopen its official Blue Book investigation, which has beenclosed since 1969.

Are we on the verge of an alien breakthrough? Is this new critical mass ofrespectable UFO hawks about to rout the army of dissembling federal agents,driving around in their 1964 Chevy Malibus with their shades and fixedsmiles?

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Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-rutten1dec01,1,4480909.column?coll=la-news-columns

CNN: Corrupt News Network
A self-serving agenda was set for the Republican presidential debates.

Tim Rutten
Regarding Media
December 1, 2007

THE United States is at war in the Middle East and Central Asia, the economyis writhing like a snake with a broken back, oil prices are relentlesslyclimbing toward $100 a barrel and an increasing number of Americans justcan't afford to be sick with anything that won't be treated with aspirin andbed rest.

So, when CNN brought the Republican presidential candidates together thisweek for what is loosely termed a "debate," what did the country get but adiscussion of immigration, Biblical inerrancy and the propriety of flyingthe Confederate flag?

In fact, this most recent debacle masquerading as a presidential debateraises serious questions about whether CNN is ethically or professionallysuitable to play the political role the Democratic and Republican partiesrecently have conceded it.

Selecting a president is, more than ever, a life and death business, and anews organization that consciously injects itself into the process, as CNNdid by hosting Wednesday's debate, incurs a special responsibility toconduct itself in a dispassionate and, most of all, disinterested fashion.When one considers CNN's performance, however, the adjectives that leap tomind are corrupt and incompetent.

Corruption is a strong word. But consider these facts: The gimmick behindWednesday's debate was that the questions would be selected from those thatordinary Americans submitted to the video sharing Internet website YouTube,which is owned by Google. According to CNN, its staff culled through 5,000submissions to select the handful that were put to the candidates. Thatprocess essentially puts the lie to the vox populi aura the association withYouTube was meant to create. When producers exercise that level ofselectivity, the questions -- whoever initially formulated and recordedthem -- actually are theirs.

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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113002256.html?hpid=topnews

Rove's Version of 2002 War Vote Is Disputed

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 1, 2007; A06

Former White House aide Karl Rove said yesterday it was Congress, notPresident Bush, who wanted to rush a vote on the looming war in Iraq in thefall of 2002, a version of events disputed by leading congressionalDemocrats and even some former Rove colleagues.

Rove said that the administration did not want lawmakers to vote on aresolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq that soon because itwould "make things move too fast," before Bush could line up internationalallies, and politicize the issue ahead of midterm elections. But Democratsand some Republicans involved with the issue at the time said yesterday thatBush wanted a quick vote.

The fresh clash over the five-year-old vote made plain how political leaderson all sides are trying to shape the history of that moment. Formerpresident Bill Clinton this week asserted that he flatly opposed the warfrom the beginning, a contention challenged by a former White House officialwho briefed him at the time. Some presidential candidates, including Sen.Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), have portrayed themselves as more skepticalthan others recalled.

Speaking on PBS's "Charlie Rose" talk show last week, Rove said Congresspushed to have the vote before the election. "The administration was opposedto voting on it in the fall of 2002," Rove said. Asked why, he said:"Because we didn't think it belonged within the confines of the election.There was an election coming up within a matter of weeks. We thought it madeit too political. We wanted it outside the confines of it. It seemed to makethings move too fast. There were things that needed to be done to bringalong allies and potential allies abroad."

Democrats accused him of rewriting history. "Either he has a very faultymemory, or he's not telling the truth," said ex-Senate majority leaderThomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.). In an interview, Daschle said he asked Bushduring a breakfast to delay the vote until after the election. "They told ustime was of the essence and they needed the vote and they were going to moveforward," he said.

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Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/12/01/congress_to_send_childrens_health_bill_to_bush/

Congress to send children's health bill to Bush

November 30, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After waiting a month, Democratic leaders in Congresssaid on Friday they would formally send a bill expanding a popularchildren's health-care program to the White House despite a veto threat.

The bill would provide health insurance to about 10 million children inlow-income families unable to afford private insurance but who earn too muchto qualify for the federal Medicaid program for the poor. It would raisetaxes on cigarettes and other tobacco taxes to pay for the aid.

President Bush vetoed an earlier version of the bill. The latest bill passedby a large margin in the House but not by the two-thirds majority that wouldindicate a veto would be overridden.

