January 2002

World News
Posted: Thursday, January 31, 2002

• Worst Afghan Fighting Since Taliban Fell
• Bush's `axis' charge limits diplomacy
• Bush to Americans: Change Your Soft Culture
• Deadline Extended for WSJ Reporter
• Pakistan probes death threat against U.S. reporter
• North Korea slams "aggressive" Bush speech
• Joint US-Philippine Anti-Terror Exercises Begin
• Israeli forces kill two Hamas gunmen
• Sharon: We should have killed Arafat in Lebanon
• Fighting erupts between Afghan warlords
• US Admits It May Have Killed Wrong People in Raid
• Opponents back Bush's wider military agenda
• Briton in Riyadh blast was beaten, drugged by police
• Bush Names Iran, Iraq, North Korea as 'Axis of Evil'
• Iraq, Iran and North Korea dismiss Bush accusations
• Zimbabwe suspension rejected by ministers
• India Carries Out Test of Short-Range Missile
• 'Local Americans' claim US mandate for bitter campaign
• Rival Afghan warlords clashed in a strategic provincial town
• Australian parliament bars speech by Dalai Lama
• A developing fetus may be classified as an "unborn child"

World News
Posted: Tuesday, January 29, 2002

• Nigerians searching for their missing children
• Black motorist gets $800,000 settlement...
• Key arrest made in WSJ reporter kidnapping
• India behind abduction of US journalist Daniel Pearl
• Pakistan group threatens to kill U.S. reporter
• NASA issues alert on falling satellite debris
• Pakistan had little choice on US demands: paper
• Islamic, Independent Media Voice Support for Intifada
• Issue of Palestine, Saddest Reality for Humanity Today
• New York awaits anti-globalisers, make our day...
• US-Philippine planned attack on Muslim rebels
• Sharon approves hi-tech security plan to seal off Jerusalem
• Andersen faces blacklisting by New York City
• Tyson denied licence to fight in Vegas

Treatment of Captives
Posted: Tuesday, January 29, 2002

Afghan Captives

by Amnesty International January 15, 2002

News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International

Amnesty International urged the United States to ensure respect for the human rights of all people who have been or may be transferred from Afghanistan to a US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"The US is placing these people in a legal limbo. They deny that they are Prisoners of War (POWs), while at the same time failing to provide them with the most basic protections of any person deprived of their liberty," Amnesty International said. "The US has obligations under international law to ensure respect for the human rights of all persons in their custody -- including the duty to treat them humanely and ensure that they have recourse to fair proceedings, regardless of the nature of the crimes they are suspected of having committed."

Amnesty International considers that those who are held in Guantanamo, who are said to have been captured during the war in Afghanistan, are presumed to be POWs. If there is any dispute about their status, the US must allow a "competent tribunal" to decide, as required by Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention. This is also the position held by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the most authoratitive interpreter of the Geneva Conventions.

"It is not the prerogative of the Secretary of Defense or any other US administration official to determine whether those held in Guantanamo are POWs", Amnesty International said. "An independent US court, following due process, is the appropriate organ to make this determination."

POWs are afforded specific rights. For example, they should be held in conditions "as favourable" as those of US soldiers; they are not required to divulge information beyond their name, rank, serial number and date-of-birth; they cannot be tried merely for having taken up arms against enemy combatants in the context of the conflict and they should be granted access to delegates of the ICRC. POWs, unless they are to be tried for war crimes or other criminal offences, must be repatriated at the end of "active hostilities".

Any detainee who is suspected of a crime, whether or not they are POWs, must be charged with a criminal offense and tried fairly or released. Denying POWs or other people protected by the Geneva Conventions a fair trial is a war crime. Amnesty International is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances.

The international safeguards governing the treatment of all detainees facing criminal charges include those of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the US is a party since 1992, and the UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment. These include the right to challenge the lawfulness of detention, to be brought before an independent tribunal, the right to silence, and access to legal counsel.

Amnesty International is also concerned about alleged ill-treatment of prisoners in transit and in Guantanamo, including reports that they were shackled, hooded and sedated during transfer, their beards were forcibly shaved, and that they are housed in small cages in Guantanamo that do not protect against the elements."Degrading treatment of prisoners is a flagrant violation of international law which cannot be justified under any circumstances," the organization stated.

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World News
Posted: Saturday, January 19, 2002

• Secret Pakistani Airlift Aided Taliban
• Anthrax Missing From US Army Lab
• Pakistan and India in renewed heavy fire
• Report: Arafat considering resignation
• 100,000 trapped by Congo volcano disaster
• Israel destroys Palestinian main television and radio

World News
Posted: Friday, January 18, 2002

• Volcano victims flee Congolese city of Goma
• The security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating
• Some 700 Palestinian refugees were rendered homeless
• Israel is demanding what it perceives as the fruits of victory
• River of molten rock engulfs villages in Congo
• China Says President's Jet Bugged
• US Defends Handling of Enron Project
• UK: Four more arrested as Leicester net widens
• Saudis tell US forces to get out
• Denying captives rights will return to haunt us
• 'Martyrdom messages' raise alarm that al-Qa'ida is still up
• Row over MI5 mission to Cuba prison

World News
Posted: Thursday, January 17, 2002

• U.S. Denies Talk of Forces Vacating Saudi Arabia
• SADC declined to get tough with Zimbabwe
• US Activates 70,000 Reservists
• UK: Satanic killers tell of blood drinking rites
• Senior Saudi rulers believe the US "overstayed its welcome"
• US begins to establish semi-permanent bases in Central Asia

Some Ethnic Differences In Lung Cancer
Posted: Thursday, January 17, 2002

Source: University Of California - San Francisco (http://www.ucsf.edu/)

Some Ethnic Differences In Lung Cancer Rates Linked To Nicotine Metabolism

Chinese-American smokers draw in less nicotine per cigarette and also metabolize nicotine more slowly than Latinos and other Caucasians, helping explain why they tend to smoke less than most Caucasians and have relatively low rates of lung cancer, UCSF scientists have found.
The finding supports growing evidence that ethnicity can significantly affect people's response to drugs and should be taken into account in developing and prescribing drugs, according to the researchers.

The study is published in the January 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The UCSF study found that Chinese-American smokers metabolize nicotine at about two-thirds the rate of both Latinos and non-Latino Caucasians, presumably keeping more nicotine in their system per cigarette and satisfying their need for nicotine with fewer cigarettes. In addition, the fact that they take in less nicotine per cigarette than Latinos, other Caucasians -- and African Americans -- means they also take in less of the other compounds in cigarette smoke, including carcinogens.

While the slower nicotine metabolism and less intensive smoking behavior found in the study may explain some of the known ethnic differences in lung cancer rates, other factors must also be at play, said Neal Benowitz, MD, UCSF professor of medicine, psychiatry and biopharmaceutical sciences and lead author on the JNCI paper. Benowitz is also leader of the Tobacco Control Program of UCSF's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Cancer researchers estimate that 90 percent of lung cancers are caused by cigarette smoking. Caucasians in the U.S. are about five times more likely to develop lung cancer from smoking than are Chinese. Other possible reasons for lower lung cancer rates in Chinese include the relatively late age at which they start to smoke and their relatively higher rate of lung cancers not related to smoking, Benowitz said.

The study also found that Latinos and non-Latino Caucasians metabolize nicotine at about the same rate, supporting the view that lower Latino lung cancer rates relative to non-Latino Caucasians are due primarily to the fact that Latinos tend to smoke fewer cigarettes, the researchers report.

In 1998, Benowitz and colleagues determined that African Americans take in more nicotine and other smoke products from cigarettes than Caucasians, primarily because they draw more deeply on cigarettes when they smoke. The researchers think this explains why African Americans have a greater incidence of lung cancer than Caucasians despite the fact that the two smoke about the same amount.