"Our bipartisan negotiations on extending health insurance to 10 millionchildren are ongoing," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a MarylandDemocrat, said in a statement.

Hoyer said leaders wanted to avoid a "pocket veto," in which a bill diesfrom inaction by the president while Congress is out of session.

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St. Petersburg Times

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/12/01/State/A_tale_of_2_governors.shtml

A tale of 2 governors provides a lesson

By STEVE BOUSQUET, Tallahassee bureau chief
Published December 1, 2007

He was an anti-big business attorney general from one of America's biggeststates who used the job as a springboard in 2006 to get the job he wantedall along - governor.

The future seemed bright. He arrived speaking of a new spirit of reachingout to all sides and putting an end to cynicism and divisiveness.

But things went horribly wrong.

This is not the story of Charlie Crist, but rather of Eliot Spitzer, theDemocratic governor of New York.

Spitzer's first year has been one horror show after another, and almostliterally a flip side to Crist's first year as governor.

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The New York Times

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/12/01/congress_to_send_childrens_health_bill_to_bush/

Congress to send children's health bill to Bush

November 30, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After waiting a month, Democratic leaders in Congresssaid on Friday they would formally send a bill expanding a popularchildren's health-care program to the White House despite a veto threat.

The bill would provide health insurance to about 10 million children inlow-income families unable to afford private insurance but who earn too muchto qualify for the federal Medicaid program for the poor. It would raisetaxes on cigarettes and other tobacco taxes to pay for the aid.

President Bush vetoed an earlier version of the bill. The latest bill passedby a large margin in the House but not by the two-thirds majority that wouldindicate a veto would be overridden.

"Our bipartisan negotiations on extending health insurance to 10 millionchildren are ongoing," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a MarylandDemocrat, said in a statement.

Hoyer said leaders wanted to avoid a "pocket veto," in which a bill diesfrom inaction by the president while Congress is out of session.

Congress is scheduled to convene next week for the final three weeks of thisyear's session. The health-care bill was passed at the end of October.

(Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing by Peter Cooney)



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/opinion/02rich.html?ref=opinion

Who's Afraid of Barack Obama?

By FRANK RICH
Op-Ed Columnist
December 2, 2007

JUST 24 hours after Hillary Clinton mowed down a skeptical Katie Couric withher certitude that she would win the Democratic nomination - "It will be me!" - her husband showed exactly how she could lose it.

By telling an Iowa audience on Tuesday night that he had opposed the Iraqwar "from the beginning," Bill Clinton committed a double pratfall. Not onlydid he refocus attention on his wife's most hazardous issue, Iraq, just asit was receding as the nation's Topic A, but he also revived unhappymemories of the truth-dodging nadirs of the Clinton White House.

Whatever his caveats, Mr. Clinton did not explicitly oppose the Iraq warfrom the beginning. But Al Gore did unequivocally and loudly in a publicspeech before the beginning, as did an obscure Illinois state senator namedBarack Obama. What if Mrs. Clinton had led an insurrection against the warauthorization in the Senate? Might she have helped impede America's rushinto one of the greatest fiascos in our history?

That history cannot be rewritten in any case, by Bill Clinton or anyoneelse. But future history is yet to be made. In the year to come, it will bewritten by the candidates and the voters, not by those journalists who, asthe old saw has it, lay down history's first draft.

Election year isn't even here yet, and already most of the first draftspenned by the political press have proved instantly disposable, from FredThompson's irresistible Reaganesque star power to the Family ResearchCouncil's ability to abort the rise of Rudy Giuliani. The biggest Beltwaymyth so far - that the Clinton campaign is "textbook perfect" and "tightlydisciplined" - was surely buried for good by the undisciplined formerpresident's seemingly panic-driven blunder last week.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/opinion/02friedman.html?ref=opinion

The People We Have Been Waiting For

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Op-Ed Columnist
December 2, 2007

It was 60 degrees on Thursday in Washington, well above normal, and as Islipped away for some pre-Christmas golf, I found myself thinking about awickedly funny story that The Onion, the satirical newspaper, ran the otherday: "Fall Canceled after 3 Billion Seasons":

"Fall, the long-running series of shorter days and cooler nights, wascanceled earlier this week after nearly 3 billion seasons on Earth, sourcesreported Tuesday.

"The classic period of the year, which once occupied a coveted slot betweensummer and winter, will be replaced by new, stifling humidity levels,near-constant sunshine and almost no precipitation for months.

"'As much as we'd like to see it stay, fall will not be returning foranother season,' National Weather Service president John Hayes announcedduring a muggy press conference Nov. 6. 'Fall had a great run, but sadly,times have changed.' ... The cancellation was not without its share ofwarning signs. In recent years, fall had been reduced from three months to ameager two-week stint, and its scheduled start time had been pushed backlater and later each year."

You should never extrapolate about global warming from your own weather, butit is becoming hard not to - even for professionals. Consider the finalreport of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (I.P.C.C.),which was just issued and got far too little attention. It concluded thatsince the I.P.C.C. began its study five years ago, scientists had discoveredmuch stronger climate change trends than previously realized, such as farmore extensive melting of Arctic ice, and therefore global efforts toreverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions have to begin immediately.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/opinion/02sethi.html?ref=opinion

Pakistan's Slow-Motion Emergency

By ALI SETHI
Op-Ed Contributor
Karachi, Pakistan
December 2, 2007

THE other day, as we made our way through the clogged arteries of thisseaside metropolis, I asked my driver why he and so many others here wereecstatic about the return of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister.Surprisingly, he didn't say anything about the civil rights abuses of thegovernment of President Pervez Musharraf, or about fears of militant Islamand the Taliban. Rather, he cited his wallet; he, and many like him, have aninexplicable nostalgia for the (failed) socialist economic policies of ourineffective elected governments of the 1970s and '90s.

This economic imperative wasn't something that had occurred to me on thatfateful Saturday four weeks earlier. I was in my hometown, Lahore, and therehad been rumors all morning: an antagonized judiciary was going to ruleagainst the president's re-election; he was going to nullify the ruling bysuspending the Constitution; army trucks were heading to Islamabad; lawyersand judges and human rights activists were being arrested across thecountry. By evening the popular TV channels were off the air, and thestate-run channel was predictably demure when it promised an explanationfrom the president "very soon."

It came a little after midnight. President Musharraf declared that adifficult law-and-order situation had forced him to take "emergent andextraordinary measures." Pakistan was facing an unprecedented rise inmilitancy, and the armed forces could not tackle the menace with a vengefuljudiciary and a sensationalistic press standing in their way. "This country," he said in Urdu, "is a part of my heart." His voice was roughwith emotion.

I was listening to the radio broadcast with a friend, a student at theNational College of Arts in Lahore. Her reaction was mostly skeptical. Sheshook her head, she rolled her eyes, she grunted sardonically when PresidentMusharraf appealed to the West by citing an embattled Abraham Lincoln. Butin the end she was contemplative. "Maybe he's right," she said. "I mean,what's the alternative?"

We were parked in a car outside another friend's house, where a meticulouslyplanned Halloween party was starting up (it was three days after Halloween,but close enough for the Muslim world). We could hear the hoots ofappreciation that accompanied Justin Timberlake's album"FutureSex/LoveSounds." We were the only ones waiting inside a car. Aroundus the stream of guests continued; angels and devils and sheiks of Arabyglanced in our direction but didn't stop to inquire. They knew. They hadheard. They just weren't willing to let another midnight broadcastjeopardize the weekend.

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The New York Times

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/wheres-the-party/index.html?ref=opinion

Where's the Party?

By Josh Ruxin
November 30, 2007, 4:23 pm

Josh Ruxin is a Columbia University expert on public health who has spentthe last couple of years living in Rwanda. He's an unusual mix of academicexpert and mud-between-the-toes aid worker.

You've got to hand it to UNAIDS for figuring out a way to unproductivelydominate the scene on World AIDS Day by announcing that there were 6 millionfewer cases of AIDS than previously imagined. Not that I've ever been muchof a fan of devoting a single day to one of the greatest killers of our time(though some might pessimistically hold that this pretty much corresponds tothe level of international commitment to the cause), but come on, give allthe other groups a chance to jockey for pole position.