The researchers found a second metabolic difference that may contribute to the lower incidence of lung cancer among Chinese smokers. A liver enzyme known as CYP2A6 is primarily responsible for metabolizing nicotine, the researchers note, and is also involved in activating several carcinogens in tobacco smoke. The study found lower CYP2A6 enzyme activity among Chinese-American smokers.

The lower lung cancer rate among Chinese and Chinese-Americans is probably due in part to at least two factors uncovered by the study: smoking fewer cigarettes per day -- related in part to slower nicotine metabolism -- and dampened activity of carcinogen-activating enzymes.

Understanding the ethnic differences in rates of nicotine metabolism may be important in determining proper doses for nicotine patches and other products to help smokers break the habit, the scientists report. Clinical trials for these products have been conducted primarily in the U.S. and Europe, with mostly Caucasian participants, but China has more smokers than any other country, with more than 300 million male and 20 million female smokers. Nicotine doses in smoking cessation products may not be optimal for them.

"Our findings suggest that Chinese-Americans and Chinese who are trying to stop smoking may need a different dose of nicotine medication than do Caucasians," Benowitz said.

Moreover, the scientists conclude, the findings reinforce the growing awareness that ethnic differences in drug metabolism should be evaluated as a matter of course in drug development, prescribing and dosing.

In the study, 37 Chinese-American, 40 Latino and 54 non-Latino Caucasian healthy volunteer smokers received simultaneous infusions of deuterium-labeled nicotine and its metabolite, cotinine. The researchers took blood and urine measurements to study the daily intake and metabolism from smoking. The labeled infusions were necessary to facilitate tracking the metabolites, since smokers already have considerable levels of nicotine and cotinine in their bodies that would make measurement of metabolism and clearance of unlabeled compounds impossible. Blood samples were taken frequently during the first day and then every 24 hours up to four days after the infusions.

Co-authors on the paper and collaborators in the study are Eliseo J. Perez-Stable, MD, UCSF professor of medicine; Brenda Herrera, BS, research associate in clinical pharmacology at the UCSF-affiliated San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center; and Peyton Jacob, III, research chemist in psychiatry at UCSF.

The research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute and California's Tobacco Related Disease Research Program.

World News
Posted: Wednesday, January 16, 2002

• Let Slip the Blogs of War
• Alan Dershowitz: Make Torture An Option
• Russia: US Bases in Central Asia Must Be Temporary
• No Need for Military Action, Says Sudan Envoy
• Saddam Says Iraq Ready for Any New U.S. Attack
• Traditional values go only so far
• Terror crackdown 'encourages repression'
• U.S. Dismay With Saudis Fuels Talk of a Pullout
• We will not tolerate the abuse of 'war prisoners'
• Colin Powell, made a historic visit to Afghanistan

Theology and violence against women
Posted: Wednesday, January 16, 2002

www.jamaicaobserver.com
THE World Council of Churches has launched a "Decade to Overcome Violence" (2001-2010) DOV, but, that decade has to liberate religion from the theology of patriarchal authoritarianism, which seeks to use scripture to engenderise male dominance and perpetuate female inferiority. The main contributor to the idea of female inferiority is the fall/redemption theological focus which we inherited from Augustine of Hippo, Thomas a Kempis, Bossuet; Cotton Mather, Tanquerry and others mainly from Europe. Fall/redemption theological premise includes the following: Very male-oriented, ascetic, mortification of the body, passion is a curse, God as Father but not seen as mother, child as well as Father, suffering is the wages of sin, emphasises original sin and guilt; very pessimistic; talks about the spirituality of the powerful and not necessarily of the powerless; apolitical, that is, supportive of the status quo and maintains the view that humanity is sinful. This theological orientation is suspicious of the body and violent in its body/soul imagery. "The soul is at war with the body" (Augustine of Hippo). MORE

In Venezuelan Ambassador's Abrupt Departure, a Sign of Turbulent Ties and Times
Posted: Tuesday, January 15, 2002