A slew of reports will be released this Saturday; though little of the newswill be good, there is some progress worth celebrating. After six years ofactivists begging for 10 billion dollars per year in funding, the GlobalFund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and PEPFAR (the President'sEmergency Plan for AIDS Relief) might actually reach 40 percent of that goalin 2008. Across the world more and more people are being tested for HIV andput on treatment, the cost of which is at levels unimaginable just a fewyears ago.

So why aren't we having a big celebration on this World AIDS Day? Becauseoverall - and certainly in consideration of our abilities - we're not doingnearly enough to address the disease.

For starters, international organizations, in their rightful quest toincrease spending on AIDS, have resorted to tactics better known to GeneralMotors, with its various divisions cannibalizing one another. AIDS competesfor the spotlight - and the dollar - with tuberculosis and malaria. This isextremely dangerous when you consider that all these diseases essentiallyrun together (and in reality, need to be treated holistically).

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The New York Times

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/no-trouble-in-mind/index.html?ref=opinion

No Trouble in Mind

By Tobin Harshaw
November 30, 2007, 4:34 pm

Tags: mental health, Republicans

"Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats or independents torate their mental health as excellent, according to data from the last fourNovember Gallup Health and Healthcare polls," Frank Newport of Gallupinforms us:

Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health,compared to 43 percent of independents and 38 percent of Democrats. Thisrelationship between party identification and reports of excellent mentalhealth persists even within categories of income, age, gender, churchattendance, and education.

Libby Spencer at the Newshoggers takes umbrage:

I'm betting the numbers reflect mostly the 30-percenters who still thinkBush is a great president. Of course those Republicans think their mentalhealth is fine. They've somehow managed to learn to live with a level ofcognitive dissonance that would make most people's head explode. The rest ofus aren't feeling so good ourselves because we see what the Bushadministration is doing and don't find it acceptable on any level. That'sthe trouble with living in reality. It tends to dampen the old peace of mindwhen you see everything that was once great about this country beingincrementally destroyed.

An argument that James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal's Best of the WebToday is prepared to refute:

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/africa/02malawi.html?hp

Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts

By CELIA W. DUGGER
December 2, 2007

LILONGWE, Malawi - Malawi hovered for years at the brink of famine. After adisastrous corn harvest in 2005, almost five million of its 13 millionpeople needed emergency food aid.

But this year, a nation that has perennially extended a begging bowl to theworld is instead feeding its hungry neighbors. It is selling more corn tothe World Food Program of the United Nations than any other country insouthern Africa and is exporting hundreds of thousands of tons of corn toZimbabwe.

In Malawi itself, the prevalence of acute child hunger has fallen sharply.In October, the United Nations Children's Fund sent three tons of powderedmilk, stockpiled here to treat severely malnourished children, to Ugandainstead. "We will not be able to use it!" Juan Ortiz-Iruri, Unicef's deputyrepresentative in Malawi, said jubilantly.

Farmers explain Malawi's extraordinary turnaround - one with broadimplications for hunger-fighting methods across Africa - with one word:fertilizer.

Over the past 20 years, the World Bank and some rich nations Malawi dependson for aid have periodically pressed this small, landlocked country toadhere to free market policies and cut back or eliminate fertilizersubsidies, even as the United States and Europe extensively subsidized theirown farmers. But after the 2005 harvest, the worst in a decade, Bingu waMutharika, Malawi's newly elected president, decided to follow what the Westpracticed, not what it preached.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/middleeast/02iran.html

Iranian Pushes Nuclear Talks Back to Square 1

By ELAINE SCIOLINO
December 2, 2007

PARIS, Dec. 1 - In a sign that Iran has hardened its position on its nuclearprogram, its new nuclear negotiator said in talks in London on Friday thatall proposals made in past negotiations were irrelevant and that furtherdiscussion of a curb on Iran's uranium enrichment was unnecessary, seniorofficials briefed on the meeting said.

The Iranian official, Saeed Jalili, also told Javier Solana, who representedthe United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany in thefive-hour talks, that United Nations Security Council resolutions punishingIran for not suspending its enriched uranium activities were illegal, theofficials said.

Representatives of the six countries met in Paris on Saturday afternoon todiscuss further punitive Security Council measures against Iran after thefinal talks in London failed to produce a breakthrough.

The countries have been divided on new sanctions, and the Paris talks wereonly preliminary, in part because of the absence of Sergei Kisliak, Russia'stop nuclear negotiator, who was blocked in Montreal by snow.

A French official briefing reporters after the Paris meeting said that thesix countries had begun work on a new sanctions resolution based on a roughtext drafted by Britain, and that he hoped it could be passed soon, perhapsin the next few weeks.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/us/02diesel.html

San Francisco Fleet Is All Biodiesel

By CAROLYN MARSHALL
December 2, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 30 - Claiming it now has the largest green fleet in thenation, the city of San Francisco this week completed a yearlong project toconvert its entire array of diesel vehicles - from ambulances to streetsweepers - to biodiesel, a clean-burning and renewable fuel that holdspromise for helping to reduce greenhouse gases.

Using virgin soy oil bought from producers in the Midwest, officials saidthat as of Friday, all of the city's 1,500 diesel vehicles were powered withthe environmentally friendlier fuel, intended to sharply reduce toxic dieselexhaust linked to a higher risk of asthma and premature death.

"Just like secondhand smoke, diesel is one of the worst things we canbreathe," said the city's clean vehicle manager, Vandana Bali of theDepartment of the Environment.

The announcement came without fanfare from Mayor Gavin Newsom's office lateThursday, even as Congressional lawmakers dickered over the particulars ofan energy bill that would give automakers incentives to produce cars thatburn biofuels.

Ms. Bali said the city's diesel vehicles now all used a fuel known as B20, amix of 20 percent soy-based biofuel and 80 percent petroleum diesel fuel,which reduces toxic emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and otherpollutants that lead to global warming.

A spokesman for the mayor, Nathan Ballard, said the goal was to cut suchemissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

In November, Mr. Newsom announced a new project called SFGreasecycle, aprogram to collect fats and cooking oils from restaurants, at no charge.

"We are collecting grease," Mr. Ballard said. "Waste fats and oils are amajor source of backup in our sewage system. But we're taking the greasethat would have gone down the drain and turning it into biodiesel."



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001786.html

The Road From Annapolis

By David Ignatius
Sunday, December 2, 2007; B07

So what comes after the modest but real success of the Annapolis peaceconference? Where will Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice take the processshe has set in motion?

The view at the State Department -- beyond relief that the occasionallychaotic logistics of the conference worked out -- is that a number ofdiplomatic opportunities are opening up. The pieces of the Middle Eastpuzzle are starting to move, creating room for openings involving not justthe Palestinians but also Syria, Lebanon and perhaps eventually Iran.

Rice began talking in January about a "realignment" in the Middle East thatwould bring together moderate Sunni Arab states to resist Iranian-backedradicalism. From the beginning, that approach included restarting anIsraeli-Palestinian peace process that had languished because of U.S.inattention. For Rice, Tuesday's meeting in Annapolis -- with George Bush,Mahmoud Abbas and Ehud Olmert looking out at smiling Arab diplomats -- was agroup snapshot of this realignment.

Annapolis was a setback for Iran. That country's firebrand president,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, tried hard to dissuade Syria from attending; hisefforts, I am told, included calling his ally, President Bashar al-Assad. Hefailed, but if the Annapolis process should languish, Iran and its proxiescould quickly regain the upper hand. That's the danger of what Rice has setin motion. Now she has to make it work.

The Israeli-Palestinian bilateral negotiations will start Dec. 12 with thebasics, such as forming the committees that will discuss the agenda. Ricedoesn't want these preliminaries to drag on for months. She hopessubstantive negotiations on a peace treaty will begin by early January.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001788.html

Principles Amid the GOP Pack

By David S. Broder
Sunday, December 2, 2007; B07

If the Republican Party really wanted to hold on to the White House in 2009,it's pretty clear what it would do. It would grit its teeth, swallow itsdoubts and nominate a ticket of John McCain for president and Mike Huckabeefor vice president -- and president-in-waiting.

Those two are far from front-runners. They trail Mitt Romney in Iowa and NewHampshire and lag behind Rudy Giuliani in national surveys of Republicanvoters. But, in a series of debates, including last week's CNN-YouTubeextravaganza, McCain and Huckabee have been notable for their clarity,character and, yes, simple humanity.