The deteriorating and tempestuous relationship between Venezuela and the United States has taken another diplomatic twist, this time with the announcement that Ambassador Ignacio Arcaya, a veteran career diplomat, is leaving Washington less than a year after assuming his post. MORE

World News
Posted: Tuesday, January 15, 2002

• Reaching the parts other empires could not reach
• Emerging alternatives in Palestine
• Men beaten for speaking Spanish?
• US Now OKs Israeli Arms Sale to India
• Pentagon Seeks New Caves to Bomb
• Villagers cower as US bombs fall, 24 hours a day
• US Expands Military Ties Worldwide
• War on terror 'curbing human rights'
• Kmart Shares Dive on Bankruptcy Worries
• Martha Stewart Could End Kmart Deal
• Bush's fit 'was not linked to alcohol'

Opening the Caspian Oil Tap
Posted: Tuesday, January 15, 2002

A pipeline long sought by the U.S. MORE

World News
Posted: Monday, January 14, 2002

• Day 100: another raid in the bombing war without end
• New York Stock Exchange Suspends Enron Trading
• Opening the Caspian Oil Tap
• Media Abide by Pentagon Order Forbidding Photos of Prisoners
• India refuses to pull back Kashmir force
• Israel sends in its death squads and more bulldozers

Welcome Move By Caricom
Posted: Monday, January 14, 2002

www.nationnews.com
THE DECISION of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments to become engaged in the current crisis of democratic governance with a functioning parliament in Trinidad and Tobago is to be highly commended.

To have done otherwise would have been to breed more cynicism and disenchantment about CARICOM as a regional institution in the life of its peoples on whose behalf the leaders speak and take decisions with the hope of promoting a better future for all.

Since the outcome of last month’s general election with both the People’s National Movement (PNM) of Patrick Manning and the United National Congress (UNC) of Basdeo Panday emerging with 18 seats each for the 36-member House of Representatives, there have been concerns by CARICOM for national efforts at co-operation that could prevent problems of governance at home and avoid negative impact for other member states. MORE

Rationalizing Racism: Panic And Profiling After 9/11
Posted: Sunday, January 13, 2002

by Tim Wise

Random security checks. That's what they're called anyway: those extra bag searches and body scans being done at airports across the U.S., presumably to deter a new round of terrorist attacks. On each flight, a handful of passengers are pulled aside and given additional scrutiny, despite having gone through souped-up metal detectors and having their luggage scanned and examined far more intently than prior to 9/11. MORE

Zimbabwe
Posted: Sunday, January 13, 2002

www.jamaicaobserver.com
THERE has been an all-out press attack on President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe for the last few years. The attacks have been vicious, unbalanced and unwarranted. Reading the reports, one would say the attacks were because President Mugabe was resisting democratic change and he wants to take land from whites unjustifiably. If the critics of the president were asked the question, "Are you trying to justify that the white people are entitled to the land which was robbed by their foreparents from the indigenous African people of Zimbabwe? What about the people who were forcefully removed from their land? What about those freedom fighters that sacrificed, fought and lost their lives for the independence of Zimbabwe. Are these people not justified in having some of the land that was stolen from them? Are we saying that we should forget that? I think the words of Robert Mugabe during the height of the vicious attacks against him and his government should be recalled. He stated, "England and the western world feels that what I'm doing is unjustified and that the white land owners should be compensated." He suggested, "Then let England compensate them for the land that I want to give back to my people." MORE

World News
Posted: Sunday, January 13, 2002

• Comedians make Bush a target for fainting episode
• CIA analysts have concluded bin Laden escaped
• Bush makes light of pretzel scare
• President Faints at White House
• Lashkar vows holy war will continue in Kashmir
• Central Asia: US Buildup Shifts Spheres of Influence
• America quietly changes war aim

World News
Posted: Saturday, January 12, 2002

• Omar Fled His Kandahar Compound in Rickshaw
• Pakistan Bans Five Muslim Extremist Groups
• Indian General Talks Bluntly of War
• ENRON: News Story Matches