From everything I have heard on the campaign trail, it's obvious that theyare the pair who have earned the widest respect among the eight Republicancandidates themselves. McCain is the eldest and the most honored, not onlyfor what he endured as a Vietnam prisoner of war but as a principled battlerfor what he considers essential on Iraq and other national security issues.

Huckabee, who previously was known only to those of us who cover stategovernment and governors, has been the surprise discovery of the campaignseason. His combination of religious principle, good humor, tolerance andclear passion on education and health care complements McCain's muscularforeign policy and aversion to wasteful domestic spending.

The two of them seem often to be operating on a different -- and higher --plane than the quarrelsome Giuliani and Romney, whose mutual contempt is aspalpable as it is persuasive.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001783.html

Sarkozy's Grand Bargain

By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, December 2, 2007; B07

Think of it always. Speak of it never.

Conceived for very different circumstances, L¿on Gambetta's old formulaabout Alsace-Lorraine serves as a guide today for foreign powers watchingthe Bush administration fade fitfully from office.

Jerusalem, Moscow, Paris, Pyongyang and other capitals are continuallycalculating whether to make deals and accommodations with Washington now orwait out this administration and try their luck with a new president. Thenotion that timing is everything has become the silent driving force ofinternational power politics as Jan. 20, 2009, approaches.

George W. Bush's looming exit helped prompt Israelis and Arabs to sit downtogether in Annapolis last week and see what they could extract from eachother and from Washington. The modest results -- primarily a temporaryweaning of Syria away from Iran's erase-Israel bluster and the Saudisturning up at all -- will keep hopes, and bargaining, alive for a whilelonger.

Other examples: North Korea made its choice last summer to stick with theold by starting to make deals with the United States within the six-partytalks on its nuclear weapons. The U.N. calendar and Bush's dwindling timepush Iraq's leaders to negotiate far-reaching status-of-forces and basesagreements with Bush & Co. before the next U.S. election. Russia couldyet try for a package deal with Bush concerning arms control in Europe,Kosovo independence and Iran.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/01/AR2007120101379.html

Saudi Whiplash
A regime that inflicts medieval punishment on rape victims is celebrated inAnnapolis.

Sunday, December 2, 2007; B06

SAUDI ARABIA's foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, basked in praise andattention from the Bush administration at last week's Annapolis peaceconference. He was thanked repeatedly for deigning to attend the kickoff ofIsraeli-Palestinian talks; national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley saidhe told the prince that "I know it must have been a very difficultdecision." Reporters took note as Prince Saud lambasted Israel and explainedwhy he could not possibly stoop to shake the hand of Israeli Prime MinisterEhud Olmert. Thank goodness one journalist thought to ask about the "Girl ofQatif."

The Girl of Qatif, as she is known in the Saudi press, is a 20-year-oldmarried woman who was gang-raped, together with a male acquaintance, byseven men last year in her eastern Saudi town. A judge sentenced the rapiststo prison sentences -- and also condemned the woman to 90 lashes with awhip, for being alone in a car with a man to whom she was unrelated. Whenthe woman's lawyer, one of Saudi Arabia's most courageous human rightsadvocates, appealed the case, another court increased the woman's penalty to200 lashes and six months in jail. Attorney Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem was barredfrom representing the woman further and his lawyer's license was suspendedpending a disciplinary hearing. After human rights groups and the StateDepartment protested the barbaric punishment and called on the Saudigovernment to annul it, the Justice Ministry responded with a defiantstatement justifying the court's decision.

For the record, Prince Saud said that another court would review the case.He didn't elaborate. But he did expound, at length, about why he thought itoutrageous for Israel to suggest that millions of Palestinian refugees wouldnot be allowed to settle in the Jewish state as part of a peace settlement.In doing so, he harmed rather than helped Palestinian President MahmoudAbbas, who -- like Prince Saud -- knows very well that Palestinians willhave to give up the "right of return" to Israel in any negotiated peace.

Six years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, it waswidely acknowledged in and outside the Bush administration that SaudiArabia -- the homeland of 15 of the 19 hijackers, along with Osama binLaden -- was a threat as well as an oil supplier to the United States. Itsembrace of extremist Islamic ideology, its vigorous efforts to spread thatcreed throughout the Middle East and beyond and its sponsorship of groupslike the Taliban were a far more direct cause of anti-Western terrorism thanthe Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For several years the Bush administration pressed the Saudi regime forreforms; the regime responded with half steps that didn't change itsessential nature. Most of the suicide bombers in Iraq have been Saudis. Yetin the last year, led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Bushadministration has abruptly returned to describing Saudi Arabia as a"mainstream" and "moderate" state and a staunch U.S. ally. Once again theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict is treated as the Middle East's most criticalproblem and Prince Saud as a statesman who is to be congratulated forappearing in the same room as an Israeli. The case of the Girl of Qatifought to be a reminder of what the Bush administration has chosen to forget.



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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-editafchavezvotepndec02,0,2072435,print.story

Venezuelan election is a high-stakes affair for that country and ours

December 2, 2007

ISSUE: Constitutional changes on ballot.

A critical election takes place in Venezuela, and the United States has alot at stake in today's voting.

On the ballot are dozens of changes to the oil-rich country's constitution.Those alterations would exponentially increase Hugo Chávez's presidentialpowers and allow him to remain in the presidency for many years to come.

The presidency-for-life option, coupled with additional ruling powers, wouldallow Chávez to push forward more aggressively with this authoritarianagenda. Even the opportunity to follow through on what once seemed afar-fetched dream - a confederation with Cuba- would be possible.

Bizarre, yes, but what's scary is that Chávez has always gotten his way atthe ballot box. The shielding that previous electoral victories granted,plus the economic and political leverage afforded by record high oil prices,made him a powerful figure in the hemisphere.

If the constitutional changes he seeks today are approved, he would be aneven bigger force to be reckoned with.

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Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/327202.html

`Murder is the greatest injustice of all'

By LEONARD PITTS JR.
Posted on Sun, Dec. 02, 2007

And once again, this is how we die.
Fallen, crumpled, bleeding from a bullet's hole. Woman and child left towail, left to mourn. Left.

It was, of course, not a ''we'' who died that way last week in Miami, but a''he,'' NFL star Sean Taylor, 24, shot in his home by a burglar. But maybewe can be forgiven, we African-American people in general, weAfrican-American men in particular, for placing a ''we'' where others woulda ''he,'' for seeing in the fate of this singular individual all thebrothers and sisters we have wept and mourned and given back to the soil.Maybe we can be forgiven for feeling the only difference is that the worldknows his name and did not know theirs.

And this is how we die. We die in profligate numbers. Just under 15,000Americans were murdered in 2006. Roughly half of them -- 7,421 -- wereblack. African Americans are 12 percent of the nation's population.

And this is how we die. We die young. Of the 7,421 African-American murdervictims of 2006, more than 40 percent -- 3,028 -- were Taylor's age or less.

And this is how we die. We kill one another. Of the 3,303 African-Americanmurder victims whose assailants are known to authorities, 92 percent werekilled by other blacks.

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Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-huckabee2dec02,1,6974727.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

CAMPAIGN '08
Huckabee: 'a different kind of Jesus juice'

The Republican's idiosyncratic agenda in Arkansas -- a health plan, taxesfor parks -- was always driven by faith, he says.

By Richard Fausset
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 2, 2007

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. - In 2005, a Republican state senator named Jim Holtintroduced a bill to deny public benefits to Arkansas' soaring population ofillegal immigrants. Holt, a Southern Baptist minister, figured it was arock-solid conservative idea -- a matter, he said, "of right and wrong."

Arkansas' governor at the time was also a professed conservative, and also aSouthern Baptist minister. But Mike Huckabee had only scorn for his fellowRepublican's proposal.

Huckabee called the bill "race-baiting" and "demagoguery," and argued thatthe denial of health services could harm innocent children. The bill,Huckabee said, did not conform with his take on Christian values.

"I drink a different kind of Jesus juice," Huckabee said.

Today, Huckabee is seeking the Republican nomination for president, andvoters nationwide are getting to know a different kind of candidate: He isthe Southern preacher who favors droll wit over brimstone sermonizing, arock 'n' roll bass player who believes in creationism, with an Oprah-readystory about a 110-pound weight loss that probably saved his life.

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Huston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5344733.html

Black groups split on Obama, Clinton
Alabamans have different views on how racial bias among voters will affectcontest

By PHILLIP RAWLS
Associated Press
Dec. 1, 2007, 10:51PM

MONTGOMERY, ALA. - Alabama's major black political groups have split theirendorsements for president, with the Alabama New South Coalition giving itssupport to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday.