World News
Posted: Friday, January 11, 2002

• US Slams Russia's 'Overwhelming Force' In Chechnya
• Washington electrified as Enron storm breaks around Bush
• Is Cataclysmic Terrorism Ahead?
• Israeli navy attacks Gaza port
• Afghans rethink Kabul troops promise
• Blair talks peace while £1bn arms push to India

World News
Posted: Thursday, January 10, 2002

• A Creeping Collapse in Credibility at the White House
• US begins withdrawal from Pak bases
• Capitol Cop Charged in Anthrax Hoax
• India turned Kashmir into bitter place
• Thousands of Taliban Walk Freely in Kandahar
• US to mount raids into Pak to hunt Laden
• Pakistan wants its airbases back
• What If We Saw Afghan Dead like 9/11 Victims

World News
Posted: Wednesday, January 9, 2002

• US Probes Zimbabwe, Congo 'Terror' Links
• Ashcroft, received campaign contributions from Enron
• Enron: 'significant' number of documents destroyed
• India builds Berlin Wall of landmines
• Israel vows revenge after soldiers killed
• Putin's chief of staff under investigation
• F-16 crashes near New Jersey highway
• Enron Official Phoned As Company Collapsed
• Pakistan to Ban Main Kashmir Rebel Groups
• Somalia Presents Elusive Targets for US
• 7 Marines Killed as Plane Crashes in Pakistan
• Report sees China greatly increasing missile force
• Afghans let Taliban ministers wanted by US walk free

World News
Posted: Tuesday, January 8, 2002

• U.S. Government to Investigate Enron
• U.S. Military Plane Crashes in Pakistan
• Afghans eat grass as aid fails to arrive

World News
Posted: Monday, January 7, 2002

• Enron Reps Met 6 Times with Cheney or His Staff
• US Says Pakistan OKs Pursuit of Osama
• Questions Lurk in a Dead Village
• China fixes Pak air imbalance with India
• Wolfowitz: Saddam Off the Hook, For Now

Congressman stripped to underwear for airport security
• Prince William's 'four-letter fury'
• Asteroid gives the Earth a close shave

World News
Posted: Sunday, January 6, 2002

• 'No Evidence of Terrorists in Somalia', Says Report
• The Return of Addis Ababa's Lost Tabot
• War on Terror: $60 Billion and Rising
• Pentagon concedes weakness of Afghan military strategy
• Muslims, Arabs Condemn Zionist Plot
• A New Grand U.S. Strategy
• Bloody evidence of US blunder
• Britain's newspapers were openly hostile to the euro
• Teen pilot had 'sympathy' for Osama
• Tampa flyer voiced support for bin Laden

Refugees left in the cold at 'slaughterhouse' camp
Posted: Sunday, January 6, 2002

by Doug McKinlay

Maslakh camp, translated as Slaughterhouse in English, is on the brink of an Ethiopian-style humanitarian disaster, aid workers have warned. Situated 30 miles west of Herat city, the camp is home to more than 350,000 displaced Afghans, of whom 100 die each day of exposure and starvation. MORE

'Precision weapons' fail to prevent mass civilian casualties
Posted: Sunday, January 6, 2002

By Michael Evans, Defence Editor

AMERICAN bombers may have caused twice as many civilian deaths in Afghanistan in the past 87 days as Nato did in the 78-day air war against the former Yugoslavia in 1999. MORE

World News
Posted: Saturday, January 5, 2002

• Israel, U.S. dispute destination of weapons boat
• US involvement has South Asia on the brink of nuclear war
• Teen Pilot who crashed plane supported bin Laden
• Retreat On Military Tribunals
• Taping a bag over Afghan prisoners stops us feeling
• US detains former Taleban ambassador to Pakistan
• The forgotten victims of Afghanistan
• Indian minister attacks 'interfering' Blair
• Saudi princess may face federal slavery charges

World News
Posted: Friday, January 4, 2002

• Police: Teen Claims Anthrax Mailing
• US preparing for long stay in central Asia
• The Emperor Is Butt-Naked (The Media Too)
• Small Plane Crashes In Puerto Rico...
• Small Plane Crashes In California...
• Small Plane Crashes In Colorado...
• Plane Crashes Into Tampa Skyscraper
• Omar escapes capture 'on motorbike'
• Three captured Taliban soliders claim to be Britons
• War Party vs. the Constitution
• US Fears Cornered Mullah Could Escape Again
• Kashmir's tinderbox waiting to explode
• China fully behind Pakistan in crisis...