The Alabama Democratic Conference, the black wing of the state DemocraticParty, endorsed New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in October.

Obama received the majority of the votes when the predominantly blackAlabama New South Coalition met Saturday to make its endorsement. Coalitionofficials did not disclose the exact outcome of the private vote.

U.S Rep. Artur Davis, state chairman of Obama's campaign, said he waspleased the group put aside doubts, expressed by some black politicalleaders, about whether a black candidate could get enough white votes to beelected president.

"That doubt, that cynicism could have been written to prevent every piece ofprogress we've had in our lifetime," said Davis, D-Ala.

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Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5345234.html

Iowa Poll places Obama, Huckabee as front-runners
Survey shows a dramatic shift in opinion, with many still wavering

By RICK PEARSON and JOHN MCCORMICK
Chicago Tribune
Dec. 2, 2007, 12:03AM

DES MOINES, IOWA - The race for president on the Democratic and Republicansides has made a dramatic turn in Iowa, with longtime front-runners HillaryClinton and Mitt Romney being outflanked by Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee,a new poll showed Saturday.

The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll, one of the most respected measures ofthe nation's first caucus state, showed Obama, the Illinois Democrat, withthe backing of 28 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers, compared with25 percent for Clinton, 23 percent for John Edwards and 9 percent for BillRichardson.

On the Republican side, Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, had supportfrom 29 percent of likely GOP caucus-goers with 24 percent for Romney, theformer Massachusetts governor who has poured millions of dollars into theIowa campaign. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was third with 13percent while former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson was fourth with 9 percent,the survey showed.

The poll, which has an error margin of 4.4 percentage points, was conductedNov. 25-28. It showed a significant shift during the past two months amongthose who say they plan to attend the nation's leadoff presidentialdeliberations on Jan. 3.

In early October, the poll found a tight three-way race among Democrats ledby Clinton, with 29 percent, who had held national front-runner status. Thelatest results indicate a contest that remains extremely fluid with onlyweeks remaining before the caucuses and slightly more than half of theDemocrats surveyed saying they could change their minds.

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Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5344808.html

Administration employs new secrecy defense in lawsuits over Abramoff's WhiteHouse visits

By PETE YOST
Associated Press
Dec. 1, 2007, 9:26PM

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is laying out a new secrecy defense inan effort to end a court battle about the White House visits ofnow-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The administration agreed last year to produce all responsive records aboutthe visits "without redactions or claims of exemption," according to a courtorder.

But in a court filing Friday night, administration lawyers said that theSecret Service has identified a category of highly sensitive documents thatmight contain information sought in a lawsuit about Abramoff's trips to theWhite House.

The Justice Department, citing a Cold War-era court ruling, declared thatthe contents of the "Sensitive Security Records" cannot be publicly revealedeven though they could show whether Abramoff made more visits to the WhiteHouse than those already acknowledged.

"The simple act of doing so ... would reveal sensitive information about themethods used by the Secret Service to carry out its protective function,"the Justice Department argued.

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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/01/AR2007120100614.html

Giuliani: Kids of Illegal Immigrants OK

By JIM DAVENPORT
The Associated Press
Saturday, December 1, 2007; 6:46 AM

BLUFFTON, S.C. -- Republican White House hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Fridayhe wouldn't try to change laws that make citizens of children born in theU.S. to illegal immigrants, noting that it's a matter determined by theConstitution.

"That's a very delicate balance that's been arrived at, and I wouldn'tchange that," Giuliani said in response to a question while campaigning atSun City Hilton Head, a sprawling retirement community down the SouthCarolina coast from Charleston.

In Wednesday night's Republican debate, Giuliani and nomination rival MittRomney traded accusations of being soft on illegal immigration, and Giulianitook pains to deny that New York was a "sanctuary city" for illegalimmigrants during his tenure as mayor.

While New York has never used the designation, it offers protections _allowing illegal immigrants to report crimes, send kids to school or seekmedical treatment without fear of being reported _ similar to those incities that label themselves sanctuary cities.

Children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants already are Americancitizens, and Giuliani said he would not try to change that.

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