World News
Posted: Thursday, January 3, 2002

• US raid killed 25 children, says UN
• US bombing campaign results in further Afghan casualties
• South African deputy president questions US-led war
• Afghans May Have Other Priorities than finding bin Laden
• US Serviceman Killed in Gun Battle
• Argentina to devalue currency
• Special Forces Soldier Killed in Afghanistan
• Judge OKs FBI Keyboard Sniffing
• Horror weekend forecast haunts Sydney
• Booted Bodyguard Lashes Out At Airline
• Bush Angry About Airline's Treatment of His Guard
• Airline Denies Ethnicity Was Factor
• War of Bush's Ear rages over Iraq
• British society is disfigured by growing intolerance
• Mullah Mohammed Omar may have been arrested
• Eight year-old sacrificed by temple priest...
• One in 10 on flights from Jamaica to UK 'is drug mule'

Released papers reveal plan for Afghan partition
Posted: Thursday, January 3, 2002

by Gavin Cordon

BRITISH diplomats in the 1950s secretly discussed dividing up Afghanistan between the neighbouring powers of Russia and Pakistan, according to official files made public for the first time yesterday.

Amid concerns that the country might slide into chaos and anarchy, one senior Foreign Office official suggested that its "ultimate disappearance" would be "no great tragedy". MORE

World News
Posted: Wednesday, January 2, 2002

• Media ignores the mass death of civilians in Afghanistan
• Atlanta dealt biggest snow blow in 10 years
• Senate Panel to Investigate Enron
• Released papers reveal plan for Afghan partition
• Taiwan, India in Secret Military Pact
• Kashmir Violence Keeps Tensions High
• Truck, explosive material stolen in LA
• Oil and fumes leaking from tanker off Cornish coast
• Ambush in Jalalabad Injures US Soldiers
• Man alleged to be 20th hijacker defies court
• Who discovered America?
• Straw rejects Hain's claim that Britain will join euro
• Despite our complaints, we have the monarchy we want
• Stay out of Afghan affairs, Zahir asks outsiders
• New York workers find bodies of firemen

World News
Posted: Tuesday, January 1, 2002

• Khartoum asks U.S. not to Fund Opposition Alliance
• Zambia's third president Levy Mwanawasa sworn in
• U.N. Fears Abuses of Terror Mandate
• Civic organisations in Zimbabwe seek international pressure
• Mandela apologises to Muslims for supporting US-led war
• New Hole Could Hurt AOL Messenger
• Why I Won't Wave the Flag - Despite the Sorrows...
• Pakistan Bunkers Destroyed, 10 Troops Killed
• Hain ignites row as euro launches
• Argentina gets fifth president in 14 days
• Buying a gladiatorial myth
• Prime minister in US-backed peace initiative for Kashmir

Heath told ministers to help 'white' immigrants
Posted: Tuesday, January 1, 2002

Revelations about UK immigration policy
independent.co.uk

Edward Heath tried to change the immigration rules to make it more difficult for blacks and Asians to settle in Britain even after Parliament rejected the measure, cabinet papers newly released show.
Mr Heath, who was Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974, asked ministers if "administrative" means could be used to favour incomers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada rather than those from Africa, the Caribbean or the Indian subcontinent.
Documents kept secret for 30 years but released today by the Public Record Office show that Mr Heath's Cabinet originally agreed to include the measures in the 1971 Immigration Bill, even though ministers knew they would be seen as discriminatory. MORE

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